The maelstrom of postmodernity

The Maelstrom of Postmodernity: Language, Aesthetics and Imagination Aba-Carina Pârlog The present book deals with the problem of chaos, as dealt with by Samuel Beckett in his Trilogy, by V. S. Naipaul in In a Free State and Half a Life and by Salman Rushdie in his Midnight’s Children. It also discusses manipulation and irrationality in Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor. The first chapter starts with Beckett’s original approach to ambiguity detailing the relative nature of identity, the uncertain story line and the open-ended narrative. Then, it focuses on Naipaul’s interest in immigration, adaptation and identity transformation. The last subchapter is based on the concept of post-humanism, as part of the chaotic effect of the narrative. The second chapter begins with Durrell’s subversive perspective and fragmentary discourse viewed in terms of the features of the Vorticist art trend. It continues with an emphasis on the topic of conflict, as developed by Golding, the fluctuation between the presence of the transcendent, its absence and the immanent (Hassan, 2016). The last subchapter concentrates on Ackroyd’s perspective upon the city of London, its change with the passing of time and its heterogeneity analysed according to his London Under (2012). ISBN 9783862887873. LINCOM Studies in Language and Literature 16. 152pp. 2017.