"Sharing the Same Soil": The Critique of Post-Feminist Gender Identity and the Materiality of Body in Sally Rooney's Normal People (2018)

Sally Rooney's Normal People (2018) examines gender normality in a Post-Celtic Tiger Irish social context and a post-feminist cultural milieu, through detailed depictions of the material body and its manipulation by Millennial Irish youth. Employing Laura Mulvey's gaze theory and post-feminist theories, this article explores the materiality of the body by analyzing the depictions of the female and male body facing social gazes in both public and private spheres. The paper argues that both women and men are adjusting their identity and sexuality to cope with anxiety in a post-feminist culture. However, the novel also highlights the entanglement and backlash of post-feminist culture, as the male gaze and violence gain power as a symbolic practice of identity construction through interaction with the material body. As Rooney's characters rely more on material body interactions, the search for identity and cure of anxiety rely heavier on the material connectedness in a post-feminist way.