'An ark on which two might escape': Modernist and postmodernist discourse Julian Barnes's 'A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters'

The goal of the present thesis is to argue that Julian Barnes's novel A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters makes a significant contribution to contemporary literature, most notably for its resourceful use of both modernist and postmodernist ideas and techniques.;The first chapter of the thesis examines the novel's first chapter, a retelling of the story of the Flood. By comparing this chapter to ancient accounts of the Flood, and to Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage, I show that Barnes exploits the critical potential of postmodern parody; "The Stowaway" deconstructs the texts which precede it, revealing their hypocrisies and ideological biases, even as it reaffirms their enduring power.;The thesis's second chapter looks at the ways in which the structure of the novel parodies narrative convention, and how this parody is used to critique logocentric accounts of history. This leads into an analysis of the content of Chapters Four, Six and Nine, in which I look at the ways in which the critique of logocentricity continues, and identify the limits which Barnes places upon it.;The third chapter of the thesis focuses on the novel's "half chapter," a personal essay in which Barnes argues that individuals should centre their lives around romantic love. This essay constitutes an attempt on the novelist's part to revive certain elements of modernist humanism which he finds indispensable, without dismissing the importance and usefulness of the type of postmodernist critique in which most of the book is engaged.;I conclude by emphasizing the pragmatic nature of the compromise between modernism and postmodernism which Barnes has evolved, and asserting that both the ingenuity of this compromise and its correspondence with a growing interest in pragmatism in current critical thought make this novel a work of importance and literary merit. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...