Investigating Postmodern Irony and Post-Postmodern Sincerity in the Contemporary Satirical Novel & FunCity, a Novel
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2023
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| Filename | Description | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thesis.pdf | thesis | 1.19 MB |
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This thesis offers new knowledge to the ongoing debate between postmodern and post-postmodern studies by claiming that irony and sincerity are complementary and related rather than diametrically opposed. The ‘diametric model’ of irony and sincerity oversimplifies the continual exchange and interaction between these narrative domains. Through an analysis of Thomas Pynchon and my own novel FunCity, this thesis challenges the claim that postmodern fiction focuses on self-reflexivity, irony, and genre pastiche at the expense of commitment to sincerity. The study of Pynchon’s post-2000 novels Against the Day and Bleeding Edge elaborates upon the cooperation and affiliation between ‘signature’ postmodern strategies (historiographic metafiction, pastiche, and the blending of fact and fabulation) and sincere reflections on the genealogies of history and revisions of genre. This finding has a problematic consequence for post-postmodern studies. If the chief characteristics of post-postmodernism are proven to reside in earlier postmodern texts, is this not an expansion of the preexisting conceptual paradigm rather than a shift to a new one? In an attempt to further understand these discontinuities and evolutions within postmodernism, I distinguish between postmodernism, as a paradigm, and the underlying structure of feeling, which can change over time while the overarching paradigm remains relatively unchanged. I examine the shift of a structure of feeling within postmodernism through an analysis of FunCity, a contemporary postmodern novel that combines multiple layers of ironic representation with a sincere critique of mindsets in techno-saturated Australian society. I identify three key areas where sincerity and irony interact in FunCity: the citation or pastiche of cyberpunk tropes; a revision of the paranoid imagination; and the presence of anticlimactic epiphany as a parodic device. FunCity operates within a contemporary postmodern modality by merging elements of irony and sincerity that cannot be placed in contrariety. Thus, we are still comprehending the full potential of postmodernism’s radically adaptable and heterogeneous cultural logic. The ongoing inquiry into post-postmodernism sheds new light on critically neglected aspects of postmodern fiction more than it reformulates an emerging paradigm that differs significantly enough to replace the postmodern.
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