Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

English

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Jeffrey Gonzalez

Committee Member

Lee Behlman

Committee Member

Laura Nicosia

Abstract

Jenny Offill’s novels Dept. of Speculation and Weather are each narrated by a woman who exists in a postfeminist era that insists upon the achievability of a happy work-life balance. Despite the lofty career aspirations now afforded to women, the protagonists find themselves burdened by the gendered responsibilities that disproportionately hold them responsible for domestic duties, childcare, and emotional labor. Both protagonists use a fragmented narrative style to convey their consciousness, and the texts are composed of hundreds of short fragments that include memories, self-reflections, philosophical musings, lines of poetry, fun facts, questions, and more. While the narratives do not name the contemporary feminisms or critique patriarchal norms directly, each fragmentary narration reveals the harmful impact of a postfeminist sensibility on these working mothers. Rather than reaffirming the postfeminist sensibility that insists that they are the cause of their own unhappiness and that the solution is self-surveillance and transformation, the novels reveal that these personal crises would be better solved through collective social action.

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