Postmodern worldview: the depiction of our time in Don DeLillo, Will Self and Salman Rushdie

Abstract

Postmodernism is one of the most discussed topics in contemporary world. It embraces various kinds of approaches to art making. It is a mixture of different artistic and popular styles and media. The term “postmodernism” has influenced authors so that they choose it as their subject of writing. This paper deals with Postmodern Worldview of our time. It aims to discuss postmodern aspects and varieties in the light of three novels; chronologically they are – White Noise by Don DeLillo, The Sweet Smell of Psychosis by Will Self and Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. As I want to work on Postmodern Worldview, I have chosen three different novels, written by writers from three different continents. They are respectively – American, European and Indian variety of novels. North-American variety deals with suburbanism, consumerism, techno-culture and centerlessness. European variety specially focuses on drug culture and psychological complexity. On the other hand, Indians follow the storytelling tradition. This paper will also discuss postmodernism history, features, postmodern theory and postmodern effect on human life in contemporary life. In my paper, I will try to define postmodern aspects and varieties in the light of these three novels.