Freedom or Fantasy? Rethinking Choice and Pleasure in Postfeminist Narratives in Normal People and Othappu

Abstract

This paper examines postfeminist ideas of choice and pleasure in Normal People by Sally Rooney and Othappu by Sarah Joseph. Drawing on Rosalind Gill, Angela McRobbie, and Catherine Rottenberg, it explores how contemporary narratives frame empowerment as personal autonomy while remaining embedded in neoliberal and patriarchal structures. Marianne’s romantic self-fashioning and Margalitha’s moral departure from the convent reveal agency as negotiated rather than absolute. The paper argues that these texts portray empowerment as emotionally meaningful yet structurally limited, where freedom and regulation coexist within late capitalist and religious contexts, complicating simplistic celebrations of postfeminist choice and pleasure.