Inside Sally Rooney and the Golden Era of Irish Women Writers

woman wearing glasses in office holding book
Paige Reynolds, professor of English, discusses bestselling author Sally Rooney and other Irish women writers in her new book, "Modernism in Irish Women's Contemporary Writing: The Stubborn Mode."

"We need to be reading and teaching more Irish women writers," says Paige Reynolds, professor of English.

Written by

Marybeth Reilly-McGreen '89

Photos by

Michael Ivins

Read Time

5 Minutes

Irish writer Sally Rooney is having a moment. Her fourth novel, "Intermezzo," was published in September 2024, sparking a Taylor Swift-like response from critics and readers, from eight stories published in the New York Times to bookstores hosting release parties reminiscent of the days of the Harry Potter series.

And while her name may be unfamiliar to some U.S. readers, it's well-known to Paige Reynolds, professor of English, who writes about Rooney and others in her latest book, "Modernism in Irish Women's Contemporary Writing: The Stubborn Mode."

A Reading List for the Stubborn
Paige Reynolds reviews your next great read.

“Milkman” by Anna Burns

“In the novel, set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, the adult narrator — the self-dubbed ‘middle sister’ — reviews the events of a traumatic year from her past in which, among other travails, she is stalked by an older paramilitary republican called Milkman. Modernist form here, as it has in Irish women’s fiction for nearly a century, fleshes out and exposes persistent social problems: intractable political violence, the brutal divisions of sectarianism, the difficulties of family relationships, the suffering of vulnerable subjects, the manipulation of language to obscure the truth.” 

“A Girl is a Half-formed Thing” by Eimear McBride

“Eimear McBride’s debut novel depicts a female protagonist in Ireland who seeks from prayer more than she can obtain in a narrative style that registers the fracturing of consciousness occasioned by that deficiency. Set in the late 20th century, this novel catalogs, from the unnamed girl’s first-person point of view, a life marked by two decades of ongoing trauma and abuse. These harrowing experiences, and the protagonist’s responses to them, are conveyed through a laundry list of modernist technique, including broken syntax, unclear referents, and stream of consciousness.”

“The Land of Spices” by Kate O’Brien

“Set in the early 20th century, the novel chronicles the relationship between Helen Archer, know as a Mère Hélène, the Reverend Mother of the Compagnie de la Sainte Famille, and Anna Murphy, a young Irish student who attends the convent school. ‘The Land of Spices’ showcases how a devout woman negotiates between the obedience demanded by the church and the vagaries of individual consciousness.”

 

This is the golden era of Irish prose, Reynolds says, and Irish women writers have had a lot to do with that. "We need to be reading and teaching more Irish women writers," she insists.

The modernist period in literature flourished in the early 20th century and signaled authors breaking with religious, political, artistic and societal traditions. The writers Reynolds writes and teaches on embrace "the stubborn mode," her term for refashioning modernism to highlight persistent cultural problems and critique society's solutions.

'Only the best of the best could get through'

In 2000, Reynolds was in Dublin researching 20th-century theater. After a long day at the National Library reading old letters, papers, press cuttings and texts, she would reward herself by browsing the bookshelves of the nearby Hodges Figgis bookstore.

"And I would look for contemporary fiction by Irish women because there wasn't a lot of that in the States," she says. "But I couldn't find much more in Irish bookstores. There would be a couple of contemporary books and I would buy them and they would be magnificent. It suggested to me that the gatekeeping for women to publish was so rigid that only the best of the best could get through."

Reynolds read more contemporary Irish women's writing and saw telltale modernist literary tactics, such as style, tone, forms and history, indicating that the literary tradition launched 100 years earlier persisted into the present.

One example of this is Rooney, who is powering the current — and immense — interest in Irish literature. Her book sales are measured in millions of copies and two of her novels, "Conversations with Friends" and "Normal People," became very popular television series.

(Side note: Holy Cross holds a place in the Rooneyverse. The author gave an early interview about "Intermezzo" from The Writers Room at the Museum of Irish Literature, a writer's retreat overlooking St. Stephen's Green, a space funded in part by the College's Professor Edward Callahan Irish Studies Support Fund.)

The dangerous work of literature

Listening to Reynolds talking about Irish literature is something like watching a theatrical performance. She speaks quickly, enthusiastically. She paces her small office talking about two boys "miching" (playing hooky) in Joyce's short story "An Encounter." She sits, shrugs dramatically, palms supine, when speaking about the ambiguous endings of Rooney's "Normal People" and Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These."

"How do you grapple with ambiguity? How can a person be both a magnificent hero and selfish? Most of us are both of those things but to see that on display, how do you make sense of that? she asks.

This is one of great literature's greatest tricks: Readers are taken in and turned inward.

"That's what we're trying to teach our students: to think through ethical conundrums without necessarily expecting an easy answer," she says. "Irish literature is perfect for this. What in the narrative could you change? What can you not change?

"If people understand that language has the power to alter the world for good or ill, then they would more overtly and aggressively respect the work that happens in a literature classroom," Reynolds continues. "We are giving you the tools to dismantle damaging structures in those lessons. Literature can help us untangle stubborn problems. It's a dangerous tool for the power of good."

More Stories

View All Stories