Email correspondence as a contemporary epistolary form in Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You

Abstract

This thesis examines the use of the epistolary form in Sally Rooney’s 2021 novel Beautiful World, Where Are You, with a focus on email correspondence between the protagonists, Alice and Eileen. It shows how these emails shape the portrayal of emotional intimacy and the construction of selfhood in the novel. It argues that Rooney adapts the traditional letter novel to a digital context, using emails as a narrative device that enables emotional introspection and vulnerability, yet at the same time, produces distance, misinterpretation, and disconnection in interpersonal relationships. The literature review provides an overview of the epistolary tradition, focusing on its connections to intimacy, confession, and women’s writing, as well as previous research on Rooney’s work. The empirical chapter is divided into three sections, focusing on how emails enable emotional honesty and vulnerability, selective self-representation, and digital distance and miscommunication. Keywords: Sally Rooney, epistolarity, digital communication, email correspondence, intimacy, miscommunication