Locked in the Family Cell

Book excerpt: Locked in the Family Cell is the first book on Ireland to provide a sustained and interdisciplinary analysis of gender, sexuality, nationalism, the public and private spheres, and the relationship between these categories of analysis and action. Kathryn Conrad examines the writers and activists who are resistant to simplistic nationalist constructions of Ireland and its subjects. She exposes the assumptions and the effects of national discourses in Ireland and their reliance on a limited and limiting vision of the family: the heterosexual family cell. By actively situating theoretical readings and concerns in practice, Conrad follows the lead of scholars such as Lauren Berlant, Gloria Anzaldua, Ailbhe Smyth, and others who have encouraged dialogue not only among scholars in different academic disciplines but between scholars and activists. In doing so she provides not only a critique of interest to scholars in a variety of fields but also a productive political intervention.