Through the
Postmodern
Looking-Glass
Notes on Jeff Noon’s
Automated Alice 2013-2014
Faculty of Translation and Interpretation T-ANGL-014 — Command of the Written Language School of International Interpreters T-ANGL-015 — Command of the Spoken Language UMONS (Belgium)
ByJustine Houyaux ([email protected]) Introduction CONTENTS According to the Oxford Dictionary, of Gilgamesh that dates back to at least the literature is a mass noun originating from 18th century BC. Middle English (in the sense 'knowledge of Although there are many different books'): via French from Latin litteratura and ways to shed a light on literature, depending referring to on the literary criticism current to which one (1) written works, especially those might refer, it is important to keep in mind considered of superior or lasting that literature is both a personal (subjective) artistic merit: a great work of and universal experience. literature In order to bring order to chaos, MODERNISM Page 3 (2) books and writings published on this introduction comes with a general a particular subject: the literature overview of the main literary movements of on environmental epidemiology the 20th century (next page). (3) leaflets and other printed Automated Alice was first published matter used to advertise products in 1996 by Doubleday. It is “supposed to be” or give advice: advertising and a trequel to Alice’s Adventures in promotional literature Wonderland (1866) and Through the In the context of this course on Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There Automated Alice, we will obviously only (1872) by British author Lewis Carroll2. In the POSTMODERNISM Page 5 be focusing on the first meaning of the introduction, or in the inner cover word and it is sister-discipline, literary (depending on the edition), it is written: criticism: In the last years of his life, the the art or practice of judging and fantasist Charles Dodgson wrote a commenting on the qualities and third Alice book. This mysterious character of literary works1. work was never published or shown Even though the art of telling stories is to anybody. It has only recently probably as ancient as language, the been discovered. Now, at last, the AUTOMATED ALICE Page 11 oldest known literary work is the Epic of world can read of Automated Alice and her fabulous adventures in the
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future. That’s not quite true. In order to understand what Automated Anyhow, Postmodernism – regardless of the Automated Alice was written by Alice is all about, we need to go deeper into suffix “-post” that generally implies a Lewis Caroll, Lewis Caroll was the the field of theory of literature and take a chronology – did not really appear at the nom de plume of Charles Dodgson. closer look at the concept of end of the modernist period. The suffix has No, that’s not even slightly true Postmodernism. to be understood as a reaction and not as a either. Automated Alice was written [Postmodernism is the] rejection of new sequence of time. Hence the next by Zenith O’Clock, the Writer of traditional mimetic fiction in favour question, “What is Modernism?” Wrongs. *…+ Oh dear that’s not at of a heightened sense of artifice, a all right. This book was written by delight in games and verbal Jeff Noon. Zenith O’Clock is only a pyrotechnics; a suspicion of DEFINITIONS character invented by Jeff Noon. absolute truth and a resulting Mimesis: imitation of reality (Noon, 1996) inclination to stress the fictionality Pyrotechnics: a show of great skill, 3 The book is divided into twelve of fiction . especially by a musician or someone giving chapters, just like Alice’s Adventures in While many literary critics claim that the a speech Wonderland: (1) Through the Clock’s beginning of the postmodern literary Workings, (2) The Wriggling of a Worm, (3) movement dates to the murder of John F. Alice’s Twin Twister, (4) Adventures in a Kennedy (1963) or even the early days of the Garden Shed, (5) The Long Paw of the Law, American involvement in the Vietnam War (6) Languishing in Gaol, (7) The Stroke of (1962), placing de development of the Noon, (8) Alice Looks up Herself, (9) The movement in the 60’s, some other argue Hunting of the Quark, (10) Snakes and that it might have been born earlier than Leaders, (11) Dorothy, Dorothy and Dorothy, that – at the end of World War II. While (12) ‘What Time Do You Call This, Alice?”. being essentially a post-war movement, Most of those titles are wordplays, most of 1941 is also often taken as the date of birth which are references to other works or of Postmodernism, being the year during cultural items. In the context of a which both Irish novelist James Joyce and postmodern work of literature, this English authoress Virginia Woolf passed phenomenon is called intertextuality. away. Virginia Woolf
Timeline of literature in English in the 20th century
1Literary criticism, The Oxford Dictionaries Online [http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/literary-criticism?q=literary+ criticism, last accessed 06/12/2013] 2Penname of mathematician and Oxford don Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) 3Unless stated otherwise, all definitions in the text come from OUSBY, Ian (1996). The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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Modernism 1. Definition The aim of the use of this technique is to try the sea from the sky and the grey Modernism was distinguished by its to reproduce the inner workings of the cloth became barred with thick opposition to traditional forms and to mind. strokes moving, one after another, the aesthetic perceptions associated beneath the surface, following each with those forms. It was persistently 2.2. Subjectivity of the other, pursuing each other, experimental. A common quality was narration perpetually. the highly self-conscious manipulation Instead of using a so-called objective (Woolf, 1931, p. 1) of form, together with an awareness of narration with a fixed point of view and an 2.4. Fragmented forms and pioneering studies which were omniscient third-person narrator, the discontinuous narratives contemporaneous in other disciplines. modernists move away from all As Modernism basically is the deconstruction 2. Characteristics consideration of objectivity and give their of all literary boundaries, one of its main The main characteristics of Modernism are texts a subjective dimension by writing in features is fragmentation, not only in the (1) impressionism, (2) subjectivity of the the first person or by having an insight in form (one style to another) or in the narration, (3) blurring of the distinction one or more characters’ feelings and narrative (flash-backs, alternative realities), between genres, (4) fragmented forms and impressions: but also in the language, as in the excerpt discontinuous narratives, (5) reflexivity of In my younger and more vulnerable from Joyce’s Finnegans Wake6: the work of art, (6) blurred boundaries years my father gave me some Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over between "low" and "high" culture. advice that I've been turning over in the short sea, had passen-core my mind ever since. rearrived from North Armorica on 2.1. Impressionism "Whenever you feel like criticizing this side the scraggy isthmus of Because they were widely influenced by the any one," he told me, "just Europe Minor to wielderfight his contemporary discoveries in psychology and remember that all the people in this penisolate war: nor had topsawyer’s by the invention of psychoanalysis, the world haven't had the advantages rocks by the stream Oconee modernist authors were interested in the that you've had." exaggerated themselse to Laurens way their characters perceived the situations He didn't say any more but we've County’s gorgios while they went instead of the factual way things could always been unusually doublin their mumper all the time: happen. This vision of literature is communicative in a reserved way, nor avoice from afire bellowsed interdependent with the Impressionist and I understood that he meant a mishe mishe to tauftauf movement in painting. The process through great deal more than that. In thuartpeatrick not yet, though which these authors expressed such consequence I'm inclined to reserve venissoon after, had a kidscad perception is called the stream of all judgments, a habit that has buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, consciousness. opened up many curious natures to though all’s fair in vanessy, were The stream of consciousness is a me and also made me the victim of sosie sesthers wroth with twone technique used by novelists to not a few veteran bores. *…+ And, nathandjoe. represent a character’s thoughts after boasting this way of my (Joyce, 1939, p. 1) and sense impressions without tolerance, I come to the admission syntax or logical sequence. that it has a limit. NOTE Here is an example from one of the greatest (Fitzgerald, 1925, p. 1)5 The mind (psych.) is the element of a person novels of the twentieth century, Ulysses4 by that enables them to be aware of the world the Irish novelist James Joyce: 2.3. Blurring of distinctions and their experiences, to think, and to feel, A quarter after what an unearthly between genres the faculty of consciousness and though while the soul(rel.)is the spiritual or immaterial part hour I suppose theyre just getting With the modernist authors, the genres of of a human being or animal, which is up in China now combing out their literature collapse. What was clearly regarded as immortal. pigtails for the day well soon have separated now melts together. Poetry seems the nuns ringing the angelus theyve more documentary, more realistic, while nobody coming in to spoil their novels seem more poetic. sleep except an odd priest or two The sun had not yet risen. The sea for his night office or the alarmlock was indistinguishable from the sky, next door at cockshout clattering except that the sea was slightly gave me was like that something creased as if a cloth had wrinkles in only I only wore it twice better it. Gradually as the sky whitened a lower this lamp and try again so dark line lay on the horizon dividing that I can get up early. (Joyce, 1922) James Joyce
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2.5. Reflexivity of the work of In 1935, if you wanted to read a TO GO FURTHER… art good book, you needed either a lot The main figures of Modernism: According to the modernists, writing is not of money or a library card. Cheap ⟶ Henry JAMES only about a story, but it is also about paperbacks were available, but ⟶ Joseph CONRAD writing in itself. The author (and in many their poor production generally ⟶ T.S. ELIOT cases, the narrator) are self-conscious that tended to mirror the quality ⟶ William Butler YEATS a work of art is in progress. It has to be between the covers. ⟶ Virginia WOOLF designed and consumed in a specific way. It Penguin paperbacks were the ⟶ E.M. FORSTER is art for art’s sake and nothing else, brainchild of Allen Lane, then a ⟶ William FAULKNER (U.S.) because the world does not make sense director of The Bodley Head. After and all attempts at explaining it are a weekend visiting Agatha Christie The pioneering studies in other disciplines hopeless and vain. in Devon, he found himself on a that influenced Modernism: I am now in the mood. I can write platform at Exeter station ⟶ In psychology: WILLIAM JAMES, Principles the letter straight off which I have searching its bookstall for of Psychology (1890), FREUD, The begun ever so many times. I have something to read on his journey Interpretation of Dreams (1899) just come in; I have flung down my back to London, but discovered ⟶ In physics: EINSTEIN, General Principles of hat and my stick; I am writing the only popular magazines and Relativity (1915) first thing that comes into my head reprints of Victorian novels. ⟶ In anthropology: FRAZER, The Golden without troubling to put the paper Appalled by the selection on offer, Bough (1890-1915) straight. It is going to be a brilliant Lane decided that good quality sketch which, she must think, was contemporary fiction should be written without a pause, without made available at an attractive an erasure. Look how unformed price and sold not just in the letters are--there is a careless traditional bookshops, but also in blot. All must be sacrificed to railway stations, tobacconists and chain stores. speed and carelessness. 7 (Woolf, 1931, p. 46) (Penguin) 2.2.6. Blurred boundaries between "low" and "high" 3. On Modernism Because of its opposition to the traditional culture Victorian values, Modernism is Ronchamp Chapel, Le Corbusier While “high” culture is defined by its quintessentially British. Nevertheless, it also intellectual manifestations through arts has roots in French Impressionism and it (that is, the “traditional arts”: Architecture, had a strong influence on many great Sculpture, Painting, Music, Poetry, Dance American authors. and Theatre), “low” culture is supposed to Modernism can be labelled as an be defined by its popularity among the “international” phenomenon as well as a masses. more general sensation: not only did it After the modernist storm, this change the way we perceive literature, but distinction does not exist anymore (hence it also was a revolution in the fields of the addition of Cinema, Photography and architecture (Le Corbusier, for instance) or Comics to the list) and literature, which is painting (Pollock), just to name a few. the highest form of all, draws on popular Pollock at work, 1950 culture, both in the material chosen to produce art and in the way it is distributed.
4 JOYCE, James (1922). Ulysses, Paris: Sylvia Beach. 5FIZGERALD, F. Scott (1925). The Great Gatsby, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 6JOYCE, James (1939). Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber. 7ANON. (2013).About Penguin: Company History [online: http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/aboutus/about penguincompanyhistory.html, last accessed 16/11/2013]
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Postmodernism DEFINITIONS Whereas modernism is attached to western This second example displays the same A zeugma is a figure of speech in which a culture, ideas, beliefs and values, literary device as the first one, the word applies to two others in different postmodernists reject the idea of norm preposition “under” being understood in its senses. E.g., "She looked at the object with because they believe that western values literal as well as in its figurative meanings. suspicion and a magnifying glass."(Charles form only a small part of human experience. Dickens) When it comes to Postmodernism, all 1.1.2. Wordplays and puns A punis a joke exploiting the different experience is relative. There is no absolute Although there are so many wordplays possible meanings of a word or the fact that truth. Moreover, the idea behind Automated Alice that it is practically there are words which sound alike but have different meanings. Postmodernism is the death of the grand impossible to count them, some examples Metanarratives are "grand narratives" narratives (or “metanarratives”) such as are worth being underlined, such as the that are typically characterised by the fact religions and philosophical or political “civil serpents” (p. 66) instead of the civil that they are perceived by their followers as theories and doctrines. Exit God, Marx, the servants, or the “windscreen vipers”: transcendental and universally true. Enlightenment, among others. These ‘Don’t you worry, Alice,’ replied metanarratives being profoundly Celia, ‘those snakes are there in While parody needs irony in its incompatible with the exact sciences on the case it rains; they’re called distance with the work to which it refers, it rise during the postmodern era (above all windscreen vipers.’ does not mean that it is funny or that it physics) and with communication (Noon, 1996, p. 99) seeks a comical effect; it can be (and often technologies, they have progressively been Some puns play on the sound resemblance is) aimed at emphasizing one aspect or disappearing from Western culture ever between nouns, which leads the characters another of an original work rather than at since the end of World War II. to total confusion: criticizing it. ‘I’m Alice,’ replied Alice, politely. 1. Characteristics ‘You’re a lis?’ the ant said. “What in The main characteristics of postmodern the earth is a lis?’ literature are (1) irony, playfulness and ‘I’m not a lis. My name is Alice.’ black humour, (2) parody, (3) Alice spelt her name: ‘A-L-I-C-E.’ intertextuality, (4) metafiction, (5) ‘You’re a lice!’ the ant cried. ‘We 8 technoculture and hyperreality, (6) don’t want no lice in this mound!’ temporal distortion, (7) disappearance of (Noon, 1996, p.21) traditional closure of themes or situations. Moreover, several wordplays pass completely unnoticed by the characters and 1.1. Irony, playfulness, black they are in text for the pleasure of the humor reader only, as in the case of the “beanary While in the modern perspective, the system.” meaninglessness of the world and of art is ‘Well,’ Miss Computermite began, perceived as tragic, postmodern authors also still running, ‘it’s all based on the beanery system.’ celebrate it through humour and through Lego parody of Mona Lisa the use of humorous devices ‘Whatever is that?’
‘Well, a bean is either here; or it’s 1.1.1. Zeugmas not here. Don’t you agree?’ “*…+ At this rate I shall never catch (Noon, 1996, p. 33) my breath, let alone my parrot!” (Noon, 1996, p. 95) 1.2. Parody Here, the author is using the verb “to catch” One of the most striking features of both in the figurative sense of the word in postmodern literature is the use of parody. the idiomatic expression “to catch one’s As it is mentioned right at the beginning of breath” and in the literal meaning of the the book, Automated Alice is humorously term “to take hold of something.” meant to be a trequel to the two Alice “What’s… to… talk about?’ was novels. More generally speaking, Long Distance Davis’s slovenly From observing it at work, I chose reply, from within the depths of his to define parody as a form of shell hat: ‘I am… under… my… hat… repetition with ironic critical and… also… under… arrest…” distance, marking difference rather (Noon, 1996, p.118) than similarity. 9 (Hutcheon, 1985, p.xii) The Simpsons’ parody of The Scream
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Examples of parodies in Automated Alice NOTE Textual parody It is particularly interesting to note that Jeff All along the text, Jeff Noon keeps Noon parodied Lewis Carroll while Lewis on mimicking Lewis Carroll’s style: The likeness is quite striking indeed: Carroll was a great parodist himself, well Alice was not a bit hurt, and she Alice was not a bit hurt: the earth before Postmodernism made it fashionable. th jumped up on to her feet in a was quite soft, and she jumped up For instance, he parodied the 19 moment: she looked up, but it was in a moment. She looked around century English lullaby Twinkle, Twinkle Little all dark overhead; before her was only to find herself standing in a Star by Jane Taylor (generally sung along another long passage, and the long corridor under the ground. The Mozart’s KV. 265) in Alice’s Adventures in White Rabbit was still in sight, walls and the floor and the ceiling Wonderland: hurrying down it. There was not a of the tunnel were made of dirt, Twinkle, twinkle, little star moment to be lost: away went Alice and it curved away in both How I wonder what you are like the wind, and was just in time directions until Alice felt quite Up above the world so high 10 to hear it say, as it turned a corner, funny trying to decide which way to Like a diamond in the sky 'Oh my ears and whiskers, how late go. ‘Oh Whippoorwill,’ she cried, Here’s Carroll’s version, recited by the Mad it's getting!' She was close behind it ‘wherever have you flown to?’ And Hatter: when she turned the corner, but then she heard three men Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! the Rabbit was no longer to be approaching around the corridor’s How I wonder what you're at! seen: she found herself in a long, bend. Up above the world you fly, low hall, which was lit up by a row (Noon, 1996, p.20) Like a tea tray in the sky. of lamps hanging from the roof. Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! (Carroll, 1866, p. 3) How I wonder what you're at! Visual parody As the original Alice books were Indeed, the illustrations refer to Punch illustrated (which was quite common in the cartoonist John Tenniel’s original Victorian era, even in the case of books illustrations for the Alice’s Adventures in aimed at adults such as the Sherlock Holmes Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when and What Alice Found There. It is even they were first published in The Strand acknowledged on the back cover of Magazine), it was only fair for Jeff Noon to Automated Alice: use that aspect to his own purpose in the Cover image based on the context of a parody. illustration by Sir John Tenniel, adapted by Ian Murray. (Noon, 1996, back cover)
— Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
©Harry Trumbore and Doubleday ‘Drink Me’ by John Tenniel – Detail (1866)
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1.3. Intertextuality According to Graham Allen from University 1.3.1. Examples of Intertextuality It moves. They are all alive. College, Cork, (A) The Starry Night by Vincent Van Even the moon bulges in its Literary texts possess meaning; readers Gogh (1889) orange irons extract that meaning from them. We This postimpressionist canvas by the to push children, like a god, from call the process of extracting meaning famous Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, its eye. from texts reading or interpretation. *…+ depicting the view from his room in a The old unseen serpent swallows Works of literature, after all, are built sanatorium nearby Saint-Rémy-de- up the stars. from systems, codes and traditions Provence is one of the most prominent Oh starry starry night! This is how established by previous works of paintings in the contemporary era. It is so I want to die: literature. The systems, codes and prominent that it comes as no surprise into that rushing beast of the traditions of other art forms and of when it is referenced to in other arts. night, sucked up by that great culture in general are also crucial to the For instance, the poem The Starry dragon, to split meaning of a work of literature. Night by American poetess Anne Sexton, from my life with no flag, (Allen, 2011, p. 1)11 published in 1961 expresses the no belly, Bulgarian-French philosopher and member authoress’s feelings towards the painting: no cry. of the British Academy Julia Kristeva summed The town does not exist (Saxton, 1961)13 this up quite efficiently in her essay Word, except where one black-haired Dialogue and Novel, “any text is constructed of a tree slips Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) by American mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption up like a drowned woman into singer-songwriter Don McLean — better and transformation of another.12” the hot sky. known for another intertextual song, In the field of postmodern literature, The town is silent. The night boils American Pie — links the painting to its not only is intertextuality acknowledged; it is with eleven stars. creator’s biography: also encouraged. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die.
©Museum of Modern Art, New York
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Starry, starry night Now I think I know what you tried In Nick Hornby’s novel About a Boy (1998)17, Paint your palette blue and gray to say to me the protagonist Will Freeman says that he Look out on a summer's day And how you suffered for your believes that John Donne was wrong and With eyes that know the darkness sanity that every man is an island, precisely. In the in my soul And how you tried to set them free 2002 film adaptation18, the same character Shadows on the hills They would not listen, they're not assumes that the famous quote was first Sketch the trees and the daffodils listening still written by Jon Bon Jovi. Catch the breeze and the winter Perhaps they never will 14 chills (McLean, 1971) Intertextuality in Automated Alice In colors on the snowy linen land In Automated Alice, James Marshall Besides, both the painting and the Hentrails, a sculpture made of rubbish, and Now I understand what you tried to painter were used as key elements in 2010 who contains the insides (entrails) of a hen, say to me in the BBC television series Doctor Who is a parody of the American guitar icon Jimy And how you suffered for your tenth episode of the fifth season, Vincent Hendrix whose real name was James sanity and the Doctor. Marshall Hendrix. He plays on a terrible And how you tried to set them free racket, which justifies the initial wordplay. They would not listen, they did not The song he sings later in the chapter is know how called Little Miss Bonkers (p. 88), which Perhaps they'll listen now clearly is a parody of Little Miss Strange19 by Jimy Hendrix. Starry, starry night In the same vein, the first victim of Flaming flowers that brightly blaze the Jigsaw Murders is a Spiderboy named Swirling clouds in violet haze Quentin Tarentula, whose “violent,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of China celebratory portrayal of the criminal life” blue (p. 108) for the “Chimera” (cinema) is an Colors changing hue obvious reference to Quentin Tarantino. The Morning fields of amber grain neo-noir crime parodyPulp Fiction20 had had Weathered faces lined in pain ©BBC a major commercial success as well as a Are soothed beneath the artist's (B) Meditation XVII by John Donne huge cultural impact just two years before loving hand (1624) Automated Alice was published. No man is an island, entire of itself; Now I understand what you tried to every man is a piece of the continent, a say to me part of the main; if a clod be washed And how you suffered for your away by the sea, Europe is the less, as sanity well as if a promontory were, as well as And how you tried to set them free if a manor of thy friend's or of thine They would not listen, they did not own were; any man's death diminishes know how me, because I am involved in mankind, Perhaps they'll listen now and therefore, never send to know for For they could not love you whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. But still your love was true (Donne, 1624)15 And when no hope was left inside This excerpt was used by Ernest Hemingway On that starry, starry night as the opening as well as for the title of his You took your life as lovers often do war novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)16. But I could have told you, Vincent This world was never meant For one as beautiful as you
Starry, starry night Portraits hung in empty halls Frameless heads on nameless walls With eyes that watch the world and As far as literary theory is can't forget concerned, intertexuality is not only the Like the strangers that you've met natural consequence of the blurring of the The ragged men in ragged clothes boundaries between “low” and “high” A silver thorn, a bloody rose culture in the previous movement, it is also Lie crushed and broken on the a reinforcement of that new paradigm. virgin snow
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1.4. Metafiction Difference between intertextuality and parody Metafiction is the postmodern equivalent of While all parodies belong to the field of the modern “reflexivity of the work of art.” intertextuality, not everything that is It pushes the idea further with the author intertextual is a parody. clearly expressing his or her presence in the For example, translation obviously text. is intertextual because it refers to a different One of the classic tricks of Metafiction text, but it is not a parody because it does consists in writing a book about someone not show a critical distance with the original who is writing a book (like in many novels by text on purpose. Stephen King): The same idea applies to plagiarism. [Metafiction is] writing about If a student plagiarizes an author, it is not in writing, an attempt to make the order to criticize him or her; it is in order to reader aware of its fictionality, and, pass his or her work as original. sometimes, the presence of the The field of intertextuality includes author. Authors sometimes use this (1) our well-known parody, (2) pastiche, (3) technique to allow for flagrant allusion, (4) quotation, (5) translation, (6) shifts in narrative, impossible jumps plagiarism, (7) calque. These features can be in time, or to maintain emotional either intentional or unconscious. distance as a narrator.21 For example, at the end of his brilliant novel Reeves, is sent to a computer-simulated Time may also overlap, repeat (like Atonement , Ian McEwan uses Metafiction in reality. In the context of Postmodernism, in A Hundred Years of Solitude by Columbian order to plunge his readership in the horror and of hyperreality, the underlying idea to author Gabriel García Márquez) or bifurcate of reality (that is,
Neo, the protagonist played by Keanu Abraham Lincoln and his ghetto blaster, new dress, about to go down to a ©Edge.ua.edu party, about to appear on the stairs, 9
fresh and full of hope. No, she will 1.8. Magical realism TO GO FURTHER… not look in the mirror. She finishes Magical realism is an aesthetic mode in The main figures of postmodernism: washing her face. which the reader can find a ⟶ Jorge Luis BORGES 27 (Cunningham, 1998, p.31) matter-of-fact incorporation of ⟶ Umberto ECO Because historiographic metafiction fantastic or mythical elements into ⟶ John IRVING is self-reflexive, it allows the reader to think otherwise realistic fiction.29 ⟶ Salman RUSHDIE objectively about the past, as opposed to In magical realism, the supernatural element ⟶ Haruki MURAKAMI the falsity and violence of the supposedly is not displayed as a questionable ⟶ Kurt VONNEGUT “objective” past described by historians. For component. While it is obvious for the example, The Magus by John Fowles offers a reader that the irrational and rational are Postmodern criticism: reflexion on World War II through the means supposed to be conflicting and polarized, ⟶ Linda HUTCHEON, The Politics of of a comment in the middle of the narration: they are not disconnected or in total Postmodernism (1989), A Theory of “I should like you also to reflect that opposition because the supernatural is Parody (2001) [these] events coud have taken integrated in the realism of the fiction. ⟶ Julia KRISTEVA, Desire in Language: A place only in a world where man Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art considers himself superior to (1980) woman. *…+ That is, a world Roland BARTHES, Jacques DERRIDA, Pierre governed by brute force, BOURDIEU, Gérard GENETTE humourless arrogance, illusory prestige and primeval stupidity.” He stared at the screen. “Men love war because it allows them to look serious. Because they imagine it is the one thing that stops women laughing at them. In it they can reduce women to the status of ©Michael Parkes objects. That is the great distinction between the sexes. Men see objects, women see the relationship between objects.” (Fowles, 1966, p.413)28
8lice being the plural of louse, which adds up to the feeling of nonsense. 9HUTCHEON, Linda (1985). A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-century Art Forms, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, p. xii 10 TAYLOR, Jane (1806). ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ in Rhymes for the Nursery. 11ALLEN, Graham (2011). Intertextuality, Abingdon: Routeledge 12KRISTEVA, Julia. “Word, Dialogue and Novel” in The Kristeva Reader (1986). New York: Columbia University Press, p. 66 13SEXTON, Anne, “The Starry Night” inThe Complete Poems of Anne Sexton (1981). Boston: Houghton Mifflin 14MCLEAN, John, Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) on the album American Pie (1971), Beverly Hills: United Artists. You may listen to the song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHnRfhDmrk [online, last accessed 16/11/2013] 15DONNE, John (1839). The Works of John Donne. vol III.Henry Alford, ed. London: John W. Parker,pp. 574-5 16HEMINGWAY, Ernest (1940). For Whom the Bell Tolls, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 17HORNBY, Nick (1998). About a Boy, London: Gollancz 18WEITZ, Chris and Paul (2002). About a Boy, Universal City: Universal Studios 19HENDRIX, Jimy, REDDING, Noel.Little Miss Strange on the album Electric Ladyland (1968), London: Track. You may listen to the song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bi0RqnLbKw [online, last accessed 15/11/2013] 20TARANTINO, Quentin (1994). Pulp Fiction, New York: Miramax 21ANON. (2009).“A List of Postmodern Characteristics”on Postmodernism [online: http://postmodernblog.tumblr.com, last accessed 15/11/2013] 22McEWAN, Ian (2001).Atonement. London: Jonathan Cape, 371 p. 23JAMESON, Frederic (1991). Postmodernism Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, p. 36 24SHAW, Debra Benita (2008). Technoculture: The Key Concepts, New York: Berg, p. 24 25WACHOWSKI, Andy and Larry (1999). The Matrix, Burbank: Warner Bros. Studios 26 HUTCHEON, Linda (1988). A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. London & New York: Routledge, p.122 27 CUNNINGHAM, Michael (1998). The Hours. New York: Picador 28 FOWLES, John (1966). The Magus. London: Random House 29 ‘Magical Realism’, Merriam Webster *online: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/magic%20realism, last accessed 16/04/2014]
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Automated Alice
(A) Chapters (C) Postmodernism Consider the titles of the chapters in How do the characteristics listed in Jeff Noon’s Automated Alice. How the chapter about Postmodernism many of them correspond to apply to Automated Alice? Which characteristics of Postmodernism? In characteristics cannot be applied to which ways? Jeff Noon’s novel? Why?
(1) Through the Clock’s Workings (D) Other novels (2) The Wriggling of a Worm Consider the other novels that you (3) Alice’s Twin Twister have read this year. How many of (4) Adventures in a Garden Shed them fit the characteristics of (5) The Long Paw of the Law Modernism or of Postmodernism, and (6) Languishing in Gaol how? (7) The Stroke of Noon (8) Alice Looks up Herself (E) Criticism (9) The Hunting of the Quark Jeff Noon reportedly said that he only (10) Snakes and Leaders had re-read the first few pages of (11) Dorothy, Dorothy and Dorothy Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (12) ‘What Time Do You Call This, Alice?” before setting to work on Automated Alice. Do you think the author is to be (B) Steampunk believed? Taddeo and Miller argue that steampunk re-imagines the Victorian age in the future, and re-works its technology, fashion, and values with a dose of anti- modernism.30 How does this definition apply to Automated Alice?
TO GO EVEN FURTHER… BUTLER, Christopher (2002). Postmodernism. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP. 152p. BUTLER, Christopher (2010). Modernism. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP. 136p. EAGLETON, Terry (1996). The Illusions of Postmodernism. Oxford: Wiley & Sons. 160p. EAGLETON, Terry (2008). Literary Theory: An Introduction. 3rd Edition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 240p. IRVINE, Marvin (2013). The Po-Mo Page [Online: http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/pomo.html, last accessed 16/04/2014] KIRBY, Alan (2006). “The Death of Postmodernism” in Philosophy Now. Issue #58, Nov./Dec. 2006 [Online: http://philosophynow.org/issues/58/The_Death_of_Postmodernism_And_Beyond , last accessed 16/04/2014] SALBERG, Daniel, STEWART, Robert , WESLEY, Karla, WEISS, Shanon (2009). Postmodernism and Its Critics. A Guide Prepared by Students for Students. [Online: http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Postmodernism%20and%20Its%20Critics , last accessed 16/04/2014]
30TADDEO, Julie Anne et MILLER, Cynthia (2013). Steaming into a Victorian Future: A Steampunk Anthology. Landham: Scarecrow.
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