Inhabiting and Writing from the ‘Third Space’: Hybrid Feminism in Eavan Boland’s Outside History

This paper argues that HomiBhabha's theory of the "Third Space" offers an apt theoretical framework to critically attempt to define the feminist stance boland adopts in Outside History. The initial argument of the paper is that Boland's foray into feminism is entirely distinguished from the 'separatists'; it resembles the hybrid model Bhabha devised for what he calls the post-colonial 'strategic intellectual'. Similarities between the parameters of both postcolonial and feminist discourses are pointed out at the beginning of the paper, and certain passages from Boalnd's views on feminism are juxtaposed with the basic concepts of Bhabha's theory in an attempt to show that Boland's views are almost a feminist recasting Bhabha's theory of the 'Third Space'. As the paper proceeds in discussing some of poems from outside History, the hybridity of Boland's feminism is illustrated in a variety ways. A feminist reading of poems such as "The Making of an Irish Goddess", "The Achill Woman" and "What we Lost" provides ample instances of what I define as 'Boland's hybrid feminism. A revisionist reading of other poems such as the title poem "Outside History" is also provided in an attempt to further demarcate Boland's feminism from the conventions adopted by the 'separatists'. The paper concludes by redefining Boland's feminism as a stance that attempts to modify woman's status with in the limits and demands of the patriarchal/nationalist society while at the same time managing to create an independent female identity and voice.