Feminist representations of the vulnerable self and vulnerable relationality in Idra Novey's Those Who Knew and Ways to Disappear

In her novels Those Who Knew (2018) and Ways to Disappear (2016), the American author Idra Novey depicts how vulnerable people of the twenty-first century have been subjected to multiple forms of political, social, cultural, economic, and gender-based oppression, and how all of these oppressions create a variety of struggles that render them invisible, fragile, and powerless because of deeply entrenched patriarchal practices and mindsets, all of which have had a vulnerable impact on each of the characters to varying degrees. Every single one of these traumatic occurrences, whether directly or indirectly, has affected the characters' entire lives as individuals and members of society. As that of the essential aspect in the formation of the weaknesses, helplessness, and fragility of the self and connection to the other, patriarchy is the primary cause of the abuses and wounds that lead to vulnerability. Idra Novey brings attention to patriarchal norms and practices while shedding light on vulnerable people in her novels Those Who Knew (2018), which addresses a group of people subjected to political oppression; and Ways to Disappear (2016), which portrays a group of individuals in search of a missing author. This thesis will examine how vulnerability arises in individual and relational selves as a result of violence, hegemonic masculinity, and an absence of ethical understanding, hence leaving them invisible, powerless, vulnerable, and dispossessed. This thesis will establish the context within which, from a feminist transformational perspective, the negative connotations of vulnerability will be deconstructed by examining the concepts of openness, passivity, dispossession, irresponsibility, otherness, and unethical practices on the self and relationships. Keywords: Vulnerability, Relationality, Idra Novey, Those Who Knew, Ways to Disappear