Palacios, Manuela & Laura Lojo, eds.. Writing Bonds: Irish and Galician Women Poets. Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2009. 232 pp. Hispanic Studies: Culture and Ideas. Vol. 26. Edited by Claudio Canaparo. ISBN 978-3-03911-834-2 pb. Euros 32.- / £ 32.- / US-$ 49.95
This book focuses on the emergence of women poets from the 1980s to the present in both Ireland and Galicia. Departing from common ground in shared myths and comparable political and social circumstances, each contributor to this volume looks into central aspects of Irish and Galician identity issues, which range from configurations of the nation, nature and feminine paradigms, to the poets’ elaborations on their own literary practice. The comparative approach followed shows both that questions raised in one community can find relevant answers in the other and that reciprocal knowledge helps to disseminate the writers’ work – and the criticism of it – beyond their respective national borders. This collection of essays and interviews also provides both poets and critics with a mutual space in which to voice their concerns, thus bringing down the barrier that is often raised artificially between these two literary activities.