limousine – symbolizing the divide between the narrator and the outside world – for example in portraying an anti-capitalist protest, DeLillo displays the events from the viewpoints of both the narrator and a television screening order to emphasize the concepts of multiple perspectives and subjectivity: using the same technique employed by Chaucer, but calibrated for the post-industrial age. postmodernism accepted the impossibility of this and instead looked at novel means of ÂdisseminatingÊ 8 existing texts and concepts, much as Chaucer did with The Canterbury Tales. The way in which this disparate collection of stories are collected into a series under the wider metanarrative of a pilgrimage allows these folk tales to be preserved past their original oral form. However, these are not simply transcribed editions of popular stories, but rather are subtly altered by Chaucer to comic and artistic effect: whilst the tale appears to be strongly based on a near-identical narrative with Heile of Bersele in place of ÂAlisounÊ, Chaucer Âalter[s] and then expand[s] [⁄] borrowed plot element[s] in order to suit his own unique purposeÊ 9 – to create a work that is both entertaining, and illuminating as an art form. This reliance on intertextuality is a defining feature of postmodernism, especially in looking at BallardÊs novel Concrete Island , which, in many ways, serves as a post-industrial Robinson Crusoe , retaining the same sense of alienation but adapted both contextually and thematically: the realism of Crusoe being replaced by an ironic fantasy that explores more contemporary concerns within the framework set out by Defoe. Where in Crusoe the protagonistÊs isolation is complete and sincere, Ballard constructs a 8 ÂDisseminateÊ was the term used by Jacques Derrida to articulate his theory that each new text relates not to the ÂrealÊ world, but rather other existing works, as given the arbitrary connection between language and concepts no postmodern work can ever purport to depict a fixed existence. 9 Daniels, R. Textual Pleasure in The MillerÊs Tale Whereas modernism existed with the aim to ÂMake it NewÊ (Ezra Pound),
For Goddes love, demeth nat that I seye Of ivel entente
With regards to his transmission of the MillerÊs tale and this juxtaposition between the worldly and the naïve Chaucers highlights the contrast between the fictional and the real, while simultaneously providing an ironic dialogue between the two. This sense of irony and humour is characteristic of postmodern literature, often acting as a counterpoint to an atmosphere of intangibility and dread. For example in DeLilloÊs White Noise , despite the novelÊs fixation with death, the comic dialogue throughout elevates it above a one- dimensional exploration of morbidity instead creating a postmodern landscape in which these opposites not only exist in parallel, but rely on each other for definition and clarity. The narrative structure of The Canterbury Tales similarly draws attention to the idea of subjectivity that dominates postmodern literature. By having the raw events of the narrative filtered through two characters that are both flawed, Chaucer forces the reader to explore the nature of the literary medium, again in a metafictive sense, and this likewise highlights both the disparity between the objective and subjective narratives, and the impossibility of conveying any story in a truly objective manner. This disillusionment with objectivity and fascination with multiple viewpoints is a key facet of postmodernist writing, with the lack of Âa reliable centre of consciousnessÊ 7 informing several postmodern novels. DeLilloÊs Cosmopolis , for example, explores how the narrative self distorts objective events, with the novel unfolding from the perspective of a billionaire whose position, both in a literal and metaphorical sense, reconfigures the conventional omniscient narrative of earlier literature for the intensely self-aware postmodern era. This is acutely visible in those moments where an external event is described from within the protagonistÊs
7 Butler, C. Postmodernism A Very Short Introduction
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