Dismembering the Issues of Capitalism, Human Rights, and Mental Health of Irish People in the Novel Normal People by Sally Rooney

Ferdinal Ferdinal; Sudarmoko Sudarmoko; Chintya Dewi; Oktavianus Oktavianus

doi:10.19105/ojbs.v18i2.15659

Ferdinal Ferdinal Department of Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang 25176 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8590-4847
Sudarmoko Sudarmoko Department of Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang 25176 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2674-9584
Chintya Dewi Department of Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang 25176
Oktavianus Oktavianus Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang 25176 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4266-3454

https://doi.org/10.19105/ojbs.v18i2.15659

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Keywords: cultural impacts, ideology, Ireland, youngsters

Abstract

The capitalist ideology has been critiqued in various disciplines, including literature, especially when executed by tyrant governments or influential individuals. This article examines how modern discourse, such as the novel Normal People by Sally Rooney, represents issues of capitalism in Ireland, which impact the rights of its people and their access to mental health. The study is a qualitative scrutiny of the novel, applying the Marxist Theory of Ideology by Louis Althusser to investigate such representations. The primary data from the novel and the secondary information from other sources are interpreted to investigate three main questions: How do Normal People portray capitalism in Ireland, how does this ideology impact the individual rights of its people, and how does it affect access to mental health problems? The study results indicate that the novel portrays the pervasiveness of capitalist ideology in the hearts of Irish people, affecting their rights to live and the freedom of expression, and the practice of capitalism has a substantial impact on Irish youngsters' mental health. Due to the limitations of the methods and data comprehensiveness, further studies on Normal People may consider alternative literary lenses, such as pragmatic and other analytical approaches, looking at sociocultural institutions and systems.

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Author Biographies

Ferdinal Ferdinal, Department of Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang 25176

FERDINAL is a senior lecturer in the Department of Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang, Indonesia. His research interests include literary tourism and literary studies.

Sudarmoko Sudarmoko, Department of Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang 25176

SUDARMOKO is a lecturer in the Department of Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang, Indonesia. His research interests include literature and culture.

Chintya Dewi, Department of Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang 25176

CHINTYA DEWI was a Master's student in the Department of Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, and is now a junior lecturer at Bung Hatta University, Padang, Indonesia. Her research interests include trauma in literature.

Oktavianus Oktavianus, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang 25176

OKTAVIANUS is a professor of linguistics at the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Padang, Indonesia. His research interests are related to semantics and linguistic landscape.

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