The Great Millenial Novel Paradox
What makes a novel a millennial novel? Is it the generation of the author, the ages of the protagonists, or the age of the targeted demographics? There are many novels that readers and critics strongly agree are millennial, yet they do not classify the novels based on the questions above. Rather than considering the generational demographics of writers, protagonists, and readers, they consider thematic elements that represent overarching millennial sentiments.
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The protagonists in millennial novels are often characterised by a disillusionment with social and political structures but also a desperate desire to still achieve social acceptance and financial stability. In searching for these things, the protagonists find themselves in complex romantic and platonic relationships with nuanced power dynamics. Sometimes, their stories are told in part through digital communications such as texts and emails, but their stories are always told with dark, ironic humour.
While there seems to be cohesion among millennial novels, the nature of the genre resists being defined. Millennials are a culturally fragmented generation, and the goal of many millennial novels and their protagonists is to reject labels and the societal structures that govern our lives. Additionally, many novels tend to target a very specific audience rather than a universal one, making overarching labels invalid.
The lack of a template for the millennial novel may be the reason why it’s conducive to highlighting more diverse voices and stories that have previously been neglected. While past generational novels have featured white men becoming disillusioned with the world, millennial novels are more likely to have women — especially queer and BIPOC women — as their writers and protagonists confronting disillusionment. As British author Olivia Sudjic argues, we could be viewing it this way since “male literary writers tend to be credited with writing universal books rather than category specific ones,”; or, women and queer and BIPOC individuals are better able to write about suffering under capitalism. Sudjic points out that many female protagonists in these novels are well- educated but underpaid, anxious, and full of rage. It’s difficult to explore systemic intersections in characters who have largely only experienced privilege.
The feelings of cynicism, instability, and economic anxiety that permeate these novels are understandable, considering that one of the generation’s earliest memories is 9/11 and that millennials came of age during the Great Recession. A common work classified as a millennial novel, “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh, takes place in the months leading up to 9/11 and captures the feelings of existential dread of the coming generation as the main character attempts to induce a yearlong coma with her prescription medications.
Numerous other “household” titles have been classified as millennial novels, but perhaps the most popular are Sally Rooney’s works. Just after her first two novels, the New York Times declared her “the first great millennial novelist,” making her the gold standard for the genre. Rooney is skeptical of the label, however, likely seeing it contributing to the commodification of her writing in order to sell it to other millennials. In an Irish Times interview, she states, “My books may well fail as artistic endeavors but I don’t want them to fail for failing to speak for a generation for which I never intended to speak in the first place.” Considering Rooney the gold standard, especially when many of her protagonists are white, middle-class characters, misrepresents and limits the diversity in millennial writing that the genre hopes to accomplish in dismantling class, gender, and race structures. However, given the popularity of her work and her multiple novels that have been explicitly considered millennial, she is an accessible writer with a comprehensive framework, providing an apt starting point for exploring millennial themes.
Sally Rooney’s first two novels, “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People,” both explore the previously-described elements of millennial novels. “Conversations with Friends” follows Frances, an aspiring writer in college who identifies as a communist, in an uncertain financial state with an uncertain career path ahead of her. She and her best friend become entangled in a relationship with a rich married couple where interesting power dynamics come into play. “Normal People” follows Marianne, Connell, and their complex romantic relationship from the end of high school into their university years. As Judy Berman from the Times describes it, it’s about two characters who ‘fit together perfectly’ but then add “power dynamics in their relationship on a seesaw for several years and see whether they can make it work.” These power dynamics operate via the social and class structures the two of them find themselves navigating. In these ways, Rooney effectively explores larger political and economic structures in individuals and their relationships.
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Why does Rooney choose to explore these themes through college students in both instances, rather than exploring them in characters that are more similar in age to millennial readers? And why are her novels so popular among college students today, who are classified as Gen Z? Examining these questions can shed light on what we consider to be the millennial novel and can help us understand why generational demographics may not be as important as we believe.
For many, college is one of the most formative periods of instability for young adults. Individuals are leaving the physical and financial shelter of their parents and have to support themselves for the first time, and they are placed in a new social environment with undiscovered, unspoken rules. This vulnerability in early adulthood makes it easy to explore the alienation and financial stability issues that millennials grapple with. Frances’s uncertain financial state in “Conversations” directly relates to the university and living expenses she is responsible for, as her parents are unable to afford to support her education. Her initial attraction to the married couple stems from her envy of their financial and personal stability which manifests in their large house and their marriage—a future that seems out of reach for her as a lonely, poor, aspiring writer.
While we first see Connell and Marianne in “Normal People” when they are in high school, something interesting occurs when we meet them again in college: their social positions are reversed. Marianne, previously alienated from her peers, transforms into a popular figure with a large group of friends in college; Connell, previously the star football player at his high school, becomes a shy student struggling to fit in. These reversals are intimately tied to class, with Marianne coming from a wealthy family and Connell from a working-class background. In college, money has a much larger presence in their lives than it did in high school. Marianne’s ability to not concern herself with finances directly contrasts with Connell’s inability to do so, and this stark contrast affects their social standings and complicates their romantic relationship. Thus, the college setting and time period provides the perfect stage for millennial themes to play out.
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Finally, what makes these millennial novels so popular among Gen Z, and not just millennial readers? It is true that many Gen Zers are college students right now, and perhaps they just resonate with other college students being represented in literature. But is it possible they resonate with the millennial issues as well?
According to the Pew Research Center, Gen Zers are actually more similar to millennials than millennials are to Gen X. Compared to prior generations, millennials are more educated, starting families later, and have increasingly liberal views. Yet, they are overall accumulating less wealth than older generations at the same ages—likely due to the fact that they came of age during the Great Recession, entered a challenging job market, and faced more unemployment than previous generations.
Following millennials, Gen Z was set to come of age with a strong economy and low unemployment, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made the future uncertain for this group, putting them in similar shoes as millennials. Additionally, while the generational gap in political views was significant between millennials and prior generations, Gen Z and millennials have similar views when it comes to social and policy issues. Like millennials, Gen Z is progressive, pro- government and views growing racial and ethnic diversity as positive. Given these common views, it is no surprise that Gen Zers would resonate with the themes explored in millennial novels.
The fact that millennial novels are able to reach out to another generation and escape being confined to a single range of ages may be more revealing of its nature than attempting to define the genre. Literature allows us to connect with people across diverse times, ages, backgrounds, and cultures through shared human experiences and realities. Millennial literature presents the harsh realities of rigid structures and constructs, but in being critical of their rigidity, the novels must be flexible in their portrayal of characters and readership. In fragmenting the genre, millennial literature connects more people.