Abstract
Set in post-Troubles Belfast, in the years following the economic crash in 2008, Party Time is an auto-fictional exploration of masculinity, violence, and class. It opens with an assault, committed by Sean, the novel's twenty-two-year-old narrator, outside a house party on Tates Avenue. The novel follows the aftermath of this assault, what it means for Sean as he is interviewed by the police, appears in court, and is sentenced to two hundred hours of community service. In the absence of any kind of prospects, in work and in life, the characters that populate Sean's world are desperate to find some kind of purpose. Sean's mother paints, his brother Anthony has dreams of writing a Hollywood blockbuster. His friends make plans to move to Berlin or Australia. They all struggle in their own way to get by, working precarious jobs, making ends meet. It is a novel that is underpinned by the theoretical writings of Pierre Bourdieu and influenced by contempo_rary French auto-fictional writers such as Didier Eribon, Eduoard Louis, and Annie Emaux, whose debut novel, Cleaned Out, is analysed in the critical component of this thesis.Thesis embargoed until 31 July 2027.
| Date of Award | Jul 2022 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Sponsors | Northern Ireland Department for the Economy |
| Supervisor | Sinead Sturgeon (Supervisor) & Glenn Patterson (Supervisor) |