Metafictional narratives are often employed in postmodern novels to dig into the self-reflexive dimension of the authors. They emphasise the artificiality of the works to eliminate the boundaries between fiction and reality. Being aware of the structural components of narratives,… Read More ›
“What do we call visible light? We call it colour. But the Electromagnetic spectrum runs to zero in one direction and infinity in the other, so really, children, mathematically, all of light is invisible.” With scientific specificity and aesthetic poetry,… Read More ›
The Japanese grand master system iemoto seido is a hierarchical way to preserve many forms of traditional practices of arts such as calligraphy, Noh and chadō (the “Way of Tea”) in local households. When Yasunari Kawabata was awarded the Nobel… Read More ›
Love and intimacy are two important components in a romantic relationship. It is easy for us to discuss these topics openly nowadays, but not so much in early 20th century. Jenny, written by Sigrid Undset and published in 1911, highlighted… Read More ›
Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities (1972), as its title suggests, implies the power of human imagination through an imaginary universe consisted of numerous surrealist representations of imaginative cities. Inspired by Marco Polo’s pilgrimages, the novel appears to be a product of… Read More ›
In Greek mythology, gods and humans both depend and against each other. These gods are not almighty. They have emotions, community, each of them has their strengths and weaknesses, just like humans. While their godly powers rule over humans, it is… Read More ›
Like many of Umberto Eco’s works, The Name of the Rose (1980) is another postmodern novel that deals with the deceiving nature of language. However, although Eco once again makes use of the technique of intertextuality to mock the search… Read More ›
The literary movement, the Nouveau Roman, emerged in the 1950s in France. The New Novelists reject the traditional author-oriented sensorial syncretism. Being one of the most influential pioneers in the movement, Alain Robbe-Grillet, as both an author and filmmaker, writes… Read More ›
As many postmodern writers like Umberto Eco claim, the history familiar to us is merely an artificial construction and thus a ‘reality’ made out of falsehoods is crafted. The postmodern notion of history as an accumulated product of multiple falsehoods… Read More ›
What would you do if you find your neighbour’s dog dead in front of your doorstep in the middle of the night? Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old boy with “behavioural problems” decided to take the role of the detective himself. In… Read More ›
