“Star of the Sea”: Resistance and Adapted Homelands

Abstract

Joseph O’Connor’s Star of the Sea (2002) offers a nuanced depiction of the lifelong patterns of resistance of the Irish governess and Famine survivor, Mary Duane. Following Gayatri Spivak’s notions of the Other and of ‘wordling’ - the practice of the more powerful who seize their impressions of the experiences of those perceived as weaker to elevate themselves to “Sovereign Selves” – this essay charts the intersections of power and the production of meaning and knowledge and argues that Star of the Sea is a feminist excavation of strategies of diasporic strength. O’Connor’s heroine is not a victimized female Other who can merely report; she is not permanently elusive and powerless, rather she is gradually revealed as a resourceful and inspirational character who relies on the idea of a noble Irish homeland which she adapts to navigate moral dilemmas, trauma and chaotic borders.