An Abundance of Truths: How Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending and The Only Story prove that postmodernism is not dead.

Abstract

There has been a decline in the use of postmodern themes and aspects since the 2000’s. According to critics the postmodern values no longer corresponded with those of society. However, does this mean that postmodernism is now no longer a practiced art movement? Julian Barnes is a well-known British author who often incorporated postmodern themes and techniques to his writing. Though postmodernism is often claimed to be a dead movement, Barnes is still using postmodern aspects in his more recent novels. In this thesis The Sense of an Ending (2011) and The Only Story (2019) will be discussed and analysed to show that postmodernism remains a relevant art movement in literature. This thesis aims to contribute to the discussion regarding the proclaimed end of postmodernism.

Key words: Postmodernism, metamodernism, Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending (2011), The Only Story (2019)