عنوان

From the margins :

TLets510814

From the margins :

[Thesis]

Morris, Catherine

Alice Milligan and the Irish cultural revival, 1888-1905

University of Aberdeen

1999

Ph.D.

University of Aberdeen

1999

This thesis examines the profoundly influential but generally neglected contribution of Alice Milligan (1888-1953) to Irish cultural politics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Besides her voluminous literary output - encompassing four novels, eleven plays, a political travelogue, a biography, numerous articles, short stories and poetical works - Milligan was also a tireless political activist. A vital force in the Gaelic League and the Irish Literary Societies of Dublin and London, she was also a founding member of the Irish Women's Association, the Women's Centenary Union founding member of the Irish Women's Association, the Women's Centenary Union and the Henry Joy McCracken Literary Society. In Belfast Milligan established and edited two seminal nationalist journals. The Northern Patriot and the Shan Van Vocht. However, Milligan has consistently caused problems for historians of the Irish cultural renaissance. As a northerner, she operated outside the centralised cultural focus of Dublin. As a Protestant Irish republican, she compromised the traditional dualisms structuring the Irish political unconscious. As a woman, moreover, she was inevitably cast - and indeed volunteered herself - as the handmaiden of a male-defined history. Milligan's occlusion from the historical record was further ensured by her commitment to a localised politics of community participation. A principal difficulty in charting a coherent map of Milligan's work and career is that the bulk of her writing remain buried in private archives and obsolete publications. As a result, much of my research activity has taken the form archaeology; over the past four years, I have unearthed many previously unknown archival traces of Milligan. Drawing upon this new documentation the thesis explores Milligan's previously unexamined work in drama, tableaux vivants, newspapers and political organisation.

Morris, Catherine

University of Aberdeen

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y