Manipulating uncertainty

Abstract

The loss of truth that represented the postmodern fiction was built upon the widespread loss of certainty that appeared as a result of the Second World War. However, the concept of truth in relation to the subject appeared as an aesthetic achievement of selfjudgment. In this thesis, we argue that postmodern novelist Thomas Pynchon manipulates the postmodern widespread ideological loss of truth by depicting it as a controlling mystery to conceptualize a planned aestheticism that represents a valued notion of the self-achieving individual. In particular, the thesis aims to show Thomas Pynchon as a novelist who takes advantage of postmodernism. The failure of truth to represent an exact certainty leads the subject to establish a firm self-judgment to replace the old perspectives of opinion making. This replacement is called subjectivity. In G. W. F. Hegel’s philosophy, the subjective notion of the individual should be related to art to create a certain aestheticism in art works. Considering the postmodern loss of truth and Hegel’s philosophy of aestheticism, Thomas Pynchon takes advantage of the postmodern defeat of truth by representing his works as postmodernist, or as most critics do, to achieve more artistic objectives. This can mainly be proved by analyzing the three main aspects of aestheticism which are freedom, experience and imagination. . As an artist, Thomas Pynchon should depict these steps to achieve an aesthetic piece of art, as it is shown in Hegel’s aesthetic lectures.