David Mitchell's Black Swan Green and the childhood perspective of the formative process within and beyond the postmodern context

This thesis points out those characteristics of Postmodernism and postmodern fiction which would be most congenial in the approach to a particular type of novel, which is the Bildungsroman. The aim of the thesis is to identify certain postmodern elements that makes David Mitchell's novel Black Swan Green a postmodern Bildungsroman and to demonstrate how, as a bildungsroman, it belongs to the postmodern context. Mitchell's fiction, which is considered experimental and innovative by the literary critics, is analysed by looking at the narrative and thematic aspects of the novel in postmodern context and, at the character dynamics in the story which is very essential for the overall meaning of the story. For this reason, the study reflects on how the main characters, especially the child characters, are represented in a postmodern environment, and how the people interact with such an environment. Key words: Postmodern fiction, Bildungsroman, experimental, child characters, Postmodern Bildungsroman.