Silenced women in magdalene asylums: Irish history uncovered
- Autores: Elena Cantueso Urbano
- Localización: Taking stock to look ahead: celebrating forty years of English studies in Spain / coord. por María Ferrández San Miguel, Claus Peter Neumann, 2018, ISBN 978-84-16723-51-5, págs. 39-44
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
Despite the Catholic Church’s secretive attitude concerning the questionable practices that were carried out inside Irish Magdalene asylums, the sad reality behind these institutions was disclosed and silence was broken after the closure of the last asylum in 1996. Following trauma studies, silence is considered a logical response adopted by victims who tend to repress and forget a traumatic past. Some scholars and feminists have interpreted these women’s silence as an act of agency. Contrary to this idea, I believe it was the Irish State and the Catholic Church which censored these women’s discourses. My intention here is to give evidence on the fact that women did not choose to remain silent—it was an imposed silence—and to see how popular culture has eased the way for these women towards liberation and healing.
