English Honors Theses

Date of Creation

5-2024

Document Type

Departmental Honors Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Paige Reynolds

Abstract

This undergraduate thesis examines the relationship between contemporary social circumstances and fiction novels. Generational novels are focused on cohorts or individuals who share traits that reflect recognizable social conditions of a specific era. The new generational novel is the Millennial novel. These Millennial novels generally depict American characters in American settings, but the characters are increasingly ethnically and racially diverse. These characters are often in economic precarity, they are generally highly educated and invariably find themselves at odds with traditional romantic, occupational, and domestic expectations. In many of these novels, new technologies play an important role in the narrative and the form. This research looks at seven novels, including works from Sally Rooney and Ottessa Moshfegh, which are divided into three categories. The first is the Romance. The second is the Office, and the third is The Home. These categories depict how Millennial characters in these novels recognize traditional social structures and deliberately or unconsciously refuse to embrace them, which leaves them in a place of ambiguity, unease, or relief. The Millennial novel embraces the ambiguous middle space between romance and work and family life.

Comments

Reader: Shawn Maurer

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