| Death is a convenient device through which to examine the movement in the continuum of the literary imagination from modern to post-modern fiction--a movement which may often be viewed as a shift from a pre-apocalyptic to a post-apocalyptic vision. This dissertation will attempt to examine this movement, stressing the difference between these visions while simultaneously suggesting a subtle kind of progression along the "continuum."; A brief introduction distinguishes generally between the two visions, stressing the difference in approaches to time, the individual, and art--differences that result partly from the fact that the post-apocalyptic vision can accommodate the possibility that death is not an ultimate end. It also briefly examines the chapters to follow.; Chapter one examines the pre-apocalyptic obsession with death in works by an early group of moderns: The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner, The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald, and A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway. This examination highlights the stress on the pressure of time, and the prominent use of representative individual figures in these works.; The modern writers considered in Chapter two, J. D. Salinger and Saul Bellow, are more recent chronologically. An examination of some of their work indicates a kind of development from the works of Chapter one. While the obsession with death remains, the individual becomes more important for the way in which he relates to his society. Works examined include the following: The Catcher in the Rye, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters," Franny and Zooey, "Seymour--an Introduction," "Hapworth 1, 1924," all by Salinger, and Henderson the Rain King, by Bellow.; Both chapters are essentially introductory to Chapter three, which examines the post-apocalyptic vision through the use of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. This work may be considered microcosmic of the post-modern, post-apocalyptic novel. Analysis here will be concerned not only with Pynchon's satiric view of the pre-apocalyptics, but also with the varied possibilities inherent in the post-apocalyptic vision. |
