The latest contribution to Articulations, EXC 2020's digital journal, by Elisa Haf (Research Area 1: "Competing Communities") offers a close reading of Sally Rooney's novel Beautiful World, Where Are You? (2021) against the backdrop of contemporary tradwife culture. Rooney is one of four Irish women writers Haf examines in her doctoral research project, The Uses of Bisexuality.

In her article, Haf argues that the novel channels tradwife sensibility through its aesthetic framework, advocates a solution to contemporary social ills comparable to that put forward by tradwife content, and attributes responsibility for these ills to the same scapegoat. In so doing, the novel misdirects otherwise valid social critique and forecloses more imaginative solutions to the problems of our time. Acknowledging the mixed reception the novel has elicited, Haf concludes her contribution by lamenting the possibility that even the critical outrage the work has generated may only serve to underscore the appeal of its central message.

     

Elisa Haf. "Tradwife Utopia: Gender and Aesthetic Nostalgia in Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where Are You?". Articulations (February 2026). (Open Access)