Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow – A Critical Review
Keywords:
Gravity’s Rainbow, Postmodern Interpretation, Thomas PynchonAbstract
Postmodernism is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture. It is generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to or superseding modernism. Defining postmodernism would violate its premise that no definite terms, boundaries, or absolute truths exist. However, critics have identified a few elements as postmodern. This paper tries to understand those postmodern elements and locate them in Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. It uses interpretation as methodology and direct quotations from the novel as evidence.
References
Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity’s Rainbow. London & New York: Penguin, 2000.
Brown, Richard Harvey. Postmodern Representations. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
Fowler, Douglas. A Reader's Guide to ‘Gravity's Rainbow’. New York: Ardis Press, 1980.
Hasan, Ihab. "Toward a Concept of Postmodernism." The Disemberment of Orpheus: Towards a Postmodern Literature. Princeton, 1982.
Howard, Gerald (2005). "Pynchon from A to V". Bookforum (Summer 2005). Retrieved on 30.09.10 from http://www.bookforum.com//pynchon.html
Kihss, Peter."Pulitzer Jurors; His Third Novel". The New York Times,8,1974.
Moore, Thomas.The Style of Connectedness: ‘Gravity's Rainbow’ and Thomas Pynchon. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.
Tanner, Tony. "Gravity's Rainbow". Thomas Pynchon. London: Methuen Publishing Ltd,1982.
Turier, Christine. "Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow," Explicator, Vol. 50 (4), 1992.
Weisenburger, Steven. A ‘Gravity's Rainbow’ Companion. Georgia: University of Georgia Press,1988.
Wikipedia (2008). Gravity’s Rainbow. Retrieved on 03.05.10 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity's_Rainbow#Plot_summary