Tracing Paranoia and Black Humor in Thomas Pynchons Major Narratives

Zusatztext

Thomas Pynchons major narratives, V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravitys Rainbow, incorporate various themes and historical figures and incidents as well as formal techniques. His major works have always been viewed as highly challenging texts both in terms of form and content. Among other issues, paranoia and black humor are undeniably central concerns of Pynchons major narratives. The present research tries to study Pynchons illustration of paranoid obsessions in his major narratives, and to examine the ways paranoia provides Pynchon with a proper tool to attack the decadence and sterility of modern Western world through his dark humor. It investigates different aspects of paranoia in Pynchons major narratives and explains how it presents an absurd defense mechanism against the fragmentation of postmodern condition. In the course of the study, it is revealed that Pynchons characters resort to paranoia as the only possible means to reach a transcendence, and that the characters futile attempt to restore order through paranoia is the central theme of Pynchons black humor.

Autorenportrait

First Author: I am Saeedeh Heidarimoghadam from Iran. I am a Ph D student in English Literature at Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch.Second Author: I am Alireza Farahbakhsh from Iran. I am an associate professor at University of Guilan, Iran. I received my Ph D in English Literature from the University of Sussex, England.

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