1st Edition

Pynchon and the Political

By Samuel Thomas Copyright 2007
214 Pages
by Routledge

214 Pages
by Routledge

214 Pages
by Routledge

Thomas Pynchon's writing has been widely regarded as an exemplary form of postmodern fiction. It is characterized as genre-defying and enigmatic, as a series of complex and esoteric language games. This study attempts to demonstrate, however, that an oblique yet compelling sense of the "political" Pynchon disappers all too easily under the mantle of postmodernity. Innovative and unsettling... Read more

Introduction: Text-Politics-Criticism-Methodology  1. Retro-Vertigo: Escaping the Enlightenment in Mason & Dixon  2. Blank Checks: Invisibility and Economy in Mason & Dixon  3. Theatre of Operations: Surgery, War and Questing in V. and Gravity’s Rainbow  4. Memento-Mori: War-Life and War-Experience in Gravity’s Rainbow and V  5. (What’s so Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? Resistance vs. Withdrawal in The Crying of Lot 49  6. Sir Yes Sir!: Doing It To Yourself and Doing It For Yourself in Vineland.  Conclusion: Pynchon-Politics-Everybody

 

Biography

Samuel Thomas is Lecturer in the Department of English Studies at Durham University, UK.