Postmodern Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the methods by which writers are able to capture and present reality without actually portraying what is real but instead by showing a distorted reality. The author examines Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and Don DeLillo's "White Noise" to see how these writers use reality in their works and to compare the similarities and differences between them. The paper states that this genre of distortion focuses on subjective stories, shunning the theme of external reality, which is popular in realist books, in favor of an examination of the internal mind.

From the Paper:

"Clearly "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is a story about the disillusion of the American Dream. It presents reality to the reader through the perspective of two drug-crazed individuals hopelessly pursuing the illusionary dream. Further, the entire pursuit occurs in the Nevada desert, in Las Vegas, the city that represents the consumerist culture that has somehow come to be the American Dream. These facts alone demonstrate how the author successfully presents reality by simply distorting it to such a point that it no longer exists."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bartes, Roland. The Death of the Author. 1977.
• DeLillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Penguin Group, 1986.
• Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 1998.

More papers on Postmodern Literature:

• Essay # 87580 : "Postmodern Literature, Architectural Thinking and Experience "
• Book Review # 106341 : "Postmodern Literature and Literary Devices"
• Term Paper # 148093 : "Romantic, Modern and Postmodern Literature"

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