Chapter 8 - The Feminist Contemporary: The Contradictions of Critique

Summary

This chapter provides a sketch of the representation of feminist subjectivity in literature from the mid-1990s to the present. I adopt a survey approach to consider the Tiger period’s representation of subjective alienation, while focusing in more specifically on the work of four post-Tiger writers – Sally Rooney, Nancy Harris, Melatu Okorie, and Alvy Carragher – to analyze the intricacies of their constructions of subjectivity. Through this analysis, the chapter explores how the solo voices of critique morph into conversational exchange, as the post-Tiger feminist literary landscape establishes vital links between embodied subjectivity and digital space in complex constructions of “biodigital subjectivity” (a term I draw from Aristea Fotopoulou) to establish a networked subject that is simultaneously (and contradictorily) empowered and rendered intensely vulnerable in the risky terrain of technologically mediated life. I conclude with a brief analysis of how this type of networked paradigm is at play in the public feminist activisms of post-Tiger Irish culture, especially in examples of literary feminisms that engender critiques of collective resistance in powerful calls for change.