Postmodern characterization in contemporary British novel as reflected in D. M. Thomas's The White Hotel and John Fowles's Mantissa

The concept of character is quite a problematic term in postmodern fiction since postmodern texts overtly subvert and transgress the conventions of characterization of the novels of previous ages. In relation to the paradoxical and ambiguous nature of postmodernism, character undergoes a radical transformation in postmodern fiction, and it cannot be pinned down with regards to the conventions of characterization. The character in postmodern fiction becomes a site where the text reverberates the epistemological and ontological concerns postmodernism rests upon. Thus, postmodern problematization of such contentious concepts as self, identity, essence, history writing, fiction, and fact is carried out and presented through postmodern characterization in the novel genre. As such, this thesis analyzes D M. Thomas's The White Hotel and John Fowles's Mantissa to lay bare how postmodern fiction employs characterization. It aims to exemplify how postmodern fiction is deprived of characters in the conventional sense. As a result, this thesis examines how postmodern character is utilized in the employ of postmodern themes and techniques, and it shows how postmodern fiction establishes its own conventions of characterization. Keywords: postmodernism, postmodern fiction, postmodern character, D.M. Thomas, John Fowles, The White Hotel, Mantissa.