This paper juxtaposes the trilogies produced by Dermot Bolger and Roddy Doyle that straddle the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, and the complex critical matrix of working-class bodies in space and the resulting representation of the places these bodies exist in. Contrasting representations of themes such as gender, class, displacement, unemployment and immigration are common to each of these trilogies, they generate divergent, and even conflicting images of the contemporary working-class Northside experience. Using Michael Pierse’s trinity of ‘power, sex and class’ (2010, p. 88) this paper explores the class interstices in Bolger and Doyle’s trilogies. While taking care to avoid endorsing an allegorical binary of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ representations, this paper will seek to name and elucidate a range of narratives of oppression and narratives of empowerment which emphasize Irish culture’s tendency to generate a social stratification of ‘losers and winners’ (O’Toole, 2003, p.3). While drawing on a critical matrix from cultural theorists such as J.K Galbraith, Pierre Bourdieu and Homi K. Bhabha, the paper will focus on the seminal work of Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis Of The Concepts Of Pollution And Taboo (2001), which explains how the representation of the body is metaphorical for the structures in which the body is bound philosophically, structurally and socially. The permission granted by an individual for their body to exist in space is an important construct of society. Fictional narratives can legitimise or delegitimise this permission through a pure/impure, worthy/unworthy lens.

Authors:
Kelly Hickey, Dublin City Council, Ireland

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Kelly Hickey is currently an Asst. Arts Officer with Dublin City Council in Ireland focused on developing infrastructure and capacity for the arts. Her praxis merges a focus on class based representation and identifying areas of policy deficit.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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