This monograph is an original and important contribution to the growing body of critical studies devoted to one of Ireland’s major living poets: Eavan Boland (see Haberstroh 1996; Hagen & Zelman 2005). It details the controversies that were prompted by the inclusion of Ireland in a postcolonial framework and then tests the application of an array of cogent theories and concepts to Boland’s work. In an attempt to explore the richness and complexity of her poetry, Villar- Argáiz discusses the contradictory pulls in her desire to surpass, and yet at the same time epitomize, Irish nationality. Boland’s remarkable achievement as a poet lies in her ability to stretch, by constant negotiations and re-appropriations, the borderlines of inherited definitions of nationality and femininity.

Chapters include: Re-examining the postcolonial: Gender and Irish studies, Towards an understanding of Boland’s poetry as minority/ postcolonial discourse, A post-nationalist or a post-colonial writer?: Boland’s revisionary stance on Mother Ireland, To a “third” space: Boland’s imposed exile as a young child, The subaltern in Boland’s poetry, Boland’s mature exile in the US: An `Orientalist’ writer?