Book contents
- Transnationalism in Irish Literature and Culture
- Cambridge Themes in Irish Literature and Culture
- Transnationalism in Irish Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction: A Weak Theory of Transnationalism
- Part I Transnational Genealogies
- Part II Planets
- Part III Missed Translations
- Part IV Transnational Futures
- Chapter 13 Irish Fiction, Small Presses, and the World-System
- Chapter 14 Resources and Repertoires: Language in Irish Fiction after Globalization
- Chapter 15 Roots and Crowns: Race and Hair Culture in Traveller and Black Women’s Writing
- Chapter 16 Conflict and Care: Edna O’Brien’s Girl, Colum McCann’s Apeirogon, and the Limits of Interculturality
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 15 - Roots and Crowns: Race and Hair Culture in Traveller and Black Women’s Writing
from Part IV - Transnational Futures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 November 2024
- Transnationalism in Irish Literature and Culture
- Cambridge Themes in Irish Literature and Culture
- Transnationalism in Irish Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction: A Weak Theory of Transnationalism
- Part I Transnational Genealogies
- Part II Planets
- Part III Missed Translations
- Part IV Transnational Futures
- Chapter 13 Irish Fiction, Small Presses, and the World-System
- Chapter 14 Resources and Repertoires: Language in Irish Fiction after Globalization
- Chapter 15 Roots and Crowns: Race and Hair Culture in Traveller and Black Women’s Writing
- Chapter 16 Conflict and Care: Edna O’Brien’s Girl, Colum McCann’s Apeirogon, and the Limits of Interculturality
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Traveller and Black communities are among the most distinctive populations in Ireland. Although they occupy opposite ends of the spectrum of visible difference, hair is a site at which their perceived differences converge. In Ireland, the racial and aesthetic dimensions of Traveller and Black hair have contributed to the marginalization of the two groups. Traveller hair was historically associated with dirtiness and poverty, and Traveller women’s hair, traditionally worn long, was often perceived to be old-fashioned, gaudy, or indicative of sexual availability. Meanwhile, Black hair, which departs from white hair in texture and direction of growth, has been denigrated, and distinctively Black hairstyles have been disparaged. This chapter examines hair culture in the writings of contemporary authors Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh, a Traveller dramatist and activist, and Emma Dabiri, a Nigerian-Irish author and academic. Their portrayals of minority hair culture reveal histories of institutionalized racism and crinicultural (hair-related) discrimination, but they also present affirmative depictions of beauty and empowerment that dismantle older, demeaning representations.
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- Transnationalism in Irish Literature and Culture , pp. 280 - 299Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024