Fiction, the Pandemic, and the Rhetorical Approach to Fictionality: Roddy Doyleâs Life without Children

James Phelan

Jump to Content

Chapter 2 Fiction, the Pandemic, and the Rhetorical Approach to Fictionality: Roddy Doyleâs Life without Children

In: Pandemic Storytelling

Author:

James Phelan

James Phelan
Search for other papers by James Phelan in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 37â54

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004716681_004

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

â¬42.00â¬35.00Â excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

This essay contends that, in Life without Children (2022), Roddy Doyle responds to the pandemic by conducting a double-layered exploration of the efficacy of fictionality itself. I define fictionality as discourse in which a rhetor intentionally and non-deceptively uses invention, projection, or some other departure from direct reference to actual states of affairs to influence an audienceâs response to or understanding of the actual. Doyle develops the first layer of his exploration through his decision to write not a novel but a short story collection. This choice increases the range of his engagement with the pandemic, allowing him to depict disparate characters who face an array of instabilities and work through those instabilities and their complications in their own distinctive ways, even as the pandemic exerts a variety of influences on that working through and its outcomes. Doyle undertakes the second layer of his exploration by frequently depicting his charactersâ uses of fictionality and tracing the consequences of those uses for their efforts to cope with the pandemic. The essay focuses on two stories, âGoneâ and âWorms,â and uses a rhetorical approach to fictionality to illuminate Doyleâs explorations even as it looks for ways in which Doyleâs stories require extensions or revisions to the approach. With âGone,â Doyle demonstrates that a traumatic event can generate a compulsion to fictionality that works much like addiction, but he also shows how the pandemic plays a role in the characterâs overcoming that compulsion. With âWorms,â Doyle shows two sides of the pandemic: it first provides the occasion for a long-estranged married couple, Joe and Thelma, to reconnect, but it then brings Thelma to the brink of death. Joe and Thelma bond over an apparently shared experience of suddenly hearing songs (worms) while going about the activities of daily life. At storyâs end, however, Joe questions whether Thelma actually heard the songs or only pretended to. Doyle does not answer Joeâs question, thus simultaneously leaving the story open and complicating rhetorical theoryâs understanding of the relationship between fictionality and lying. In both stories, Doyleâs explorations have significant effects for their affective and ethical dimensions, and these effects contribute substantially to his remarkably effective pandemic storytelling.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004716681/BP000012.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Pandemic Storytelling

Series:Â Narratives and Mental Health, Volume: 3

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004716681

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 18 Dec 2024

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

Front Matter

Back Matter

ProCite

RefWorks

Reference Manager

BibTeX

Zotero

EndNote

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	219	74	16
Full Text Views	4	2	0
PDF Views & Downloads	4	1	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 2 Fiction, the Pandemic, and the Rhetorical Approach to Fictionality: Roddy Doyleâs Life without Children

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Pandemic Storytelling

Table of Contents

References

Metrics

Metrics

Chapter 2 Fiction, the Pandemic, and the Rhetorical Approach to Fictionality: Roddy Doyleâs Life without Children