Novel: Composition

Composition is an innovative novel that applies Julia Kristeva's theories of the symbolic and semiotic to tell a working-class daughter of the Irish diaspora's coming-of-age tale. Through a disruption from the traditional bildungsroman, 11-year-old Celeste does not achieve self-attainment or social assimilation. She realises that her identity is a site of process, renegotiation, and creation. Critically, the novel also works as a conduit to explore the cultural and linguistic 'Third Space' (Bhabha), second-generation Irish identity, and working-class representation in contemporary society. Instead of a 'bleak' or 'depressive' depiction of the working-class experience, Celeste's embodied perspective portrays her and her single mother's lives as characterised by both sadness and joy.