Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Judit Ágnes Kádár: A Possible Application of Philosophy in the Study of Recent American Fiction

stimulate more and more meaning each time when one reads the same novel or explores other postmodern writings. What makes postmodern fiction unique in a philosophical respect? Before searching for answers we must observe the fact that this kind of literature in general is not written for and read by masses, in this sense it is often elitist: talking about their novels writers like Barth and Gass express that "it doesn't matter if no one does love them (LeClair 17)." Understanding the text requires a creative role of the reader as well as occasionally an academic education. As the reading public has changed and got limited to a smaller circle of individuals, parallel with the central characters (call them 'hero figures', 'anti-heroes' or 'viewpoint characters') became the human projections of the social, psychological and philosophical uncertainties already described before. Some of them passively suffer from the mental living conditions and bear it with Sisyphus-like persistence and wisdom, like The Ginger Man (1958) in Jean Paul Donleavy's story praying: And dear God Give me strength To put my shoulder To the wheel And push Like the rest. (104) Consequently, their endeavor in its effect points at the opposite direction, i.e. anti-conformism. Others bear the circumstances with half-conscious resignation like those whom Peter DeVries described in his The Blood of the Lamb (1961) in the following way: We live this life by a kind of conspiracy of grace: the common assumption or pretense, that human existence is 'good' or 'matters' or has 'meaning', a glaze of charm or humor by which we conceal from one another and perhaps even ourselves the suspicion that it does not, and our conviction in times of trouble that it is overpriced something to be endured rather than enjoyed. (168) There are characters who chose a rather aggressive attitude to provoke entropic tendencies, others' ignorance and pretension, like Guy Grant does in Terry Southern's The Magic Christian (1959) "making hot for them (The Magic Christian 129)" when in this U.S.A. 53