Essential Qualities of Postmodern Fiction - Research Paper Example

Post Modern Fiction Introduction Literature has been the mirror of life and society. Since the initiation of its organised form, literature has played myriad roles. Sometimes it has act as a serious documentation on a vital social issue and sometimes it has just been a balm to the aching heart and tired soul. With time, literature has changed its course and expert and critics have classified literature on the basis of their period for publication which has considerably changed with the characteristics that it bears. Actually the impact of time has always been a phenomenal reason for the topical choice in literature and owing to that poets and authors have woven their exquisite masterpieces. Touched by the new synthesis of science and art in the renaissance period, moved and flattered with the exquisite antiquity of the Romantic era, literature gradually started sensing the holocaust days of the world wars witnessing the two great disaster of mankind in its form. Slowly the scope for the luxury of the green meadows and green pasture became limited and the true dark side of human civilisation in the form of literature for the urbanites started taking shape. This genre came to be known as modern era in the history of literature. Poetry or fiction started finding refuge in the myriad iconoclacism and absurdity which became the essence of the time. Breakdown of human communication was poignant phenomenon in the post war era which evolved time and again in the thought process of the poets and the authors. Gradually literature started finding a complete new dimension, quite deviated from the traits of the modern era as well. Amid extreme urbanisation, industrialisation, globalisation and corporate life style, literature evolved out with more contemporary flavour bearing the true mark and imprints of the time. The contemporary literature is often clubbed under a huge-umbrella term of post modern literature. Postmodern literature in general has been successfully able to percolate and bear the true reflection of life in contemporary era. Post Modern Fiction It is essential to understand the meaning and characteristics of Postmodern Literature before presenting an in depth discourse and critically appreciating or dissecting a particular literary piece falling under the regime or cannon of Post Modern Literature. In “The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction”, Bran Nicol, a Reader in Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University of Portsmouth expresses that Postmodern Fiction is actually a kind of challenge thrown at the readers. It demands excessive brainstorming on the part of the readers instead of giving them the leisure or scope to enjoy it passively from the distant, just being a non-participant entity. Postmodern fictions compel the readers to question their own perceptions and responses. Along with that it also provides a platform to examine the readers with their opinions about the piece. Yet postmodern fictions encapsulate a certain charisma that make the readers inquisitive and impulsive about them and make it ever pleasurable to read. Postmodernism always brings a theoretical discourse along with it rather than just presenting it as a sublime piece of art. To be mundane, the discourse of “art for the art’s sake” doesn’t apparently match with the sensibilities associated with a postmodern piece. But still there are some contemporary fictions falling under the broad head of postmodern fiction which can be enjoyed much without the understanding and interference of critical literary theories. The Postmodern canon is not smaller than any other literary canon or circle. Starting from the pioneer, Samuel Becket, there are many British and American authors like Borges and Burroughs who with their stark piece of writing continue to illuminate the postmodern literature in general and postmodern fictions in particular. There are also luminaries in the canon who throw light on the post-war situation and are considered as important post-war writers. Authors like Pynchon, Carter, Atwood, Morrison, Gibson, Auster, DeLillo and Ellis fall under this regime. DeLillo is one of the pioneer American writers from the canon of postmodern fiction who illuminates his readers on the society and absurdity cropped into the human psyche and life of mankind in contemporary post-war era. Don DeLillo’s “White Noise” Don DeLillo is a poignant American writer from the post-war era who have explicitly dealt with the postmodern issues and skilled his hand on exquisite and sublime pieces of artistry which he has produced over the years. “White Noise” by DeLillo can be regarded as the epitome bearing all the marked characteristics and features of a postmodern fiction. Amazingly stark with absurd subject matter, this hilarious piece of prose is based on the peculiarity and strangeness of human mind and situation where mankind have already made themselves quite adept to kill and destroy each other. The terrible funny story is presented by a narrator, Jack Gladney and the plot of the story moves on many assumptions and ironies typical to a postmodern fiction. Gladney was a Hitler expert in a small college and taught Hitler Studies. His wife is addicted to a drug that diminishes fear apparently. One day the chemical factory at their neighbourhood accidentally releases a gas which seems poisonous. A precursor fiction to the Bhopal and Prozac lexicon, this book almost seems to cast itself into the contemporary time scheme so brilliantly that it almost shows us the future. This is actually a true charisma of the postmodern fiction which has made it popular. At an absurd realm, even the philosophy of writing casts into the contemporary events which keep the capacity of raising it beyond time thus making it universal. The plot of the story moves abruptly which shows, Jack Gladney who is the Chairman of the Department of Hitler Studies at the Midwestern College accidentally gets acquainted with a noxious chemical cloud which is an iconic representation of a better half of the world overused or rather misused by the improper use of technology in foods and products that are completely artificial. This future of the world is perceived to be a doomed future and it is represented with sharp irony and humorous sarcasm by the author. The representation of the history is rather an irony for the author and the tragic part of the doomed future or history is getting eclipsed by the “bleak ironic vision” of the author. Plot “White Noise” is the eighth novel by DeLillo and is a remarkable exultation of postmodern literature. The work is widely renowned as DeLillo’s “break out” work and the novel won him National Book Award in the year 1985. Consequently this award reached the book to a larger audience and in turn enabled the readers to perceive the true traits of the postmodern literature. The novel is set against a bucolic Midwestern background and centres round a college known by the name of “The –College-on-the-Hill”. White Noise is a story that tells the readers about a year in the life of the narrator and protagonist of the novel, Jack Gladney. Failure of human communication is an integral part of the postmodern lifestyle and literature. Intricately woven within the premises of all the characteristics of the postmodern literature, the protagonist is unable to speak German yet he is shown as the expert in Hitler study at his college. This is also another reason why the protagonist, Jack Gladney is shown married five times and he has many children from his several marriages. Babette is shown as his current wife during the course of the plot and the couple is shown extremely scared of death, another common trait in the literature of the post-war era. Their common topic of discussion in the novel is death and many a times in the novel they are shown wondering as they often put their confusion regarding the term of death. They fear death and wonder who would be dying first among them. The novel is divided into two parts, the first part bearing the title “Waves and Radiation”, is presented as a chronicle of a family that is absurdist. The absurdist family life style is blended with a satire academic in nature. In this section of the story, the scope of the plot development is very little and bearing the true mark of a coherent, tight-lipped and compact novel, the initial part of the book only sets the stage for the culmination of other events in the novel. Another important role of this section of the book is that it introduces one of the important phenomena and characters of the book, Murray. Murray is like a vista of the novel to the audience or rather the voice of the author who presents and discusses his theories often in the novel which are quite relative to the thematic aspect of the novel. These theories are based on myriad socio-political discourse of the contemporary time. There are different ways to present the theories in a text. DeLellio presents it through a character of the novel itself so that these theories become an integral part of the novel, completely incorporating into the scheme of things that the novelist intends to present. At the same time, it also ensures that the theories do not fall apart form the novel becoming cliché or obscure. The second part of the novel is veiled to its readers with the name of “The Airborne Toxic Event”, centres round a chemical spill event from a rail car over the region of Jack’s residence resulting and provoking an eviction from the area. Sacred from the exposure to toxic, Gladney, is compelled to confront with his morality. In this portion of the novel, much of the plot development takes place and the readers are introduced to an organization known by the name of SIMUVAC which stands for shortened version for “simulated evacuation”. This part of the novel evokes one of the poignant themes of the novel along with the major characteristics of the postmodern fiction too. One of the dominant themes of the novel is replacement of reality in the world of absurdity with simulations which is again major trait of postmodern fiction too. Third i.e. the last segment of the book is known by the name of “Dylarama”. In this segment, Gladney discovers that Babette is deceiving him to get the access to the drug fictional known by the name of Dylar. The drug is functional for the experimental treatment for the fear of death. Babette who is shown scared with the fear of death takes it to get rid of her fear. This juncture of the novel, which is also the last segment of the novel, becomes thematically pivotal portion of the novel. Gradually the novel becomes a live document meditating on the fear of death that engulfs the modern society, with the obsession of chemical cures as in the plot of the novel Gladney is shown trying to seek and obtain his own black market for the drug named Dylar. Themes The novel, “White Noise” focuses on multiple themes interwoven within the premises of the plot of the novel divided into the three segments of the novel. These themes also completely focus on the important discourse which is in general presented into the postmodern fiction. In other ways the themes presented in the “White Noise” was typical of the postmodern themes. As regards to the themes of the novel, they are quite similar to the themes that evolved during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Themes like rampant consumerism, saturation in the sector of media, novelty in intellectualism, conspiracies that cropped up underground along with the themes of disintegration and re-integration of the family and all the positive virtues of the human violence are considered potential enough in the postmodern and post-war era. An in-depth study of the novel shall launch its readers to the understanding and the operation of the themes or subject matter within the novel. If we give a close look to the other works of the novelist, we will find that in his prior creations, themes and subjects like characters with culture, the relationship between survival and the subtle, the eternal increase in the relationship and interdependence between the self and the national and world community could not find much place. With the increase in the maturity of the author these issues were also addressed and DeLillo found the platform of the novel, “The White Noise” as the best place to cater his expertise and excellence on these issues. Modern and postmodern literature especially fiction breaks all that is romantic. The complete breakthrough of the romanticism and breakdown of archetypal icons of the literature is one of the dominant themes of the modern and post modern literature. Man is not a super hero anymore and the virtues like chivalry don’t exist in a world which is technically advanced and machine oriented. The concept of superhero thus depicted by DeLillio gets only captivated within the pages of myth and is absolutely obsolete in the modern era where the term hero or superhero is captured only in the sieve of history. American numbness is also a very significant theme that attracts and finds address in the writings of the most of the authors and the incident of Union Carbide with the mention of the chemical spill in the novel becomes timelier. The fear of American numbness and contemporary threat of the first world nation with the American concerns evoke the sense of fright more strikingly. DeLillo wants to express that in modern America no one is under any sort of control, neither any one is going to take the responsibility of any action. In contemporary modern society of America, all are receptors and receivers of stimuli. Every individual entity is reduced to a level of commodity and the relationships to that of the consumer and commodity. Characters All the characters in the novel are representatives of the typical modern America and its people. Gladney, the protagonist, narrator and the Hitler specialist of the novel is an ironic, humorous yet serious character with lots of symbolic interpretations. He is representative of a common man of present day in America and is one of the intelligent and grimly funny voices in post modern literature that puts comment on the day -to-day voice of America. He is mundane yet captivating the charm and the extraordinary colour of life that attracts the world standing out and gazing at him. Babette is a representative of fear of threat that the citizens of the developed nations of the fiat world countries posses. Exhausted from the overuse of the natural resources, they are obsessed with the fear of death. Babette represents this kind of class and to escape from the circle of sin, guilt and redemption of the developed nation or the numbness and hollowness of American lifestyle, she is shown taking the refuge of drug to get rid of a fear that is inevitable. This is also the greatest irony of the novel. Barbette is running away from such a thing which she can never escape from. Murray is the voice of the author and act as an eye-opener in the novel. The theories and socio-political discourse which the author time and again wants to percolate into the minds of his readers or seeks to incorporate into the general scheme of the plot of the novel, finds a better expression through the speeches of the Murray. This also enables a better comprehension of the novel. Gladney and Babette’s fourteen year old son, Heinrich is moody and introspective. Gladney wanted to shield him from the fear and so rendered him a German name that has a very little trust on the self-determinate faculty of human race and only corresponds with an imprisoned mass killer. He is representative of the hollow American generation who have less faith on themselves and depends on machines and technology for every resource. Denise is the 11 year old daughter of the couple and her nature can be expressed with a single coinage. She is a “hard-nosed kid” and expresses the detachment from the familial life and family disintegration. This evokes out more evidently because she is found protesting on every parental activity or habit as she find them “wasteful and dangerous”. Steffie who is not much younger than Denise is shown very sensitive and the theme of the media boom and its effect on the contemporary society is reflected through her character. She reacts awkwardly and strongly when anything humiliating or disgraceful seems to occur on the television screen while watching the same with her family. Last but not the least, Wilder who is the youngest member of the family and is only three years old hardly speaks. But Wilder keeps one aware about his presence and existence time and again with the constant phenomena of sleep and wake that reassures his presence to his parents. The character of Wilder is representative of the American numbness and hollowness of the future generations that merely exist solely depending on consumerism and material aspects of life fully devoid of any sensible or intellectual faculty. Conclusion The essay talks about the various traits of post modern genre of literature. The paper has taken special emphasis to look into the change in the entire cannon of literature especially in the post-war era. With special emphasis to the novel “White Noise” and with the analysis of the various characters and plots of the novel, the post modern aspects like fear of death and the social dumbness are brought to light in the essay. DeLillo, the literary personality of global repute, could truly sketch the virtues of the present society like that of no – control or impatience among the younger generation. The fiction in spite of having the essential qualities of theoretical discourses and anti – romanticisms never falls short of the charisma that an ideal post modern fiction should comprise of, which would compel the readers to go through a literary master piece. Bibliography Best, Steven & Kellner, Douglas. The Post Modern Turn. Guilford Press, 1997. DeLillo, Don. White Noise. Penguin Books, 1999. Nicol, Bran. “The Cambridge Introduction to Post Modern Fiction” December 10, 2010. Cambridge University Press. No Date. Read More