Fontes Linguae Vasconum

Género y post-violencia: intersecciones entre literaturas vasca e irlandesa [Gender and post-violence: intersections of Basque and Irish literatures]

Asier Altuna García de Salazar — 2025-06-26

Emakume militanteak literaturan: euskal eta Ipar Irlandako gatazken arteko zubiak eraikitzen [Women combatants in literature: building bridges between Basque and Northern Irish conflicts]

Lorea Azpeitia Anta — 2025-06-26

This article analyzes the literary representations of women combatants in the Basque armed conflict from a gender perspective, establishing a dialogue with various representations of women activists in the Northern Irish armed conflict. Through Feminist Literary Criticism and Narratology, two novels will be analyzed: Jenisjoplin (2017) by Uxue Alberdi and Susmaezinak (2019) by Itxaro Borda. To sum up, although signs of feminist discourses and praxis have been identified, both novels reproduce patriarchal stereotypes, primarily that of the femme fatale, aligning with what analyses of the representations of IRA women combatants have pointed out.

Euskal gatazka armatuari buruzko fikzio feministak [Basque feminist fictions on the Basque armed conflict]

Mari Jose Olaziregi Alustiza — 2025-06-26

After a brief analysis of the characteristics of twenty-first century Basque narrative on the armed conflict, this article reflects on the contribution that contemporary Basque women writers are making to it. In particular, it analyses the predominant gender politics in feminist fiction and the thematic-formal peculiarities of the novels. Critical readings of the works of Arantxa Urretabizkaia, Itxaro Borda, Karmele Jaio and Katixa Agirre serve to delve, among other issues, into the new masculinities and femininities they propose.

La mirada feminista sobre la violencia en tres escritoras vascas [The feminist perspective on violence in three Basque female writers]

Cristina Ortiz Ceberio — 2025-06-26

This article examines how feminist commitment is reflected in three Basque novels –Koaderno gorria by Arantxa Urretabizkaia, El ángulo ciego by Luisa Etxenike, and Aitaren etxea by Karmele Jaio– adding nuance to the representation of violence in the context of ETA terrorism. Although each author offers a different perspective, they all explore the connection between violence and gender. The article concludes that, despite stylistic differences, the three works share a common critical approach that allows for the tracing of a line of continuity in their narrative proposals.

Euskal amak munstro itxurapean [Basque mothers in the shape of monsters]

Larraitz Ariznabarreta — 2025-06-26

This article examines how Basque writers in recent decades have come to consider the experience of the maternal myth of nationalism as a source of alienation. The change is so profound that the archetype that has been essential in traditional Basque culture –the model mother– has given way to an opposite archetype: the mum fatale (Rodríguez, 2019, p. 24) or the monster mother. After analyzing several narratives and poems, it is concluded that the field of literature has played a decisive role in the broad change in perspective on motherhood, thus having a profound effect on the transformation of Basque national identity.

Alabatasunetik idazten: aitak eta gatazkak egungo emakume idazleen nobelagintzan [Writing from daughterhood: Fathers and conflicts in contemporary Basque women writers]

K. Josu Bijuesca — 2025-06-26

This article explores how the protagonists of five contemporary Basque novels articulate their experiences of two (interrelated) forms of violence: the structural violence of patriarchy and the historical violence of armed conflict. Central to this inquiry is the narrative construction of the father-daughter relationship, which functions as a lens for recalling and reconstructing personal and collective memory. The analysis draws on two intersecting theoretical frameworks: feminist literary criticism –particularly its readings of father-daughter dynamics– and critical approaches to memory of political and social conflict.

(Post)conflicto y uso del memoir: una perspectiva transgeneracional y de género [(Post)conflict and use of memoir: a transgenerational and gender perspective]

Eva Pelayo Sañudo — 2025-06-26

This article explores how (post)conflict is articulated from a transgenerational and gender perspective, focusing on the Northern Irish context due to its vast literary production and for being a paradigm around its memorialization. Firstly, the legacies of the conflict will be evaluated, specifically the dominant conceptions of memory and trauma in times of post-violence. Secondly, the transition from the transmission to the construction of memory will be addressed, as well as the role of transformation and repair on the part of the new generations. Finally, the literary genre known as memoir will be discussed for the artistic expression of the post-conflict and the preservation of collective memory.

Paisajes de conflicto desde el postconflicto en la ficción de Lucy Caldwell [Landscapes of conflict seen from the post-conflict in Lucy Caldwell’s fiction]

Asier Altuna García de Salazar — 2025-06-26

This article examines how post-conflict fiction written by women in Northern Ireland revisits the Troubles. Starting from the representation of violence and trauma in Lucy Caldwell’s novels Where They Were Missed (2006) and All the Beggars Riding (2013), the landscapes of the Northern Irish conflict are explored from a female perspective that delves into the intergenerational gap, memory, domesticity and affection. The article concludes that Where They Were Missed and All the Beggars Riding offer alternative visions of the future by using the landscapes of the conflict in order to make themes visible unlike more hegemonic ones.

Género y conflicto en Irlanda del Norte: la representación silenciada de la mujer [Gender and conflict in Northern Ireland: women’s silenced portrayal]

Olga Fernández-Vicente — 2025-06-26

In armed conflicts, women are represented as moral symbols that legitimize the struggle, equating their suffering with that of the nation. Radical nationalism defines them as mothers and cultural guardians, but from 1980 onward, many young Northern Irish women have challenged stereotypes of purity and passivity, demanding a political and even militant role within the republican movement instead. This article questions the notion of an innate female pacifism and, through the lens of the Affect Theory and Trauma Studies, analyzes three Northern Irish novels that reveal how patriarchal narratives have erased women’s active participation in the conflict.