Emily Lawless (1845-1913): Writing the Interspace

This is the first comprehensive study of the writing of Emily Lawless (1845-1913) and includes biographical information, letters and contemporary reception as well as analyses based on present-day theoretical approaches, especially feminist criticism and cultural geography. The study begins with a presentation of Lawless’s family background, her social circle and a description of her literary career, including how her works have been received up until the present. Her early fiction, novels and stories set outside Ireland are then explored and successive chapters deal with her landscape writing and her novels about the west of Ireland, her negotiations with the voice of authority in historical and biographical writing, her historical fiction and her three collections of poetry. The concluding chapter argues that the contradictory aspects of her writing are an effect of her desire to avoid categorisation.