INTERTEXTUALITY IN POSTMODERN LITERATURE. THE INTERTEXTUAL WEB: DECONSTRUCTING REALITY AND FICTION IN POSTMODERN LITERATURE

• Sadieva Shakhnoza

  teacher of the department of English functional lexicon, Faculty of "English Philology" of Uzbekistan State University of World Languages

  Author

This thesis explores the use of intertextuality in postmodern literature, focusing on Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow and Don DeLillo’s White Noise. The study examines how these authors employ intertextual references to historical events, classical literature, scientific discourse, and popular culture to blur the lines between reality and fiction. By embedding these diverse intertexts within their narratives, Pynchon and DeLillo challenge traditional notions of authorship and linear storytelling, creating complex, self-referential texts that reflect the fragmented and multifaceted nature of contemporary existence. The thesis situates these novels within postmodern literary theory, drawing on concepts such as Roland Barthes’ “death of the author” and Julia Kristeva’s idea of the “text as a mosaic of quotations” to highlight the role of intertextuality in deconstructing reality and fiction.

Primary Texts:

Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity’s Rainbow. New York: Viking Press, 1973.

DeLillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Viking Penguin, 1985.

Secondary Sources on Postmodern Literature and Intertextuality:

Barthes, Roland. Image-Music-Text. Translated by Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.

Kristeva, Julia. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. Edited by Leon S. Roudiez, translated by Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine, and Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.

Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New York: Routledge, 1988

Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.

McHale, Brian. Postmodernist Fiction. New York: Methuen, 1987.

Duvall, John N. The Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

• PDF