John McGahern’in Amongst Women Romanında Babalığın Poetikası Üzerinden Ulusal Egemenliğin Politikasını Okumak
Reading the Politics of National Sovereignty Through the Poetics of Fatherhood in John McGahern’s Amongst Women

Summary/Abstract: This study evaluates the Irish writer John McGahern’s masterpiece, Amongst Women (1990), as a critical reading of the patriarchal family structure and hegemonic masculinity ideals that were fortified by the influence of the Catholic Church during the Irish Republic’s process of building national sovereignty. The sanctity of the father figure–a compulsory component of the “sacred family” and “hard man” cult, permeated by Catholic faith and central to the discourse of the founding figure Eamon de Valera–is analysed from the perspective of critical studies on men and masculinities. The conflict between Michael Moran and his sons, which forms the main theme of the novel, is presented as a panorama of the reconstruction of national identity along the axis of genderbased power relations in post-independence Ireland. By focusing on Moran’s militaristic past, the despotic power he established in the domestic sphere by instrumentalising Catholic doctrines, and the forms of resistance his sons developed against this power, the study reveals how traditional masculinity norms entered a crisis and were deconstructed in the face of globalisation, secularisation, and further economic developments. Despite Michael’s conciliatory attitude, Luke’s emigration and radical rejection of all the values Moran represents symbolise the identity search of the new generation of Irish men and their confrontation with the accusation of national betrayal. Ultimately, the study concludes that the novel exposes patriarchal power as not an inherent privilege but a performative structure that can be manipulated through resistance, and that it transforms the traditional “Big House Novel” narrative by pointing to the declining power of the Catholic Church and the rise of women, symbolised by the election of Mary Robinson, in Ireland.

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