Enfantí must be either little used or a neologism.^9 It could translate as
ëhidden-childí, yet the way French compound nouns preceded by
ëcacheí usually work (cache-col, cache-nez or cache-pot) suggests that
a ëcache-/ Enfantí could be either a child protector or a reference to a
hidden pregnancy. In this poem, there is more than ësome truthí in
readings of McGuckianís poetry in terms of a feminist exploration of
masculinism and more to it than seeing her as a modern day Molly
Bloom.
In spite of the reactionary nature of ëPostmodern McGuckianí,
(as Docherty follows a ëhunchí that McGuckianís poetry is more
postmodern than it is feminist), there are two important directions
taken by the essay. First, it outlines the representation of time in
McGuckianís poetry in terms of Gilles Deleuze and Immanuel Kant to
argue that her ëpoetry is a call to critical historicismí whereby an
antagonistic stance is taken in relation to History with the effect that
time is ëthrown out of jointí. Although alluding to Luce Irigaray, there
is no consideration of how McGuckianís ëcritical historicismí can also
be seen to constitute a ëcritical her-storicismí which can be developed
from readings of Kristevaís essay ëWomenís Timeí (1979). A second
fruitful point in the essay is when it discusses McGuckianís break
with ëplace-logicí, a term taken from Walter J. Ongís Ramus: Method,
and the Decay of Dialogue (1958).^10 Docherty reads this in terms of
Deleuzian deterritorialization which he views as postmodern without
focusing on the ways in which displacement in McGuckianís poetry
can be understood in terms of her dispossession and disposition as a
woman within one of the last remaining British colonies. In view of
this, it is therefore crucial to ask how the indeterminate status of
identity in the North of Ireland affects the poetic voice.
9 Among dictionaries consulted for the meaning of ëcache-enfantí were the
Larousse Dictionnaire de la Langue FranÁais Lexis, ed., Jean Dubois (Paris:
Larousse, 1989) and The Oxford ñ Hachette French Dictionary, eds., Marie-
HÈlËne CorrÈard & Valerie Grundy (Oxford: University Press, 1994).
10 Walter J. Ongís Ramus: Method, and the Decay of Dialogue (Cambridge,
Mass,: Harvard University Press, 1958).