The fictional rising of the female figure: biography, national history and women history in Mary Morrissy’s “The Rising of Bella Casey”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33871/nupem.2022.14.32.151-166Keywords:
Historical fiction, Fictional Biography, Women’s writing, 1916 Easter RisingAbstract
This article aims to analyze the fictional rising of Isabella Charlotte Casey (1866-1918), sister of Irish playwright Seán O'Casey (1880-1964) in the novel The Rising of Bella Casey (2013), by Irish author Mary Morrissy. The novel is explored as a fictional biography that aims to fill gaps in Isabella’s biography left by Seán O’Casey in his Autobiographies (1939-1952). Morrissy uses fiction to return the agency to Isabella and to elevate her to the prominent position that the character desires. To this end, the importance of historical events such as the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and World War I is diminished in relation to Isabella's life story, thus revealing divergent perspectives and alternative histories. First, this article analyzes Isabella Casey's reinsertion in history in The Rising and, second, the alternative history proposed by the novel, which questions the Irish national identity imposed by the Irish Free State (1922-1937).
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