Unhappy Beginnings: Narratives of Precarity, Failure, and Resistance in North American Texts

This book explores how North American texts challenge normative frameworks by resignifying concepts like unhappiness, precarity, failure, and vulnerability, highlighting their ambivalent sites of resistance and social bonding. It draws on authors like Sara Ahmed, Judith Butler, Wendy Brown, Jack Halberstam, Lauren Berlant, and Henry Giroux to interrogate films, memoirs, and novels that deal with precarity, alienation, and inequality, expanding the archives of unhappiness and offering alternative ways of navigating the world and framing society.

Format: Hardback
Length: 190 pages
Publication date: 22 December 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This captivating book delves into the intricate analysis of a diverse range of North American texts, skillfully dismantling and challenging normative frameworks through the transformative process of resignification. The chapters forefront the potential for seemingly negative elements, such as unhappiness, precarity, failure, and vulnerability, to be reimagined as ambivalent sites of resistance and social connection. By engaging with Sara Ahmed's reinterpretation of happiness, the author draws upon the insights of other notable scholars like Judith Butler, Wendy Brown, Jack Halberstam, Lauren Berlant, and Henry Giroux to examine films, memoirs, and novels that explore themes of precarity, alienation, and inequality. This monograph makes a significant contribution to expanding the archives of unhappiness by shifting the focus from prescribed norms and happy endings to unruly practices and unhappy beginnings. Through the insightful contributions of the various authors, unhappiness, precarity, vulnerability, and failure emerge as powerful tools for illuminating alternative ways of navigating the world and shaping society that deviate from the conventional script of happiness. This thought-provoking exploration invites readers to embrace the complexities of human experiences and encourages them to reevaluate the narratives that shape our understanding of happiness and fulfillment.

Weight: 540g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032526591