RT Journal Article T1 "If you weren't my friend I wouldn't know who I was": Care Virtues and the Relational Self in Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where Are You A1 Carregal Romero, José AB Set in contemporary Ireland, Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) focuses on the relationship dynamics between characters who struggle with intimacy and human connection, against the backdrop of the individualist ethos and existential anxieties induced by current neoliberal systems. Drawing on care ethics, vulnerability and relationality theory, this analysis of Beautiful Worldunderscores how Rooney constructs her characters’ psychological evolution through their progressive, albeit irregular, adoption of care virtues within relationships. The analysis shall apply Khader’s taxonomy of care virtues (2011), which include “loving attention” –a willingness to appreciate and accommodate the particular nature of the other–, “the transparent self” –an awareness of how our self-interests block our recognition of the other’s needs–, and “narrative understanding”, a desire to engage with the other’s personal history so as to make decisions that promote his/her well-being. PB Universidad de Murcia SN 1578-7044 SN 1989-6131 (electrónico) YR 2024 FD 2024-12 LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/24734 UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/24734 LA eng NO Carregal-Romero, J. (2024). “If you weren’t my friend I wouldn’t know who I was”: Care Virtues and the Relational Self in Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You. International Journal of English Studies, 24(2), 127–140. https://doi.org/10.6018/ijes.574311 NO ‘INTRUTHS2: Articulations of Individual and Communal Vulnerabilities in Contemporary Irish Writing’ (PID2020-114776GB-I00), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and ‘Posthuman Intersections in Irish and Galician Literatures’ PID2022-136251NB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ‘ERDF A Way of Making Europe’ DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva RD 30 may 2026