Post-Colonial and Feminist Reading of Mary Dorcey’s “Nights Underground”

“Nights Underground” is a short story, written by the contemporary Irish poet and author, Mary Dorcey. This story reveals how feminism and post-colonialism amalgamate in the English society during the time of the Cold War. The two main characters are Irish lesbian females who endure double colonization by the British and the patriarchy enveloping their lives with racism, prejudice, degradation, and othering. This study offers a postcolonial and a feminist reading of “Nights Underground,” linking the two critical schools and offering a dual reading of the text. Dorcey sheds light on the dangerous and destructive effects of marginalization, alienation and discrimination that could lead to disruption of social order if intensely and continuously imposed upon a group of people. We aim at clarifying the correlation between Irish diaspora and lesbian/patriarchal predicament through highlighting how such theories as Post-Colonialism and Feminism are inter-related.