Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads (2021):An Analysis of Metamodernism in Contemporary Fiction
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2024-06-29
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en
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My thesis is centred around the question whether or not Franzen's literary style can be classed as metamodern in his latest novel Crossroads (2021). It asks the main research question "Which potentially metamodern tools does Jonathan Franzen use in order to make a human connection in his latest novel Crossroads (2021)?" The thesis concludes that Crossroads can certainly be grouped under the metamodern label, explaining that among other things, with Crossroads, Franzen wanted to further explore the ways in which literature can engage with the social world. He expressed a metamodern desire for human connection, and used multiple tools that can be classified as reality-effects that signal metamodern depthiness; engaging with subjects that abound in readers’ reality, referencing real-world people, places, and things, and making chapters overlap, also known as referential proximity. My thesis also shows that metamodernism can be found in genres outside of autofiction, which is the main genre associated with metamodernism. My research relies heavily on research previously conducted by Alison Gibbons, Robin van den Akker, and Timotheus Vermeulen.
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Faculteit der Letteren