Book contents
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Times and Places
- Chapter 1 Biography
- Chapter 2 Letters and Juvenilia
- Chapter 3 Nonfiction
- Chapter 4 East Coast
- Chapter 5 West Coast
- Chapter 6 Europe and Asia
- Chapter 7 Africa and Latin America
- Chapter 8 Geographies and Mapping
- Chapter 9 The Eighteenth Century
- Chapter 10 The Nineteenth Century
- Chapter 11 The Twentieth Century
- Chapter 12 The Twenty-First Century
- Chapter 13 History and Metahistory
- Part II Culture, Politics, and Society
- Part III Approaches and Readings
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 12 - The Twenty-First Century
from Part I - Times and Places
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2019
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Times and Places
- Chapter 1 Biography
- Chapter 2 Letters and Juvenilia
- Chapter 3 Nonfiction
- Chapter 4 East Coast
- Chapter 5 West Coast
- Chapter 6 Europe and Asia
- Chapter 7 Africa and Latin America
- Chapter 8 Geographies and Mapping
- Chapter 9 The Eighteenth Century
- Chapter 10 The Nineteenth Century
- Chapter 11 The Twentieth Century
- Chapter 12 The Twenty-First Century
- Chapter 13 History and Metahistory
- Part II Culture, Politics, and Society
- Part III Approaches and Readings
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Of the three novels Thomas Pynchon has published so far in the twenty-first century – Against the Day (2006), which begins with the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and ends just after World War I, Inherent Vice (2009), set in late 1960s California, and Bleeding Edge (2013) – only the last takes place, like his earlier The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), in a contemporary setting. It fictionalizes the period around September 11, 2001, “The Day Everything Changed” (BE 378), and brings us up to date, for if we place Pynchon’s novels in chronological order of the periods covered in the plot, they encompass almost the whole trajectory of US history since just before Independence. Pynchon’s novels employ the major events, even if approached tangentially or on a small, often insignificant scale, along with the genres of the period in which the plot is set, as well as myriad subgenres and discourses. They continue in the vein of his earlier work of postmodern perspectivism, with its skepticism toward metanarratives.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Thomas Pynchon in Context , pp. 97 - 103Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
- 1
- Cited by