Banshees, hags, and changelings : feminist folklore transformations in Irish writing / Molly Ferguson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ferguson, Molly, Author.

Series:

Irish studies (Syracuse, N.Y.)

Irish studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--Irish authors--History and criticism.

English literature.

English literature--Women authors--History and criticism.

Tales--Ireland--Adaptations--History and criticism.

Tales.

Feminist criticism.

Women in literature.

English literature--Irish authors.

English literature--Women authors.

Tales--Adaptations.

Ireland.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"This title explores contemporary Irish writing by women to identify strategies used in actively revising folktales as feminist interventions"-- Provided by publisher.

"Irish folklore is replete with images of transforming women. The wailing banshee, the alluring mermaid, the unsettling changeling and others recur throughout folktales and have become well-known through contemporary depictions in texts and films. In the wake of recent feminist thinking, online movements, and revelations of gender-based violence in state institutions such as the Magdalene Laundries, Irish women writers have found fresh ways to adapt this folklore, addressing the underlying tensions inherent to these stories and creating alternative paths to agency. In emBanshees, Hags, and Changelings/em, Molly Ferguson examines how women writers, energized by the recent cultural feminist reckoning in Ireland, reappraise the subjects of these folktales and the anxieties they address. Exploring contemporary literary works across genres, Ferguson identifies the cultural processing of trauma resulting from gender-based violence through exploring the tensions that lie beneath each tale"-- JSTOR.

Contents:

Introduction : Feminist folklore transformations in contemporary Irish writing

Changelings and fairy abductions : Exposing the failed family unit

Mermaid and selkie tales : Silence, shame, and escape

“Not a hare any more, but a hag” : The transforming hag

Bees and banshees : Death rituals, desire, and community

The stray sod and buried trauma : Transformation through going “astray”

Conclusion : Transformation as reinterpretation moving forward.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (JSTOR, viewed April 14, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version: Ferguson, Molly. Banshees, hags, and changelings.

ISBN:

9780815657620

0815657625

OCLC:

1532796020