Domesticity, Autonomy, and the Postfeminist Shrew in Vinegar Girl

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Author: Muhsina C K

Keywords: Postfeminism, Adaptation, Patriarchy, Emotional Labor, Domestic Realism

Abstract: This paper examines Anne Tyler’s Vinegar Girl (2016) as a postfeminist reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, exploring how the novel both critiques and perpetuates patriarchal structures within the framework of contemporary domestic realism. Drawing on postfeminist theory as articulated by Angela McRobbie, Rosalind Gill, and Charlotte Brunsdon, the analysis demonstrates how Tyler’s adaptation translates Shakespeare’s overtly patriarchal “taming” into a subtler negotiation of autonomy, care, and emotional labor. Through the protagonist, Kate Battista, Tyler stages the contradictions of postfeminism—where feminism’s political vocabulary is absorbed into neoliberal discourses of choice, tact, and personal fulfillment. The paper argues that Vinegar Girl embodies what Natalie K. Eschenbaum identifies as the “modernisation of misogyny,” transforming patriarchal control into a system of emotional persuasion and familial obligation rather than overt coercion. Tyler’s ironic realism situates Kate as a postfeminist subject whose resistance manifests through silence, irony, and reluctant compliance rather than rebellion. To sum up, the novel suggests that the postfeminist woman is not “tamed” through domination but through affective labor and self-regulation—a form of taming internalized within the logic of modern gender relations.

Article Info: Received: 21 Sep 2025; Received in revised form: 17 Oct 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025; Available online: 25 Oct 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijeel.4.5.16

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