Customer Reviews

The Feminization of Famine: Expressions of the Inexpressible?

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Ms. Kelleher's The Feminization of Famine, is an examination of the representation of the female in famine literatures of the Great Irish Famine (1845-1852) and the Bengali Famine (1943-1944). The first three sections of the book deal with the Irish and the fourth section is used as a comparison with the literature inspired by the famine in Bengal (which also took place under British Imperial Rule). The book performs well as an introduction to Irish Famine Literature, exploring short stories, novels and journals that are contemporary, a generation removed and those produced in the 20th Century. A good part of these works are difficult to obtain and Ms. Kelleher does the reader a service in exposing them.

The work lost some color for this reviewer when she came to Famine, by Liam O'Flaherty. While most of the other works were unfamiliar to me, I had the good fortune to read Famine just prior to Ms. Kelleher's work. Ms. Kelleher renders a shallow and un-insightful review of what is truly a brilliant work. I found her interpretation of Famine to be shaped by her thesis on the representation of women in famine literature rather than her thesis being shaped by the literature at hand. Characters were represented out of context and Mr. O'Flaherty was credited with an inability to provide a coherent political focus because his characters were in disagreement with one another. It seems that Ms. Kelleher cannot distinguish between an author and his or her fictional creations. I cannot help but wonder how misled I might have been in those works with which I was not so familiar.

The book offers some insights and some stereotypical thought on the victimization of women. The reader might hope for a less subjective and deceptive analysis than he or she will receive from Ms. Kelleher. This reviewer cannot help but be wary of the analysis of those works that were not in his personal experience given the doubtful representations of those that were. Still, the information on the Bengal famine was fascinating to a novice such as myself and the sections on the Irish Famine were instructive, too. I only recommend that the reader not blindly accept the summaries offered by Ms. Kelleher.