The Floozie In The Jacuzzi

THE FLOOZIE IN THE JACUZZI

TITLE

The title is not one, but many. Not definitive but open. Sign of difficulty and fragmentation but also of possibility.

THE FLOOZIE IN THE JACUZZI/ The Problematics of Culture and Identity for an Irish Woman

or

THE WHORE IN THE SEWER/ Intersextextual Inserts and Excerpts

or

BIDET MULLIGAN/ Averse Versions of the Immersion of Women in Irish Culture

or

THE SKIVVY IN THE SINK/ "Dreams Go by Contraries"

or

ANOREXIA/ Denying Denial of Identity

or

ANNA LIVIA PLURABILITY/ The Singular Diversities and Diverse Singularities of Irish Women

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Part 1

In James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, Anna Livia Plurabelle is at once the representation of womanhood and of the city of Dublin, through which flows the river Liffey. In 1987, Dublin City Corporation erected a large sculpture, entitled Anna Livia Plurabelle, in the center of the city. The sculpture was financed by members of the Smurfit family who control the largest indigenous multinational business corporation in Ireland. The first section of the text is a reflection on this sculpture and what it signifies, quoting freely from Finnegans Wake.

Part 2

Although intended originally as a reflection on the problem of national identity for a woman in Ireland, this section of the text is more personal and allusive. Trying to find a way of writing about identity, trying to find a voice -- my voice, a place from which to speak -- my place, I realized that I am traversed and truly fructified by a constant and dynamically creative interplay of images, ideas, and experiences which spring from a "plurability" of sources, some public and published, others more private, in the domains of literature, the visual arts, history and legend, conversation -- and more conversation. It is impossible for me to unravel all these threads which have meshed in my mind. All the writers cited are Irish and samples of their work will be found in the anthologies listed below. Here and there in the text, I use Irish (Gaelic) words because these are very much a part of our everyday currency in Ireland, although for the vast majority of Irish people, English is our "first" language.

Further Reading

Kelly, A.A., ed. Pillars of the House: An Anthology of Verse...