Fig. 1 Portrait of John McGahern Fig.
2 Portrait of Julya Rabinowitz
“Amongst Women” (1990)
John McGahern was born on 12-Nov-1934, in
County Leitrim. His childhood was marked by
poverty, an abusive father, who was a Garda
sergeant, and his mother's death. He was a primary
school teacher but was dismissed in 1963 due to
his controversial novel "The Dark", which was
banned by the Irish Censorship Board. McGahern's
literary career began in 1963 with his first collec-
tion of short stories, "Nightlines," and he went on
to become one of Ireland's most celebrated writers.
Gender Identity
Gender is a social construct performed repeatedly through discourse, language and social practices.
(Buttler, 1990)
Intergenerational Trauma
Trauma is not only found in the original violent or abusive event experienced by the individual in the
past, but rather from the fact that it was not fully comprehended and dealt with at the time, and keeps
returning to haunt the survivor later in life. (Caruth, 1996)
"Both grandmothers were elemental forces. I am the child
of two permanent children. I am supposed to grow up.»
Rabinowich, Julya. Splithead (p. 86). Granta Publications.
Kindle Edition.
"Her fear that the past could still be called into the
present, the fear that the terrible punishments and humili-
ations inflicted by her father would be visited on her own
children, or that some hurtful and inevitable twist of fate
would take them from her." (Amongst Women 47)
“Splithead” (2019)
Julya Rabinowich was born in 1970 in St. Pe-
tersburg, Russia. She was brought up in a Jew-
ish family, as described in her autobiographi-
cal story “Splithead”. In 1977, her family im-
migrated to Vienna, Austria, where she later
studied psychology and worked as a therapist.
Writing since she was 6 years old, Rabi-
nowich has received numerous literary awards
for her work, and currently lives in Vienna
with her family.
"She could not go to bed at night without being given an
assurance that she was still needed in the world, that the
world would collapse without her, and that she would be
given her proper place." (Amongst Women 57)
«She critically examines the Jewish bond that ties the
others. Hers has long been broken.»
Rabinowich, Julya. Splithead (p. 83). Granta Publica-
tions. Kindle Edition.
 "I am straddling the gap ever more precariously. The conti-
nental tables, on each of which I have planted a leg, drift
apart and I’m dismayed that I haven’t mastered the splits.»
Rabinowich, Julya. Splithead (p. 69). Granta Publications.
Kindle Edition.
"I saw in his eyes the same expectation that I saw in
every man's eyes: the expectation that I should be small
and pretty and compliant, that I should be an object of
desire."
(_________________________________)

(_________________________________)

"She wondered if the things that happened to them all were
not the things that happened in every family."
(_________________________________)
«Funnily enough, it is primarily leftist intellectuals
who are interested in those who have been sprung from
Communism. My parents take no pleasure in an atti-
tude of rebelliousness. For them, being revolutionary
meant getting hold of a smuggled copy of the Bible.»

Rabinowich, Julya. Splithead (p. 58). Granta Publica-

tions. Kindle Edition.
(_________________________________)

References:
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. 2nd ed., Routledge, 1999.
Caruth, C. (1996) Unclaimed Experience : Trauma, Narrative, and History, Baltimore, Md. ;: Johns
Hopkins University Press.
McGahern, John. Amongst Women. Faber, 2008.
NYU Arts and Science. "Interview with Julya Rabinowich." Deutsches Haus at NYU, New York
University, 2015, https://as.nyu.edu/research-centers/deutscheshaus/cultural-program/residency-inter-
views/interview-with-julya-rabinowich.html. Accessed on 12-Apr-2023.
O’Hagan, Sean. "A family touched with madness." The Guardian, 28 Aug. 2005, https://www.the-
guardian.com/books/2005/aug/28/fiction.features3. Accessed on 12-Apr-2023.
Rabinowich, Julya. “Presse - Julya Rabinowich.” Julya Rabinowich, www.julya-rabinowich.com/
presse.html. Accessed on 12-Apr-2023.
Rabinowich, Julya. Splithead. Granta Publications, 2019. Kindle Edition.

Figure 1:
Unknown. Portrait of John McGahern, Photograph, Faber & Faber, 2022, https://
static.faber.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/John-McGahern-412x283.jpg. Accessed on 11-Apr-
2023.
Figure 2:
Michael Mazohl. Portrait of Julya Rabinowich, Photograph, Philosophicum Lech, 2019, https://
www.philosophicum.com/fileadmin/_processed_/b/9/csm_R2019-Rabinowich-
Julya_5dd8099170.jpg. Accessed on 11-Apr-2023.
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