Visions of America in Thomas Pynchon's Novels

master's thesis

• Title: Visions of America in Thomas Pynchon's Novels : Continuity of Motifs from the 1960s to the Present Day
• Author: Paula Fajt
• Mentor: Stipe Grgas (mentor)
• Committee member: Jelena Šesnić (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Sven Cvek (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2021-09-20, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

Tomashevsky describes several key notions in the Russian Formalism that can be used as tools for analyzing novels. In this essay, concepts such as theme, several different classifications of motifs and the notion of motivation are being used to analyze three novels by the American author Thomas Pynchon. Even though only two of the three novels share the same chronotope, the author achieves a sense of continuity using and subverting the same clue-puzzle structure of the fabula. The conventional search for the murderer is replaced by other criminal activities. Each investigation is conducted by a protagonist that fits well into the disadvantaged type required by the conventional murder mystery. Compositional motifs from popular culture that migrate from one novel to another also help shape a sense of continuity between the literary works. Descriptions of spaces are artistically motivated in all three novels, whereas realistic motifs anchor the novels in space and time and provide social commentary.

• Keywords: Pynchon; America; formalism; motivation; motifs
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:533114
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Literature and Culture; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2021-09-26 20:31:59