Female sexuality in Ireland 1920 to 1940: Construction and regulation

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dc.contributor.advisorPowell, Frederick W.
dc.contributor.authorLeane, Máire
dc.date.accessioned2012-03-13T14:49:11Z
dc.date.available2012-03-13T14:49:11Z
dc.date.issued1999-08
dc.date.submitted1999
dc.description.abstractThe central objective of this study is an examination of discourses of Irish female sexuality and of the apparatuses of control designed for its surveillance and regulation in the period nineteen-twenty to nineteen-forty. It is argued that during this period sexuality, and in particular female sexuality, became established as an icon of national identity. This thesis demonstrated that this identity was given symbolic embodiment in the discursive construction of an idealised, feminine subject, a subject who had purity and sexual morality as her defining characteristics. It is argued that female roles and in particular female sexuality, emerged as contested issues in post-colonial Ireland. This is not unusual given that women are frequently constructed in nationalist discourses as repositories of cultural heritage and symbols of national identity (Kandiyoti 1993). This thesis demonstrates that the Catholic Church played a central role in this process of establishing female sexuality as a national icon. Furthermore, it illustrates that through a process of identification and classification, women, whose behaviour contested the prescribed sexual norm, were categorized and labeled as 'wayward girls' 'unmarried mothers' or 'prostitutes'and mechanisms for their control were set in place. Finally, this thesis reveals that the development of these control apparatuses was mediated by class, with the sexuality of working class women being a primary target of surveillance, regulation and indeed reformation.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationLeane, M. 1999. Female sexuality in Ireland 1920 to 1940: Construction and regulation. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/545
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.relation.urihttp://library.ucc.ie/record=b1306535~S0
dc.rights© 1999, Máire Leaneen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/en
dc.subjectFemale sexualityen
dc.subjectSexuality in Irelanden
dc.subjectConstruction sexualityen
dc.subjectFoucaldian analysisen
dc.subject.lcshDiscourse analysisen
dc.subject.lcshWomen--Sexual behavior--Irelanden
dc.subject.lcshWomen--Ireland--History--20th centuryen
dc.titleFemale sexuality in Ireland 1920 to 1940: Construction and regulationen
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD (Social Policy)en
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