Resumen de Witchcraft and evilness as sources of female potential: Eavan Boland’s representation of a new eve in irish poetry
This article explores subversive representations of witchcraft and evilness in the work of the contemporary Irish woman poet Eavan Boland, in particular focusing on her volume of poetry In Her Own Image (1980). In this collection, Boland approaches subjects that were new in Ireland, defending her own right to describe taboo areas of female experience and offering alternative images of female anatomy. In the process, the woman poet directs us to look upon female images which are considered to be traditionally evil. In particular, she identifi es with fearful fi gures (i.e. the witch and the sinful Eve) that, albeit despised by patriarchal society, are very helpful for the purposes of subversion.
Although the images of witches and Eves may seem old-fashioned today, two and a half decades ago they were innovative in Ireland. In a country where a nationalist tradition has often recurred to the symbolic identifi cation between Ireland and a passive Mother, and where the precepts of the 1937 Constitution have relegated women to the exclusive roles of mothers and housewives, feminist counter-statements such as this are quite revolutionary.
