Indeterminacy In Postmodernist Fiction-A Study Of A Visit From The Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan, a distinguished American novelist, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel A Visit from the Goon Squad in April,2011. A great number of critics have probed into the novel from various perspectives with the view of figuring out its extraordinary features. However, through reading these reviews and discussions, it is easy to find that many critics have overlooked the indeterminacy pervasive in the novel, the dominant feature of postmodernism. On the basis of postmodernism theory, especially indeterminacy theory from Ihab Hassan, this thesis explores in detail the indeterminacy in the novel both from content and form. It introduces the theory of postmodernist indeterminacy and analyzes the indeterminacy in theme, character, narration and language. Both the content and the form subvert the traditional certainty of normal fiction, leaving readers in a total uncertainty. They can have various own understandings and interpretations of the novel, which produces diversity, the essence of postmodernism.Through the exploration of postmodernist indeterminacy pervasive in the novel, the thesis, on one hand, reveals the chaos and uncertainty of the postmodern society; on the other hand, shows the writer’s desire to get rid of constraints and conventions of traditional writing, her pursuit of freedom and innovation and her profound concern about uncertainty of time, love, life and fate of individuals and society. Meanwhile, the thesis also provides a rather new perspective for the exploration on the novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, which is conducive to readers’ better understanding of it.