Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr.

Stengel

The Collage: a Postmodern Attempt to Understand Reality

Jean-Francois Lyotard, the French philosopher and literary theorist, says famously of
postmodernism: I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives (Berger, 2). A
metanarrative is a coherent system that relies on interrelated and sequentially organized stories
that carefully guide the audience to a socially acceptable and expected conclusion. In other
words, the postmodern rejects the start-middle-end theory of the story-telling process that
readers of times past have come to expect. Instead, it changes the idea of a universal narrative
into something more narrow and individual. In their book, Postmodernization: Change in
Advanced Society, Crook, Pakulski and Waters, write:
There is today a growing public acknowledgement that Reality isnt what it used
to be. In philosophy there is a departure from the belief in one true reality
subjectively copied in our heads by perception or objectively represented by
scientific modelsThere exists no pure interpreted datum; all facts embody
theory. (Berger, 48)
Therefore, it can be posited that the postmodern concept of reality is perceived on an individual
basis and is not a shared experience. The postmodern individual believes that s/he sees,
interprets and forms conclusions about life which are as unique to that individual as
his/her own fingerprint.
In literature, the characters own version of reality is oftentimes presented by the author
as a collage. Interestingly, the literary collage is not limited to physical objects like ticket stubs
and candy wrappers, but can also include quotes, stories, and other information that details bad
habits, obsessions, attitudes, and other idiosyncrasies of the individual persons life. Many
authors use the literary collage to illustrate how the individual captures and processes

Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr. Stengel

information, how s/he reorganizes the information in a pattern that makes sense, and how s/he
draws meaning that forms a temporary reality in time and space. Taking it a step further, it could
be said that the conjoined fragments of the collage reveal to the individual exactly where s/he is
located in the here and now of reality.
Added to the issue of individual perspective, the postmodern author is also faced with the
21st century issue of a narrow time and space which is caused by an overflow of information
made available through technology and media. Professor Lovorka Grui-Grmua of the
University of Rijeka explains the postmodern perspective of a narrow time and space:
The new technological time focuses individuals on the specifically understood
presenta narrowly defined time period disconnected from past causes and future
effects Still, we are exposed to both an extensive time consisting of histories of
long, slow and large time scales, and intensive time consisting of the new
technologies, the inconceivably fast, and small, and short temporal strata. That is
also how postmodern literature projects reality, mixing historical data with
fleeting memories, manipulating space-time, fracturing it, and revealing general
cultural interest in speed and short time spans. (Grui-Grmua)
Grui-Grmua explains that technology has caused a sort of convergence of past, present, and
future which causes a disruption in the human beings ability to place him/herself firmly
in reality. These fragments of information, experience, and technology cause
disorientation and displacement in the individuals life. Therefore, s/he must pick and
choose which fragments to keep and ultimately put together in a collage that narrows
their reality down to the here and now. These changes in attitude towards the
perception of reality are evident in A Visist from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, See

Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr. Stengel

the Moon by Donald Barthelme, and White Noise by Don Delillo. In each of these
books, the author shows how his/her characters attempt to gather the fragments of their
lives, both past and present, and reorganize them in a collage that gives them a sense of
time, space, and meaning in their present reality.
Jennifer Egan fills her book, A Visist from the Goon Squad with a variety of collage
techniques. It could be said that every chapter of Egans book is a separate collage, which adds to
the overall perception of the whole. In an interview with Heidi Julavits for Bomb Magazine,
Egan says, I wanted to avoid centrality. I wanted polyphony. I wanted a lateral feeling, not a
forward feeling. My ground rules were: every piece has to be very different, from a different
point of viewin addition, every piece had to be a different world and have a different feel from
all of the others (Juvalits, 2). It is no coincidence that Egan uses the musical term polyphony,
which means a texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody. In
A Visist from the Goon Squad, Egan has created a collage of separate collages that intermingle
and flow through time and space yet somehow artfully intersect in order to tell a distinct story.
In Chapter 12, Great Rock and Roll Pauses by Alison Blake, Egan presents the reader
with a collage in the form of a power point presentation. To understand the importance behind
Alisons power point, we must go back to chapter 1 and revisit her mothers collage of Found
Objects. Alisons mother, Sasha, is a kleptomaniac who steals objects belonging to random
people that she meets along lifes way. Once Sasha has these objects, she adds them to a
collection of other objects that is part of an ongoing, ever-changing collage in her apartment.
Egan describes it, It looked like the work of a miniaturist beaver: a heap of objects that was
illegible yet clearly not random (Egan, 15). To an onlooker in the story, Alex, the collage
appears to have some sort of meaning, but he soon realizes that the meaning is not meant for

Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr. Stengel

him. In contrast, Egan describes what Sasha (the creator of the collage) sees, To Sashas eye, it
almost shook under its load of embarrassments and close shaves and little triumphs and moments
of pure exhilaration. It contained years of her life compressed (15). Sashas collage is a
physical work of art that she has created from the stolen fragments of her life experiences. Each
and every item in her collage has some sort of emotional meaning attached to it. When put
together in just the right order, Sasha is able to narrate the story of her life. Later, when Sasha
appears in her daughters power point, we find that she is still actively creating collages.
This need to collect fragments and create a collage can be found in the lives of both of
Sashas children, Lincoln and Alison. Lincoln Blake is a 13 year old boy that collects other
peoples music, like Bernadette by the Four Tops, Foxey Lady by Jimi Hendrix, and Young
Americans by David Bowie (244). Only, Lincoln doesnt simply listen to the music, he
identifies and measures the length of pauses within the music. Afterwards, he categorizes the
data into journals that only he seems to understand. The collection and measurement of the
pauses is the process of collecting fragments, while the journaling is the process of creating his
collage. Ironically, while Egan has Sasha collecting the stolen objects from her life (a childs
yellow scarf, a plumbers screwdriver), she has Lincoln collecting those missing, silent moments
in the music: the lacunae. The lacunae for Lincoln are musical pauses that possibly hold the
missing link; the looked-over information that can orient and inform him amidst his lifes
confusion. Egan may be postulating that the silence, the lyrics, and the music are all
interdependent upon one another to create a clear message. Without the pauses, the music would
not be the same, but something entirely different. Therefore, Lincolns collage is quite different
than that of Sasha and Alison in that it concentrates on the meaning and purpose of what is not
there instead of what is there.

Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr. Stengel

In an interview for Bomb magazine, Egan stated, Also I was reading Proust. He tries
to capture the sense of time passing, the quality of consciousness, and the ways to get around
linearity (Julavits). The intangible nature of Lincolns collage is reminiscent of Egans
statement about creating a non-lateral narrative that consists of layers of consciousness.
However, she reminds us through Lincoln that no one can escape time completely. Lincoln says
to his Dad, Theres a partial silence at the end of Fly Like an Eagle, with a sort of rushing
sound in the background that I think is supposed to be the wind, or maybe time rushing past!
(Egan, 249). Here, Lincoln is not only aware of time, but of its rushing nature. While Egans
narrative unfolds, there is that ever-present lacunae of time and space that seems empty but
carries important meaning. In the end, Lincoln attributes a meaning to the pauses (lacunae) in
the music: the undercurrent or passing of time. This understanding was only made possible
through the active process of creating and interpreting a collage of musical pauses.
Like Lincoln, Alison has also taken up the creative process of collage. Great Rock and
Roll Pauses by Alison Blake is her collage made in the form of a power point. Alison collects
fragments from her familys life which she organizes into four significant power point segments
called: After Lincolns Game, In My Room, One Night Later, and The Desert (235). Each slide
in the power point contains individual fragments that are isolated into blocks, circles, graphs, and
other power point devices. Alison groups and categorizes the fragments in order to create a
narrative explanation that will help her understand and find meaning in her own reality and her
familys reality.
Egan experiments with the idea of different types of collage in chapter 12. For example,
Alison attempts to create collages for other people within her own collage (she does this so that
she can better understand the people for whom she is making the collage). In the segment, In My

Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr. Stengel

Room, Alison suggests the reason for her mothers collages, She collages in her Waiting Chair,
in the living room. I dont know why she loves junk so much. Not junk, Mom will say. Tiny
pieces of our lives (264). In the next slide, she creates a power point that is a representation of
one of her mothers actual collages. However, instead of objects, Alison uses shapes filled with
quotes, flight numbers, appointment times, to-do list items, and explanations. The explanations
in this power point collage reveal information about her mother: She uses found objects. They
come from our house and our lives. She says theyre precious because theyre casual and
meaningless. But they tell the whole story if you really look (265). Despite the fact that
Alison calls her mothers creation of collages Annoying Habit #22, the power point collage
reveals that, like her mother, uncovering the whole story through collage is also important to
Alison (264-5).
Another collage in Alisons power point can be found in the segment called The Desert.
Alison suggests that her father help Lincoln graph the pauses in his music project. Alison says,
Hes been asking me, but Im terrible at graphing (288). If you look at the graphs that Alison
has made for Lincoln at the end of the chapter, you may think that she is perfectly capable of
doing this for him (305-8). However, upon closer examination, the reader discovers that the
graphs are confusing and indecipherable. Perhaps Egan is insinuating that a collage must be
created specifically by the collector of the fragments and that only s/he will understand it. In the
end, Alisons graphs at the end the chapter are basically second-hand collages: nonsensical
graphs made with borrowed knowledge. Ironically, by the time the reader tries to decipher
Lincolns collected fragments in Alisons graphs; it is a third-person perception of someone
elses reality. Egan might be illustrating the ineffective results of a universal metanarrative

Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr. Stengel

versus individual perception of reality by presenting information that has gone through the
interpretive process more than once.
In See the Moon? Donald Barthelme uses the concept of collage in similar, but also
different ways than that of Jennifer Egan. While Barthelme presents an example of an actual
collage in his work (souvenirs pinned to the wall) and several figurative collages (graphing the
moon, measuring and investigating Cardinal Y), he also ingeniously presents the entire short
story as a collage (a collection of collages that form a larger collage). This is similar to Egans
presentation of her own collage-within-a-collage (Alisons power point which included a replica
of her mothers collage and the graphs of Lincolns musical pause data).
Barthelmes short story collage, See the Moon? can be broken down into two smaller
groups: the past and the present. In his book, The Shape of Art in the Short Stories of Donald
Barthelme, Dr. Wayne Stengel states:
Although fragments from various aspects of the narrators life appear throughout
the story in random order, elements of his identity can be easily, if arbitrarily,
divided into two groups based on chronology. The first group includes incidents
involving past life or family history. In the second group are the narrators
present situations involving his impending fatherhood and the two new branches
of knowledge he has invented to help himself understand and appreciate his
fatherhood, which he calls cardinology and lunar hostility studies. (Stengel,
24).
It can be concluded that Barthelmes fragmented story contains two secondary collages within
the larger collage. In other words, the fragments of the past form a smaller collage and the
fragments of the present form another. The first of these secondary collages is a collection of

Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr. Stengel

fragments from the narrators past which include: his relationships with his father, his brother,
his ex-wife Sylvia and their son Gregory; his prior university affiliation and his
employment/military roles. The other secondary collage is a collection of fragments from the
narrators present which include: the imminent birth of his new child, Gog, his study of
cardinology, and his study of lunar hostility. When these two smaller collages are
reorganized and pieced back together to create a single collage, connections emerge and a
meaning can be deduced.
While reading See the Moon?, it becomes obvious that Barthelme has created a
complicated work of art that is comprised of fragments of the narrators life that have been
placed in no particular chronological order. As a matter of fact, there doesnt seem to be any
cohesive order to the fragments at all. Barthelmes See the Moon? is a complex puzzle that
forces the reader to collect and organize these randomly placed fragments of the narrators life
and piece them back together in such a way that makes sense. Barthelmes genius is that by
forcing the reader to reorganize the fragments from the story, s/he becomes an active participant
in the collage process. In many ways, the readers collection and reorganization of the fragments
in the story results in a unique experience that imitates process of creating and interpreting ones
own personal collage. Of course, as I stated earlier in reference to the second-hand collages in
Egans work, unless the collage is created by the fragment collector, the reality that is perceived
will not be completely accurate. Therefore, I feel that Barthelme does not necessarily want to
lead his readers to the same conclusion but rather to have a unique experience as they collect and
interpret the fragments of the narrators collage. By doing so, Barthelme is able to impart a
concept that isnt easily understandable except through experience.

Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr. Stengel

Besides the jumbled fragments of our personal lives, Barthelme seems to insinuate that
another major inhibitor of understanding and experiencing collage is the modern obsession with
scientific classification and measurement. It seems to the layman that nearly everything on earth
and in space has been studied, classified and measured. There is literally so much information
available now, that no one could ever hope to know it all completely. Barthelme describes it
perfectly when he says, Here is the world and here are the knowledgeable knowers knowing
(Barthelme, 172). Modern societys instant access to knowledge has made everyone a know-itall. Even in Barthelmes time, there was so much information available that people were
beginning to feel invincible because they felt informed or knowledgeable on so many
subjects. As Grui-Grmua suggests, modern societys overload of knowledge is
counterproductive to the individual humans reality. This overwhelming deluge of information
leads to an inability by the individual to find his/her bearings. In essence, they lose their own
identity in the sea of information, which is what happens to Jack Gladney in White Noise. That
is why the narrator says, See the moon? It hates us (Barthelme, 158-9). The moon has been
dissected into parts on a graph and each of those parts have been measured and named.
Barthelmes narrator says, And at night the moon graphed by the screen wire, if you squint.
The Sea of Tranquility occupying squares 47 through 108 (158). It seems that nothing has
escaped the probing eye of humanity; yet there is no way that the individual human brain could
ever learn or retain that much knowledge.
For this reason, Barthelme illustrates individual reality in the form of a collage made of
fragments. Dr. Stengel explains that Fragmentation is the final vision of all his characters, who,
in attempting to know themselves , eventually discover that they can only hope to know pieces
and elements of their identity or their world (28). That is why the narrator of See the Moon?

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reiterates more than once that fragments are the only forms I trust (160,172). The human brain
can only absorb and understand a limited amount of information. By choosing the most
important fragments from our lives, the media, and other sources, we are able to grasp a larger
view of life and create a collage that covers all the important bases.
In his essay, Dr. Stengel states:
The narrator attempts to know his life by collecting the fragments into which it
has shattered. This process becomes the act of telling the story. Knowing for this
narrator is also the process of measuring. The protagonist measures his past
against his present and finds new chains of causality between the two. (Stengel
24)
There is an actual collage of fragments described in See the Moon? which includes a grouping
of items pinned to the narrators wall. He describes it, There is the red hat, there the book of
instructions for the Ant Farm. And this is a traffic ticket Its my hope that these souvenirs
will someday merge, blurcohere is the word, maybeinto something meaningful (159).
Each of these items represents a meaningful event or an important person in the narrators life.
The red hat in his collage is connected with his present study of Cardinal Y (a coherence of past
and present). Barthelme describes the narrators study of Cardinal Y much the same way one
would describe a scientific experiment. He popped the Cardinal on the patella with a little
hammer, looking into his eyes with a little light, testedusing Universal Indicator Paper,
and measured the Cardinals ego strength (171). Yet in the end, the narrator says, One can
measure and measure and miss the most essential thing (172). The narrators investigation can
be seen as a microcosm of gathering fragments to create a collage. Yet, Barthelme warns that too
much information can be detrimental to ones final perspective. He seems to suggest that the

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individual does not need all the information, but only the most important and pertinent
fragments. Otherwise, the collage would turn into an investigation or experiment.
Another link between the past and present is the Ant Farm, which is a souvenir of
Sylvia (160). There is a link of causality with Sylvia, the ex-wife, through his study of lunar
hostility. While the fragments of the narrators Lunar Hostility studies are scattered throughout
the story, when pieced together they form a cohesive part of the narrators collage. The narrator
states, I suffer from a frightful illness of the mind, light-mindednessYou can see how far Ive
come. Lunar hostility studies arent for everyone (159). Later he states, Moonstruck I was,
after a fashionSylvia went up in a puff of smoke.And couldnt bear a male acquaintance
moon-staring in the light of day... (167-8). The actual fragment pinned to the collage on the
wall is the Ant Farm, but the Ant Farm represents so much more to the narrator. It not only
represents a person, but how that person is connected to an entire series of events in his life that
led up to his present study of the moon. By collecting and organizing the important fragments of
his life, the narrator has effectively created a collage that tells his lifes story, linking both past
and present into a coherent present reality.
In White Noise, Don Delillo also uses fragments and collage to represent humanitys
search for clarity in a world that has shattered into a million pieces. However, Delillo focuses
more acutely on the fragments of society and technology than the other aforementioned authors.
Delillos main character, Jack Gladney, not only collects the fragments of his own personal life,
but he also throws in the technological and media issues that beleaguer the modern world today.
In the introduction to White Noise, Richard Powers says, Its hard to think of a late-twentieth
century big theme that White Noise doesnt sound: the time-shared family, broadcast-addled
consciousness, mediated violence, psychopharmaceutics, nascent biotech, information overload,

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runaway simulacra, terminal consumerism, eco-collapse, and the technological sublime (Powers
xiv). In White Noise, Jack Gladney is attempting to collage the fragments of his former
marriages, his blended family, his current marriage, his job as a professor of Hitler Studies, the
constant barrage of media-reported news, advertising in all of its forms, regurgitated technoinformation from his children, consumer-driven trips to the mall, airborne events caused by
chemical spills, his wifes drug addiction, his own prognosis of death, trips to the doctor, and a
murder plot. In the midst of this turmoil is the constant background hum of white noise.
The key to unraveling Jacks collage is to understand the concept of white noise.
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, white noise refers to a meaningless and
distracting background noise that is caused by a device not being able to receive a clear wave
signal (http://www.merriam-webster.com). The concept of white noise fits in nicely with GruiGrmuas idea that there is a 21st Century overload of information that assaults the human brain
until it can only process within a very limited time and space. In other words, because of the
constant surge of technologically transmitted information, humans are forced to grab what
fragments they can (from their lives and the airwaves) and reorganize them to fit into their
present reality. Delillo artfully shows Jacks struggle to process information from the media, the
internet, and his personal life into a collage that will give him insight into the meaning of his life.
To achieve this, Jack must learn to separate his own personal reality from the reality that
technology and the media have created for him. Arthur Asa Berger explains:
Postmodernism turns the old notion that life imitates are on its head
Life has become a kind of theater in which we are always taking on new roles
(that is, identities) and casting them off, the way Hollywood film actors do when

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they take on new roles in films, exceptwe play out our roles in malls and
shopping centers (Berger, 15).
This is exactly what seems to happen to Jack Gladney in chapter 39. Jack uncharacteristically
takes on the role of a murderer much like an actor in a TV detective drama. Spurred on by the
humming white noise in Mr. Grays motel room, Jack becomes detached from reality and nearly
kills a man before crashing back down to reality.
Jacks troubles begin when he discovers that both he and his wife, Babette, have a
crippling fear of death. Even more disturbing for Jack is the discovery that Babette has been
trading sex for Dylar, a drug that promises to cure the fear of death. One of the above mentioned
life imitates art supermarket roles occur when Murray advises Jack to devise a plot to murder
Mr. Gray, his wifes drug dealer. Murray says, The killer, in theory, attempts to defeat his own
death by killing othersIts a way of controlling death Be the killer for a change. Let
someone else be the dier. Let him replace you, theoretically, in that role (277). Jack is
convinced that by taking on the role of a murderer, he will be able to overcome his own fear of
death. However, Jack is simply playing the role of murderer in the theater of the Roadway
Motel.
When Jack finally enters the motel room to kill Mr. Gray, he finds the man sitting in front
of a TV, surrounded by the monotonous humming of white noise. At first, the reader is led to
believe that the white noise is giving Jack some sort of clarity. He says, I was advancing in
consciousness. I watched myself take each separate step. With each separate step, I became
aware of processes, components, things relating to other thingsI saw things new (291).
However, Douglas Keesey gives an alternate explanation saying, But Jack has not broken
through the media network; he is simply so enmeshed that he can no longer tell the difference

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between his own plot and the one scripted for him by the media (147). This seems to tie in to
the fact that Jack has taken on a role that is not based in reality. He has confused reality with
media-induced delusion. By following through with his murder plot, Jack has completely lost
himself in the white noise, the mind-numbing information stream that floods our consciousness
and clouds our judgment.
I believe that Delillo uses Jacks murder plot as an example of the ever-changing nature
of collage. For example, Jacks plot takes on subtle changes with each move he makes. In total,
Jack adjusts his plan eight times to accommodate new actions, thoughts, or feelings (290-98).
Ingeniously, Delillo allows Jack has a moment of clarity in the midst of his murder plot. Mr.
Gray aka Willie Mink tells him, I see you as a heavyset white man about fifty. Does that
describe your anguish? I see you as a person in a gray jacket and light brown pantsTo convert
Fahrenheit to Celsius, this is what you do (294). There is a moment of silence and then things
begin to glow. Despite this singular revelation into his true self, Jack continues on with his
murder plot. Delillo may be suggesting that momentary reality is fleeting because changes occur
and life goes on. Jacks collage is not finished, but has simply revealed to him a momentary
you are here reality check.
After Jack shoots Willie Mink in the motel bathroom, another moment of clarity emerges
from the collage. Jack says, I grabbed Mink by his bare foot and dragged him across the blooddappled tileThere was something redemptive hereI know I felt virtuous, I felt blood-stained
and statelyI felt large and selfless, above resentment. This was the key to selflessnessGet
past disgust. Forgive the foul body. Embrace it whole (299-300). The image that emerges
from the collage is Jacks own will to save life instead of end it. Jack must embrace his whole

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life, which includes aging and death, if he wants redemption. In other words, for Jack to truly
live he must embrace the disgusting fact that his body is deteriorating and he will eventually die.
The final image revealed in Jacks collage occurs during his discussion with Sister
Hermann Marie at the clinic. After a multitude of questions regarding religion and faith, the
sister informs Jack that they only pretend to believe because people need someone to believe for
them (303). She also states, The devil, the angels, heaven, hell. If we did not pretend to believe
these things, the world would collapse (303). Here Delillo includes fragments of faith and
religion in Jacks collage. Although religion is not typically defined by technology, they are
oftentimes challenged by technology. Religious debate takes up a great portion of media and
internet chatter. At the touch of a button, anyone can pull up information that challenges
religious tradition, belief or theology. Yet, Jack experiences a moment of clarity concerning
faith. He realizes that faith is necessary for human survival; not necessarily faith in religious
matters, but at least in other unseen matters like love, trust, and happiness. Without faith in
something, there is nothing but despair and hopelessness. Richard Powers stated of White Noise,
These pages are littered with such spiritual impulses. Throughout the books three arched parts,
dread and dreads send-ups sink Jack Gladney deeper toward lifes central mystery (Powers,
xii). The literary collage does not attempt to solve the central mystery of life, but rather attempts
to prove to the reader that it exists. Delillos Jack Gladney discovers at the end of his book, that
the central mystery will not be solved until the very last fragment of life is added to the collage,
and that last fragment is death itself. Until then, Jack informs us that There was nothing to do
but wait for the next sunset, when the sky would ring like bronze (305). As long as there is
another day, there will be more fragments to collect and organize into lifes collage. The
inconclusive ending to White Noise reiterates Grui-Grmuas thought that the new

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technological time focuses individuals on the specifically understood presenta narrowly

defined time period disconnected from past causes and future effects. Jacks conflict was not
necessarily solved; however, his reality is temporarily defined, at least until the sun comes up
tomorrow.
In conclusion, Jennifer Egans A Visit from the Goon Squad, Donald Barthelmes See the
Moon? and Don Delillos White noise show that many postmodern authors reject the
metanarrative shared experience and replaces it with the idea of an individual perception of
reality. Also, the postmodern author is faced with communicating the problem of a narrow time
and space which is caused by the 21st century overload of information caused by technology and
the media. To deal with these issues, many authors use the literary collage to illustrate how the
individual captures and processes information, how s/he reorganizes the information in a pattern
that makes sense, and how s/he draws meaning that forms a temporary reality in time and space.
Each of the above mentioned authors used collage in their respective books. Both Egan and
Delillo used a technique that employed smaller collages within a larger collage. Egan,
Barthelme, and Delillo all created a scene within their book to imitate the experience of
gathering fragments, reorganizing them, and drawing meaning from the emerging literary image.
Since the ability to successfully impart issues like individual perception, narrow time and space,
and the art of collage form the foundations of the postmodern genre, it could be said that Egan,
Barthelme, and Delillo are at the top of the postmodern literary heap. Their works touched on all
of these issues with great finesse and inspiration.

Jennifer Landry/ Final Essay/ Senior Seminar 4335/ Dr. Stengel

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Barthelme, Donald. Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts. New York: Pocket Books, 1976.
Print.
Berger, Arthur Asa. The Portable Postmodernist. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira, 2003. Print.
Delillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.
Egan, Jennifer. A Visist from the Goon Squad. New York: First Anchor, 2011. Print.
Grui-Grmua, Lovorka. "The Transformations in the Understanding of Temporality in
Postmodern Literature." AMERICANA E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary IX.1
(2013). University of Szeged, Hungary. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
<http://americanaejournal.hu/vol9no1/gruic-grmusa>.
Juvalis, Heidi. Interview with Jennifer Egan. BOMB: The Author Interviews, 2012. 1-8.
<http://bombmagazine.org/article/3524/>.
Keesey, Douglas. Don Delillo. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993. 146-50. Print.
Powers, Richard. Introduction. White Noise. By Don Delillo. New York: Penguin, 2009. ix
xviii. Print.
Stengel, Wayne B. The Shape of Art in the Short Stories of Donald Barthelme. Baton Rouge:
LSU Press, 1985. 24-29/ Print.

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