Abstract

This article draws on the intersection of the metahistorical, corporeal and material turn in contemporary cultural theory, with a focus on Emma Donoghue’s novel The Pull of the Stars (2020), incidentally written to commemorate a centenary of the Spanish flu in Britain, and suddenly appearing prophetic of the COVID-19 situation in 2020–2021, with unintentional, but poignant parallels. The methodological framework used for the article is transmodern metahistory, as well as new materialism, with its important concepts of transcorporeality (Alaimo) and intra-action (Barad). The article examines women’s (bodily) lives in 1918 Dublin as depicted in the novel, against the tempestuous political and military historical context furnishing the background for the material, temporal and discursive entanglements and shared vulnerabilities, which are the centre of the narrative. It also touches upon topical issues and processes characterizing the present-day world, such as the global COVID-19 pandemic, #MeToo and BLM movements, social injustice and intersectional feminism, as well as silenced traumatic historical phenomena, such as the cruelty and abuse of Irish and Canadian residential institutions, and the larger issue of livable lives—a crucial topic for women writers today.

摘要

本文借鉴了当代文化理论中元历史、物质和物质转向的交叉点，重点关注艾玛·多诺霍的小说《星之引力》（2020），顺便为纪念英国西班牙流感一百周年而写，突然出现了对 2020-2021 年 COVID-19 情况的预言，无意中却有令人心酸的相似之处。本文使用的方法论框架是超现代元历史学以及新唯物主义，其重要概念是跨肉体性（阿莱莫）和内在行动（巴拉德）。文章审视了小说中描绘的 1918 年都柏林女性（身体）生活，以动荡的政治和军事历史背景为背景，为物质、时间和话语的纠葛以及共同的脆弱性提供了背景，而这些正是叙事的中心。它还涉及当今世界的热门问题和进程，例如全球 COVID-19 大流行、#MeToo 和 BLM 运动，