Sally Rooney's Novels: The Aesthetics of the Contemporary Irish Bildungsroman

Abstract

Sally Rooney has of late attracted attention, among other things, for her straightforward depictions of youth in present-day Ireland. Her works have been said to represent the voice of the younger generation, the millennials, not only because of the topics she tackles, but also because of her narrative style. The introspective nature of her novels is reflected through email exchanges between her characters, structural alterations, uneven time lapses, ungrammaticality, and the use of parataxis. These characteristics, ever-present in her narrative, replace some features of the traditional Bildungsroman, updating its creative form. This essay aims to analyse Rooney's aesthetics as a reflection of the socio-economic context within which her novels are set, as well as their engagement with the problematic articulation of identity formation in an economic climate of recession. This chapter is focused on her particular recreation of the Bildung genre and its necessary accommodation to the neoliberal context of Ireland. It does so by highlighting the salient features of her aesthetics, examining topic, form, and style. Her three novels to date, Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), and Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021), all examples of the contemporary Irish Bildungsroman, are discussed, looking at such features as alterations in form and structure, the focus on the individual, the choice of paired protagonists, and the implications of digital media. Finally, light is cast on Rooney's narrative style, the way it evokes the contradictions and challenges of life in contemporary Ireland, and the underlying critique of her novels.