Date of Award

Summer 8-1-2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

John Jakaitis

Second Advisor

Brendan Corcoran

Third Advisor

Thomas Derrick

Abstract

In this study, I employ the idea of postmodern naturalism to illustrate how Tim O'Brien addresses the postmodern era following the Vietnam War, which he achieves through form and characterization, and how he blends in a naturalistic framework where events and powers beyond his characters' control affect their lives. Such a study of six of O'Brien's novels-Northern Lights, Going After Cacciato, The Nuclear Age, The Things They Carried, In the Lake of the Woods, and July, July-is important because it unveils common motifs and structural strategies employed by O'Brien in developing an evolved and postmodern version of naturalism. Rather than to theorize about postmodernism, I intend to identify the presence of postmodern elements in the novels and to create a practical study of O'Brien's fiction about the Vietnam experience, which will identify common literary and historical threads in the fiction. I say "practical" in the sense that I hope to create a bridge between the two poles offered by Lucas Carpenter in "'It Don't Mean Nothin": Vietnam War Fiction and Postmodernism"; Carpenter offers to extremes in an "either/or" relationship. Under his approach, the literature about the Vietnam experience must be either postmodern or naturalistic. The concept of postmodern naturalism allows for it to be both and offers a clearer means to interpret this body of literature than either paradoxical extreme. The "essential renewing fantasy" offers the least common denominator for beginning such an examination of these six novels.

Download

Share

COinS