ABSTRACT

A defining feature of the current “golden age” of Irish literature is its attention to capitalism, online culture and precarity in contemporary society. This article brings together four “millennial” Irish women writers – popular novelists Sally Rooney and Naoise Dolan, and critically acclaimed but lesser-known short fiction writers Nicole Flattery and Lucy Sweeney Byrne – and examines their engagement with global capitalism and the internet in Conversations with Friends, Exciting Times, Show Them A Good Time and Paris Syndrome, respectively. In this work, capitalism is an oppressive system which actively inhibits the protagonists. While Rooney and Dolan depict sexual relationships with a subtext of economic exchange, Flattery sees capitalism as an absurdist charade and Sweeney Byrne’s narrator is detached from her surroundings due to surveillance capitalism. In all four texts, the “real” world is mirrored by a virtual one which holds increasing sway. In the context of economic precarity for the “millennial” generation, social media is presented as a means of fostering an illusion of control. However, the hyper-saturation of a media-rich world fosters deracination and depersonalization in the characters. Ultimately, these texts are deeply critical of both capitalism and social media, which are presented as conjoined forces of dehumanization.

摘要

当前爱尔兰文学“黄金时代”的一个显着特征是它对资本主义、网络文化和当代社会不稳定的关注。这篇文章汇集了四位“千禧一代”爱尔兰女作家——流行小说家莎莉·鲁尼和娜奥兹·多兰，以及广受好评但鲜为人知的短篇小说作家妮可·弗拉特里和露西·斯威尼·伯恩——并在与朋友，激动人心的时光，给他们看好时光和巴黎综合症， 分别。在这部作品中，资本主义是一种积极压制主角的压迫性制度。鲁尼和多兰用经济交换的潜台词来描绘性关系，而奉承将资本主义视为荒谬的游戏，而斯威尼·伯恩的叙述者由于监视资本主义而与周围环境分离。在所有四篇文章中，“真实”世界都被虚拟世界所反映，而虚拟世界的影响力越来越大。在“千禧一代”经济不稳定的背景下，社交媒体被视为一种培养控制幻觉的手段。然而，媒体丰富的世界的过度饱和会促进角色的去种族化和去个性化。最终，这些文本对资本主义和社交媒体都提出了深刻的批评，它们被表现为非人化的联合力量。