Volum 5 Nr. 1 (2025): Change
Articles

Familial Change and Crisis in Elizabeth Strout’s Pandemic Novel Lucy by the Sea

PDF (engleză)
  • Nóra Máthé
Nóra Máthé Universitatea Sapientia image/svg+xml

##plugins.themes.classic.biography##

Publicat 2025-09-11

Cuvinte cheie

  • pandemic literature,
  • Elizabeth Strout,
  • coping mechanisms,
  • grief,
  • familial change

Copyright (c) 2025 Nóra Máthé

Creative Commons License

Această lucrare este licențiată în temeiul Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Cum cităm

Familial Change and Crisis in Elizabeth Strout’s Pandemic Novel Lucy by the Sea. (2025). Papers in Arts and Humanities, 5(1), 38-47. https://doi.org/10.52885/98vwnp86

Rezumat

Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea (2022) captures the unsettling experience of forced change during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring both personal and societal transformation through the lens of its introspective protagonist, Lucy Barton. This paper examines how the novel portrays intergenerational shifts and psychological adaptation in response to crisis, situating it within broader discussions of pandemic literature. The novel foregrounds the ways in which different generations experience and process global upheaval. Lucy and William, as aging individuals, are confronted with their own vulnerabilities and shifting priorities, while their daughters navigate the uncertainty of young adulthood. At the same time, Lucy by the Sea reflects on crisis as a catalyst for change, showing how external instability forces a reconsideration of relationships, emotional resilience, and the self. Through Lucy’s deeply personal yet universally resonant narrative, Strout engages with themes of isolation, loss, and adaptation, raising questions about how individuals and families reconfigure their identities in the wake of collective trauma. By analyzing Strout’s exploration of intergenerational change and psychological resilience, this paper considers how Lucy by the Sea contributes to contemporary literary responses to crisis and the evolving cultural memory of the pandemic.

PDF (engleză)

Referințe

  1. Cain, H. (2022, September 16). Book review: “Lucy by the Sea,” by Elizabeth Strout. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/books/review/lucy-by-the-sea-lucy-barton.html
  2. Didion, J. (2005). The year of magical thinking. Vintage.
  3. Freud, S. (2003). The uncanny. Penguin Books.
  4. Harris, A. (2022, September 29). Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout review – Lockdown confessions. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/29/lucy-by-the-sea-by-elizabeth-strout-review-lockdown-confessions
  5. Montwieler, K. (2022). A companion to the works of Elizabeth Strout. Ohio University Press.
  6. Peiu, A. (2023). Book review: Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea. Papers in Arts and Humanities, 3(2), 109–112. https://doi.org/10.52885/pah.v3i2.160
  7. Plato. (1892). Cratylus (B. Jowett, Trans.). In The dialogues of Plato (pp. 251–390). Oxford University Press.
  8. Strout, E. (2023). Lucy by the Sea. Penguin Books.
  9. Strout, E. (2022). Oh William!. Penguin Books.
  10. Tanji, M. (2024). Family lives in the pandemic year: A study of Anne Tyler’s French Braid and Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea. 玉川大学文学部紀要 [Tamagawa University Bulletin of the Faculty of Letters], 64, 11–27. https://tamagawa.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2000269
  11. Zhang, Y. (2024). The uncanny COVID‐19 pandemic: The traumatic impact on our sense of the familiar. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 41(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjp.12930
  12. Žižek, S. (2020). Pandemic!: COVID-19 shakes the world. OR Books.
  13. Žižek, S. (2021). Pandemic! 2: Chronicles of a time lost. OR Books.