Abstract
ABSTRACT This article analyses Donal Ryan’s representation of individual and community vulnerability in his three novels, The Spinning Heart (2012), The Thing About December (2013) and From a Low and Quiet Sea (2018). Drawing on theoretical frameworks on vulnerability developed by Ganteau, Sabsay, Butler, and especially Kirby’s take on vulnerability as stemming from political economy, this article examines Ryan’s special articulation of vulnerability in post-millennial Irish fiction. The analysis concludes that Ryan develops a taxonomy of vulnerability in his fiction that addresses a series of contexts and risk factors. Ryan represents the exposure of individuals and the community to social vulnerability in Ireland within the discourses of the Celtic Tiger and its aftermath. Ryan’s fiction depicts dimensions of vulnerability affecting society at large and illustrates the overall failure to spread the success of the neoliberal Celtic Tiger equally.
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