Introduction

This introduction contextualizes the massive Irish Famine diaspora to the United States from the perspective of gender. What has so far been overlooked is that quite a few women belonging to the Famine generation of immigrants manifested themselves as writers as a way to actively contribute to ongoing public debates in the ancestral homeland as well as in their host society, on topics such as women’s social position, working-class conditions in the United States, the Irish Land Question, the Catholic church, and home rule for Ireland. Furthermore, these Irish-American woman authors engaged with and helped develop literary genres of the age, as well as gave expression to the memories of the Great Famine and experiences of dislocation and reintegration in the Famine generation’s adopted country. Their texts look back to the past, especially the harrowing years of hunger of many Irish emigrants, but also reframe these legacies of the Famine into American contexts.