Political Post-Postmodernist Fiction : Tess Gunty's The Rabbit Hutch and the Crisis of Meritocracy
Pignagnoli, Virginia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Filologia Anglesa i de Germanística)

Data:	2026
Descripció:	18 pàg.
Resum:	This essay presents a reading of Tess Gunty's The Rabbit Hutch (2022) as an example of the strand of postpostmodernist fiction foregrounding a sense of political engagement with the contemporary world. Drawing on the rhetorical approach to narrative, the analysis explores how, through the explicit voicing of the protagonist's ideological commitments, Gunty thematically addresses the current crisis of meritocracy (cf. Wooldridge 2021; Markovits 2019). The fictionalized Midwest town that serves as the novel's narrative space provides the ideal background for the local narrative to act as counterpoint to the larger cultural narrative linking talent with social mobility. In political post-postmodernist novels like The Rabbit Hutch, the author employs a character as her surrogate within the storyworld, endorsing her values and investing her commentary-emerging here through character-character dialogue and internally focalized narration-with her authority. Thus, rather than serving as an autofictional element that conveys indifference toward referentiality (cf. Dawson 2023), the characterauthor biographical connection, I argue, aligns with the novel's emphasis on its "thematic component" (Phelan 2017). Indeed, this emphasis is realized through a metaphorical telling that enables a political discourse on social justice and the deficiencies of meritocracy. At the same time, it highlights fiction's relevance-as an intersubjective exchange between authors and readers- in interpreting the actual world.
Ajuts:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación RYC2022-036215-I
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra, i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials i que es distribueixin sota la mateixa llicència que regula l'obra original. Cal que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Tess Gunty ; The Rabbit Hutch ; Postpostmodernist fiction ; Meritocracy ; Political narratives
Publicat a:	Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses / Alicante Journal of English Studies, Num. 44 (2026) , p. 195-212, ISSN 2171-861X

DOI: 10.14198/raei.29723

18 p, 204.8 KB

El registre apareix a les col·leccions:
Articles > Articles de recerca
Articles > Articles publicats