Characters’ postironic self-reflection through new sincerity principles: a case study of Donal Ryan’s novel “The Spinning Heart”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32589/2311-0821.1.2024.309608Keywords:
metamodernism, postmodernism, postmodern irony, postirony, New Sincerity, stylistic analysisAbstract
This research focuses on the characteristic features of ideological and artistic trends of metamodern fiction and its stylistic features. One of the defined features of the contemporary state of literature is postirony, which is pervasive. Taking into account the ability of postirony to penetrate all spheres of matamodern society and literature in particular, the phenomenon should be considered as a transcultural concept. In the context of our research, we clarify the ontology of the concept “postirony” and its direct influence on metamodern literature. Another significant highlighted artistic trend is New Sincerity,
which marks the shift from postmodernism to metamodernism. Therefore, the article identifies a number of New Sincerity principles that determine its relationship with irony, manifesting the emergence of metamodern postirony. The principle focus of the study is the stylistic realisation of postironic self-reflection through the defined principles of New Sincerity. The methodological section outlines the stylistic features of postironic portrayal of the characters through the principles of New Sincerity in the novel “The Spinning Heart” by contemporary Irish writer Donal Ryan. The stylistic analysis of the postironic selfreflection of the characters in the author’s metamodern narrative based on the principles of New Sincerity and considering stylistic devices at different language levels (lexical and syntactic), shows their undeniable influence on the readers’ understanding of the author’s postironic and sincere narrative. This analysis demonstrates the author’s refusal to use irony in depicting fictional reality, fostering a serious attitude of the reader.
References
Azadanipour, M., Maleki, N. & Haj’jari, M-J. (2021). The Paradoxical Nature of the Real
as the Infinite Real in Metamodernism, Conference: 1st National Conference on Recent
Developments in English Language Teaching, Literature and Translation, At: Shiraz, 12 p.
Bolaño Quintero, J. (2021). Reconstructing Realism in Post–Postmodern Narrative: Dave
Eggers’s, in Complutense Journal of English Studies, 29, 115–126
Colton, A. (2020). Writing About Writer’s Block: Metafiction, the New Sincerity, and
Neoliberalism in David Foster Wallace’s Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way
and Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be? College Literature, Volume 47, Number 3,
(Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 468–497
Eggers, D. (2001). Mistakes We Knew We Were Making: Notes, Corrections, Clarifications,
Apologies, Vintage Books USA, 48 p.
Freinacht, H. (2017). The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics, Book One
(Metamodern Guides 1), Metamoderna ApS, 475 p.
Hedinger, J. M. (2014). POST-IRONY. On art after irony.
https://www.academia.edu/10326743/POST_IRONY_On_art_after_irony
Hutcheon, L. (2002). The Politics of Postmodernism, Routledge, London, 232 p.
James, D. & Seshagiri, U. (2014). Metamodernism: Narratives of Continuity and Revolution,
Modern Language Association, 87–100.
Kadagishvili, D. (2013). Metamodernism as we Perceive it (QUICK REVIEW), European
Scientific Journal, December 2013 /SPECIAL/ edition vol.2
Kiełkiewicz, K. (2013). The Postmodern Terms – Postmodernity and Postmodernism,
Journal of Humanistics & Social Sciences, 2 (1), 49–60.
Konstantinou, L. (2012). No bull: David Foster Wallace and Postironic Belief. The Legacy
of David Foster Wallace. Iowa: Iowa University Press.
Konstantinou, L. (2016). Cool Characters: Irony and American Fiction. Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press.
Leal, C. M. (2017). The Progression of Postmodern Irony: Jennifer Egan, David Foster
Wallace and the Rise of Post-Postmodern Authenticity Harvard University. Digital
Access to Scholarship at Harvard.
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/37736743/LEAL-DOCUMENT-2017.
pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Linstead, S. & Collinson, D. (2005). Irony in a Post-ironic World. Irony and Organizations:
Epistemological Claims and Supporting Field Stories, Abstrak Forlag-Liber-Copenhagen
Business School Press, 381–393.
McLaughlin, R. (2013). After the Revolution: US Postmodernism in the Twenty-First
Century, Ohio State University Press. Narrative, 21(3), 284–295.
Ryan, D. (2012). The Spinning Heart, Transworld Ireland, 160 p.
Toth, J. (2017). Metamodernism Historicity, Affect, and Depth after Postmodernism (eds.
Robin van den Akker, Alison Gibbons, and Timotheus Vermeulen), 14 p.
https://www.academia.edu/37764711/Toni_Morrison_s_Beloved_and_the_Rise_of_
Historioplastic_Metafiction
van den Akker, R. & Vermeulen, T. (2017). Periodising the 2000s, or, the Emergence of
Metamodernism. In Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect, and Depth after Postmodernism,
edited by Robin van den Akker, Alison Gibbons, and Timotheus Vermeulen, 1–19 pp.
London: Rowman & Littlefield.
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kutu/detail.action?docID=5144888.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
1. Authors take full responsibility for the content of the articles as well as the fact of their publication.2. All the authors must follow the current requirements for publication of manuscripts. Plagiarism itself and its representation as the original work as well as submission to the editorial office previously published articles are unacceptable. In case of plagiarism discovery the authors of the submitted materials take all the responsibility.
3. Authors shall inform the editor of any possible conflict of interests which could be influenced by the publication of the manuscript results.
4. The editorial board has the right to refuse publication of an article in case of non-compliance with these requirements.
