Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)

This article analyzes selected short stories in Cecelia Ahern’s thirty-narrative collection Roar (2018) to see how (and with what losses or gains) the perspectives of posthuman and postfeminist critique can be incorporated via the common dystopic umbrella into the mainstream female readership of rom...

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Autor principal:	Katarzyna Ostalska
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Lodz University Press 2021
Materias:	popular culture popular literature romance novels the feminist discourse dystopia the posthuman ahern Literature (General) PN1-6790
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6c3d68da66b545098a493febbd9d02c0
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6c3d68da66b545098a493febbd9d02c02021-12-01T06:51:57ZDystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)2083-29312084-574X10.18778/2083-2931.11.14https://doaj.org/article/6c3d68da66b545098a493febbd9d02c02021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/textmatters/article/view/11268https://doaj.org/toc/2083-2931https://doaj.org/toc/2084-574XThis article analyzes selected short stories in Cecelia Ahern’s thirty-narrative collection Roar (2018) to see how (and with what losses or gains) the perspectives of posthuman and postfeminist critique can be incorporated via the common dystopic umbrella into the mainstream female readership of romance literature. The dystopic worlds created by Ahern in Roar portray inequality and power imbalances with regard to gender and sex. The protagonists are mostly middle-aged women whose family and personal lives are either regulated by dystopic realities or acquire a “dystopic” dimension, the solutions to which are provided by, among other tropes, “posthuman” transformations. Roar introduces other-than-human elements, mostly corporeal alterations, in which the female bodies of Ahern’s characters become de-formed and re-formed beyond androcentric systems of value. The article raises the question of whether feminist and, to some extent, “posthuman” (speculative) approaches, need to be (and indeed should be) popularized in such an abridged way as Ahern does in her volume. The answer depends upon the identification of the target audience and their expectations. Ahern’s Roar represents popular literature intended to be sold to as many readers as possible, regardless of their education, state of knowledge, etc. Viewed from that perspective, what some critics could perceive as the collection’s structural weaknesses constitutes its utmost marketing asset. The essay argues that despite not being a structurally innovative work of art, Ahern’s book fulfils the basic requirements of the popular fiction genre, intermittently providing some extra, literary gratification and popularizing rudimentary elements of the posthuman and postfeminist thought.Katarzyna OstalskaLodz University Pressarticlepopular culturepopular literatureromance novelsthe feminist discoursedystopiathe posthumanahernLiterature (General)PN1-6790ENText Matters, Iss 11, Pp 204-221 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	popular culture popular literature romance novels the feminist discourse dystopia the posthuman ahern Literature (General) PN1-6790
spellingShingle	popular culture popular literature romance novels the feminist discourse dystopia the posthuman ahern Literature (General) PN1-6790 Katarzyna Ostalska Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)
description	This article analyzes selected short stories in Cecelia Ahern’s thirty-narrative collection Roar (2018) to see how (and with what losses or gains) the perspectives of posthuman and postfeminist critique can be incorporated via the common dystopic umbrella into the mainstream female readership of romance literature. The dystopic worlds created by Ahern in Roar portray inequality and power imbalances with regard to gender and sex. The protagonists are mostly middle-aged women whose family and personal lives are either regulated by dystopic realities or acquire a “dystopic” dimension, the solutions to which are provided by, among other tropes, “posthuman” transformations. Roar introduces other-than-human elements, mostly corporeal alterations, in which the female bodies of Ahern’s characters become de-formed and re-formed beyond androcentric systems of value. The article raises the question of whether feminist and, to some extent, “posthuman” (speculative) approaches, need to be (and indeed should be) popularized in such an abridged way as Ahern does in her volume. The answer depends upon the identification of the target audience and their expectations. Ahern’s Roar represents popular literature intended to be sold to as many readers as possible, regardless of their education, state of knowledge, etc. Viewed from that perspective, what some critics could perceive as the collection’s structural weaknesses constitutes its utmost marketing asset. The essay argues that despite not being a structurally innovative work of art, Ahern’s book fulfils the basic requirements of the popular fiction genre, intermittently providing some extra, literary gratification and popularizing rudimentary elements of the posthuman and postfeminist thought.
format	article
author	Katarzyna Ostalska
author_facet	Katarzyna Ostalska
author_sort	Katarzyna Ostalska
title	Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)
title_short	Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)
title_full	Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)
title_fullStr	Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)
title_full_unstemmed	Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)
title_sort	dystopias in the realm of popular culture: introducing elements of posthuman and postfeminist discourse to the mass audience female readership in cecelia ahern’s roar (2018)
publisher	Lodz University Press
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/6c3d68da66b545098a493febbd9d02c0
work_keys_str_mv	AT katarzynaostalska dystopiasintherealmofpopularcultureintroducingelementsofposthumanandpostfeministdiscoursetothemassaudiencefemalereadershipinceceliaahernsroar2018
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Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018)

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