Vulnerable Body, Vulnerable Mind: 'The New Me' (2019) by Halle Butler

This paper aims to explore the representation of contemporary female vulnerability in 'The New Me' (TNM) (2019) by Halle Butler. Set in Chicago, TNM depicts the emotional spiral of a thirty-year-old antiheroine, Millie, who, whilst navigating the world of temp-jobs, constantly obsesses over the ways she could change herself and her life. The relationship between different types of crises (both collective and private ones), the trauma resulting from their experience, and literature has been widely investigated in the field of Trauma Studies since the end of the twentieth century. Literature can be considered a privileged space to uncover, negotiate and even resolve traumatic experiences, whilst exploring vulnerable identities (Pellicer-Ortín & Sarikaya-Şen 2020), and therefore can offer readers valuable perspectives on the human experience. Drawing from this theoretical framework, this paper argues that TNM can be read as a ‘chronic crisis novel’ (Fuchs 2022). While modern crisis narratives usually feature a crucial tipping point following a climactic build-up, chronic crisis novels dislodge the narrative modes and epistemological frames of modern crisis narratives by portraying a perpetual state of extreme distress. Despite her hoping for personal betterment and the so-called ‘good life’ (Berlant 2011), Millie is never able to achieve them by the end of the novel – capitalism and American consumer culture being two of the main reasons behind her failure. Stuck in a perpetual unhappy present, the novel forefronts – as this paper will try to argue – the connection between mental instability, psychological vulnerability, and the grotesque female body (McWilliam 2003, Clark 2023). Through this reading, the novel appears to be underlining the impossibility of resilience and the importance of vulnerability in contemporary American society.