What Do You Understand By The Term ‘Postmodernist Fiction’ And What Purpose Does It Have? Illustrate Your Answer With Reference To Two Novels

What do you understand by the term ‘postmodernist fiction’ and what purpose does it have? Illustrate your answer with reference to two novels.

The main aim of the essay is to provide a deeper understanding of the term ‘postmodern fiction’ and the purpose it has. The analysis has been supported with reference to two novels. The first one is ‘Wise Blood’ by Flannery O'Connor and the second one is ‘Invisible Man’ by Ralph Ellison. Flannery O'Connor is one of the popular figures for the Post-Modernist tenets and a female writer who has clearly undercut the Romanticism during the early Southern Literature through the expression of themes and characters in her works. O'Connor’s genius is evident in her ability of following an important tenet of the post-modernism and modernism to understand the minds of real people and then recreating them in the context which can draw the true natures of them. In Wise Blood (1952), O'Connor mainly focuses on the image of Christ in the mind of Hazel Motes as an important and wild ragged figure which motions him in terms of turning around and also, the come off into dark where he was unsure about his footing (Murphy, 2006). In her works, she always allowed the characters to stand on their own actions and thoughts and only a small hint can be found of the moral overture but it has been done by her in such a vivid manner so that the readers do not cry at the end of the book with a strong sense of the judgment. It is not only applicable for a specific character but for all of the real people that the readers consider as a part of the personal encounters in the Southern Shade.

Many of the protagonists of O'Connor are female such as the presence of Mrs. Mclntyre in the title “The Displaced Person”. The common characteristic among all of the characters created by O'Connor is that they have a complete antipathy towards the fellow human beings of them. In many instances, they are anti-Romantic. For defining the landscape built in the Wise Blood as the post-modern structure and historically accurate, Fredric Jameson pointed out that in the architectural realm with the virtually unmediated relationship in the economics which the phenomenon of the post modernism has articulated. In Wise Blood, O'Connor has accurately portrayed the origins of the billboards in the sides of the buildings which is an important essence of the post-modern architecture (Murphy, 2006). As per the author, the application of symbols in the works can be found in post-modernism. O'Connor also experienced this element in Georgia, her native place where the culture of the highways is ascendant in her childhood. Created in 1946, Wise Blood mainly anticipated the trends of the different American cities during the 1950s. The park in which Enoch Emery imagined he had identified his secret blood which is present in the center of the city. She also focused on the commercial, industrial, and recreational as well as the residential areas which appear in terms of extending towards the surrounding highways (Barnett, 1996). When explored the contours of the postmodern elements, O’Connor described the fact that the facades and the signs do not obscure the interiority but also a front from the interior which mainly recedes when they are approached.

In her views of postmodern space, O’Connor mentioned that she is more troubled compared to the other postmodern architects and like them, O’Connor also learned from the Las Vegas as mentioned in the ‘Wise Blood’. She also shared the fascination of the city with the commercial signage and the author perceived it as an alternative to the modernism. In her case, she also criticized the literary modernism as being concentrated more with the process of the consciousness compared to the objective world which is present outside the mind.

As mentioned by O’Connor in ‘Wise Blood’,

“The modern hero is basically an outsider and his experience is considered as rootless. It is possible for her to go anywhere and he also belongs nowhere.”

The author fetched the notion of the alienation from the panoply of the different modernists which include Hemingway, Joyce, Steinbeck, Gide, Kafka etc. but at the same time, she also engaged the modernists such as Faulkner, T.S. Eliot in ‘Wise Blood’. The early short story of O’Connor titled ‘The Train’ introduced the prototypes of the Hazel Motes which is also redolent in terms of themes and style of As I Lay Dying (1930). The Wise Blood is also considered as a Southern rendition of The Waste Land (1922) and the museum mummy standing in the drowned Phoenician sailor of Eliot. But, O’Connor also revised the modernist sources: Wise Blood also intended to transform the mummy image for mocking Haze’s “Church without Christ” which declined the mythic pattern of the rebirth and death which is linked to the Eliot’s sailor and also exacted a redemption which can be considered as more spectacular and personally demanding too (MacLeod, 2011). She has also achieved it by ending the modernist ideology of the postmodern surroundings and also a community of the ‘common interests and tastes.’

For O’Connor, advertising made an aesthetic, personal and strategic appeal to O’Connor too. The exaggerated signs and the distorted facades and also the hyperbolic language which is mirrored based on the development of the self-perception of her as the catholic novelist in a kind of secular culture. In Life Magazine, the contemporary fiction is not based on the America. Similar to the advertising agencies, O’Connor considered her audience as the distracted and they are also present in the process to overcome the “blind spots” (Azevedo, 2016). The author also eventually articulated the fictional principles which are present within the cultural forms of the mass which she engaged in such a vigorous manner as the author of the Wise Blood. The symbols are considered as the big things which can knock in the face. As argued by Bacon, The Church, provided O’Connor as a counterforce for the American consumerism. But, at the same time, it can be stated that it is a kind of counterforce drawing force from the commercial rival. The postmodernism of O’Connor can be referred as a disruption of the elements of modernism and also a rejoinder of the process of advertising (Mazlaveckien?, 2010). It can also have a kind of positive recognition which can help to establish a potential cooperation present between commercial architecture and also the allegorical fiction which has been practiced by her. She has also characterized the allegory regarding the medieval scriptural exegesis:

O’Connor stated that:

“The medieval commentators who have worked based on the Scripture have identified the three types of meaning present in literal level which is present with the sacred text. The first of them is allegorical where one fact is pointed on another. The second one is called as tropological which is based on the moral elements. The third one is anagogical which is based on the Divine life and also the participation of it is present within it. Although the method is applied in the context of biblical elements, it is also an attitude towards the creation as well as the ways of reading the nature which include different possibilities. It is also referred as an enlarged view in terms of the human scene which is needed to be cultivated by the fiction writer.”

As the twentieth century of the Catholic allegorist, O’Connor considered herself in short of the literacy models. During the middle ages, it also enlarged the human scene where the text mainly referred to the things which can refer to the different types of spiritual realities which can be considered for the analysis in terms of Bible and not the literature. The secular texts can also be aspired in terms of the multilevel significance which generally do in a schematic manner with the help of the clever conceits without the type of the intrinsic connection on the history and reality which is present outside of the text (Greene, 1994). In the advertising, O’Connor identified the basis for the momentary convictions present in terms of the consumer culture. Similar to allegory, the process of advertising is also able to communicate the messages through the veil which can also separate the consumers from the workshops in which the collective dreams regarding advertising can also be manufactured. But, differently from allegorist, who can invite the readers across the truths and texts present in it which the advertisers can limit the consumer through the identification of the truths.

Another work which describes the concept of postmodernism is Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Invisible Man is often considered as a masterpiece in the American pluralism which mainly focuses on the integrity present in terms of the individual vocabulary as well as the racial heritage which is focused on encouragement of the democratic acceptance in a radical sense of the diverse type of experiences. Ellison also described that he has focused on the cooperation of the artistic and folk consciousness in his work and he also described the pressure which discourages the cultural pluralism and individual integrity.

The narrator present in the Invisible Man introduced the central metaphor of Ellison as the situation faced by the individuals in the Western Culture where he mentioned that

“I am invisible and I can understand it because people often refuse seeing me.”

Over the development of the novel, Ellison also described the metaphor as the people can be rendered through invisible way through the willful failure of the others who acknowledge the presence by considering the refuge in seductive and also the specious security of the roles which are socially acceptable might often fail for seeing themselves and often fail to define the identities of them (Greene, 1994). The style of the Invisible Man also reflects the complexity present in the problem as well as the pluralistic ideals present in Ellison. Based on the sources present in terms of the blindness from the other novels such as King Lear and Native Son, Ellison has been able to carefully balance the symbolic as well as the realistic dimensions present in terms of the Invisible man. In different ways, the main body of novel mainly focuses on the protagonist from the childhood with the brief and short stay present in the college and then to the North in which he confronted the political, economic and racial systems of America. The Invisible Man is focused on the aspects of writing as the cultural and personal significance. At the same time, in similar way, Ellison focused on the “narrative of immersion” for stressing out the realistic sources present as well as the implications present of the imaginative development of the hero (Gibson, 2010). The narrative of the immersion also returned to the “literate” hero on the basis of the understanding of culture in which he has been symbolically left behind during ascent. Incorporating the pattern present in the Invisible Man, the author Ellison also emphasized on the fact that the link of the protagonists with the American African community as well as the rich folk traditions which can provide a kind of sensibility and also establish the potential as the artist.

The overall structure present in the Invisible Man, it involves the cyclical and the directional patterns too. Considering the body of it in the epilogue and prologue, present in the underground burrow, Ellison has focused on the symbolic dimensions of the novel. The Invisible Man reanalyzed the literacy which is gained with the help of his ascent by emphasizing the symbolic dimension of the novel. Overcoming the forces which can seize the reward, the hero in the work returns to the process of transforming the life by applying the knowledge which is connected to the symbolic reward. The ambiguity present in the superficially has connected the novel of Ellison with the classic American romance which has been characterized by Richard Chase in the novel titled as The American Novel and Its Tradition (1975) which is incapable to reconcile the different types of symbolic perceptions having the social realities. On the other hand, the connection can reflect the awareness of Ellison regarding the problem which can be referred as more than the acceptance regarding the irresolution. Although the underground burrow of the invisible man recalls the isolation present of the heroes in American romance, he also promised a kind of rebirth which is social, mythic and psychological.

The ultimate conception of the indivisible man is basically in return to the development of the two different but interrelated progressions and among them one is psychological and one is social. In the one hand, the social pattern is basically the narrative of the ascent which can closely reflect the experience of the African American people historically because it also shifts from the rural areas of southern part to the northern urban settings. The postmodernism has also been shown in some other elements through the Invisible Man. When arrived in New York, the Invisible Man first identified a kind of sense present of the exhilaration which resulted from the absence of the pressure in the overt southern area. Ellison also revealed the emptiness present in terms of the freedom and also stressed the indirect as well as the insidious nature present of the social power present in North. The experience of the invisible man in the Liberty Paints intended as the parable of the American African involvement present in the economic system of America which is also emphasized on the similarity present in the southern and northern social structure. After arriving in the Liberty Paints, a task has been given to the Invisible Man for mixing the white paint which is used in the government monuments for painting. The scene present in the novel mainly shows the relationship present between the industry and government which is also relied on the black labor. Also, it mainly points to the racial blindness and the underlying source of it for supporting the sense of the identity. In Invisible Man, Ellison has created a kind of complex political vision in which the Invisible Man mainly moves to the Harlem after he was released from the hospital once the explosion was done.

From the essay, it can be concluded that in her views of postmodern space, O’Connor mentioned that she is more troubled compared to the other postmodern architects and like them, O’Connor also learned from the Las Vegas as mentioned in the ‘Wise Blood’. She also shared the fascination of the city with the commercial signage and the author perceived it as an alternative to the modernism. In her case, she also criticized the literary modernism as being concentrated more with the process of the consciousness compared to the objective world which is present outside the mind. In the advertising, O’Connor identified the basis for the momentary convictions present in terms of the consumer culture. Similar to allegory, the process of advertising is also able to communicate the messages through the veil which can also separate the consumers from the workshops in which the collective dreams regarding advertising can also be manufactured. But, differently from allegorist, who can invite the readers across the truths and texts present in it which the advertisers can limit the consumer through the identification of the truths (Nazir et al., 2020). Another work which describes the concept of postmodernism is Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Invisible Man is often considered as a masterpiece in the American pluralism which mainly focuses on the integrity present in terms of the individual vocabulary as well as the racial heritage which is focused on encouragement of the democratic acceptance in a radical sense of the diverse type of experiences. Ellison also described that he has focused on the cooperation of the artistic and folk consciousness in his work and he also described the pressure which discourages the cultural pluralism and individual integrity. Over the development of the novel, Ellison also described the metaphor as the people can be rendered through invisible way through the willful failure of the others who acknowledge the presence by considering the refuge in seductive and also the specious security of the roles which are socially acceptable might often fail for seeing themselves and often fail to define the identities of them.

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