CONTEMPORARY BORDERS: INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS AND FEMALE AGENCY IN RODDY DOYLE’S SHORT STORY THE PRAM

• Autor(a) principal: Dall'Bello, Eloísa
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Scripta Alumni (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revista.uniandrade.br/index.php/ScriptaAlumni/article/view/788

The so-called Celtic Tiger, from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, was a period of outstanding social and economic development in the Republic of Ireland; and its political stability, high employment rates and unprecedented prosperity attracted a large number of immigrants to the country. Roddy Doyle’s short story The pram looks at the relationship between locals and outsiders, portraying a scornful treatment that a Polish nanny receives from her Irish employers. This paper examines the position of Alina as a female immigrant in twenty-first century Ireland, to establish a view of how her agentic potentialities outgrow the prejudiced treatment she receives. I will argue, using the concept of “agency” (MCNAY, 2016), that Alina, from being a voiceless maid, achieves transformation into an empowered woman. DOI: 10.5935/1984-6614.20170012