Dr. Kathleen Costello-Sullivan, the Inaugural Mary A. Carroll Endowed Professor in Arts and Sciences at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, will speak at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, in AMU 163 on, “Catholicism, Motherhood, and Intergenerational Agency in Elaine Feeney’s ‘As You Were.’”
Feeney’s 2020 novel “As You Were” presents a sustained critique of the ways in which Irish nationalism, in concert with Catholicism, not only historically policed sexuality but also facilitated the censorious social structures that oppressed generations of Irish women. While the novel engages both traditional and contemporary models of Irish identity, however, it would be a mistake to suggest that “As You Were” endorses — or condemns — any singular model of Irishness, particularly for women. The complexity of these portraits prevents any trite generalizations about the novel’s main characters, either in terms of parenting or religion, or therefore about any hypothetically normative Irish identity in general. Even as the novel engages with the most problematic aspects of traditional Irish national identity constructions, “As You Were” works actively to validate, and even celebrate, the variety and agency of individual Irish women within that society.
The former Dean of Le Moyne’s Carroll College of Arts and Sciences, Costello-Sullivan is professor of modern English literature at Le Moyne and the Irish series editor for Syracuse University Press. She earned her B.A. from Rutgers University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Boston College. From 2019-2021, she was the president of the American Conference for Irish Studies. She has published widely on modern Irish literature, including about writers such as Colm Tóibín, Edna O’Brien and John McGahern, and is the editor of critical editions of “Poor Women!” by Norah Hoult and of “Carmilla: A Novel” by Sheridan LeFanu. Her recent work has focused on themes of trauma and recovery in family life and in the relations between Irish Catholics, the Irish state, and the institution of the Catholic Church in the wake of revelations about clerical child abuse.
Costello-Sullivan’s talk will be sponsored by Marquette’s Irish Studies Minor and The Patricia A. Lynch Memorial Irish Studies Fund.
