Modernism and postmodernism: a study of three contemporary postmodern novels

Abstract

This thesis aims to shed light on the much discussed feature of modernism and postmodernism. Through a close reading of Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 I focus on how these contemporary fiction shows today’s world situation. I explore how science, technologies, identity crisis, hybridism and paranoid society are shaped in contemporary fiction with special reference to characters who grow up within the novel. Within these novel it also gives idea how future world literature will be. Through different postmodern features the thesis main focus will be on the characters. All authors works with present world subject. These subjects and theory are presented in this thesis.