Paper Details

Name: Neelima Dhiman & Rayees Ahmad Bhat
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Vol-13, issue-2, Year-2026 (July-December)
Page Number: 59-66
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23315058

ABSTRACT
This paper examines how Donal Ryan’s The Spinning Heart (2012) represents the 2008 economic recession, focusing on its effects on rural Irish society in the aftermath of the Celtic Tiger. The novel portrays the collapse of the construction industry, unemployment, financial insecurity, debt, abandoned housing developments, and the breakdown of social and institutional trust. Through twenty-one interconnected monologues, Ryan presents the recession through the eyes of different members of a rural community, revealing how economic collapse produces fear, uncertainty, shame, regret, disillusionment, and social fragmentation. The paper argues that Ryan does not represent the recession merely as an economic event but as a crisis that transforms relationships, individual identities, and the sense of community. The novel’s fragmented narrative structure and polyphonic voices further reflect the inability of the community to construct a unified understanding of its changing social reality. By bringing together economic, social, psychological, and narrative dimensions, the paper demonstrates how The Spinning Heart captures the human consequences of Ireland’s transition from the prosperity of the Celtic Tiger to the austerity and uncertainty that followed.

Key words: Narrative, Modernisation, Celtic Tiger, Financial Collapse, Recession