Politics of Benevolence; Analyzing claire keegna's small things like These

Abstract

This thesis critically analyses the ideological root of the Good Shepherd’s convents depicted in Small Things Like these, in order to explore the disguise of exploitation in the name of benevolence. The thesis deconstructs the perception of Good Shepherd’s convent as benevolent institution, revealing it instead a site of systemic exploitation and confinement through the theoretical frameworks of Louis Althusser’s ideology and Roland Barthes’ myth. It examines how ideological frameworks and mythic constructs are utilized to uphold such institutions and influence individual subjectivity. It claims that the novel portrays façade of benevolence by depicting how unwed women and girls are reduced to mere worker of the convent’s laundry, deprived of identity, and valued only for their utility to the convent. The analysis focuses on how these women and girls are brought to the convent through the restrictive laws that tamed the freedom of women. The thesis concludes that the Good Shepherd's convent as a space of confinement and oppression, veiled behind the guise of education and benevolence. As a newly formed nation-state, Ireland adopted Roman Catholic ideals of ‘virtue, purity, and chastity,’ perceiving unmarried pregnant women and girls as threats to its national ideology. By enforcing restrictive legislation, the state not only limited women’s participation in public life but also institutionalized the confinement of women and girls who defied these societal norms. Keywords: benevolence, politics, ideology, myth, convent, women,