New Books in Literary Studies Kathryn Robson, "Beyond the Happy Ending: Imagining Happiness in Contemporary French Women's Writing and Film" (Liverpool UP, 2025)
Oct 22, 2025
Kathryn Robson, a Reader in French at Newcastle University, explores happiness in contemporary French women's writing and film. She examines the complexities of defining happiness and critiques its representations in consumer culture and social media. Robson discusses how intimacy, migration, and queerness challenge traditional notions of happiness while highlighting the role of aging in rethinking joy. By weaving in diverse narratives, she advocates for a more inclusive understanding of happiness, addressing both its limitations and potential.
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Theory: Stickiness, Cruel Optimism, Crisis
- Robson leans on Sarah Ahmed and Lauren Berlant to critique social models that trap people with promised happiness.
- She blends Ahmed's 'stickiness' with Berlant's 'cruel optimism' and crisis ordinariness to read texts differently.
Performing Happiness In Reza's Play
- Yasmina Reza's Happy Other Happy stages unhappy characters who perform happiness as a mask to be recognized.
- Robson shows 'authentic' happiness is itself performative and rooted in bearable misrecognition.
Social Media: Performance That Spills Over
- Social media amplifies performed happiness but does not uniquely create masking or violence.
- Robson reads novels where online 'bearable misrecognition' spills into real life with harmful consequences.
