Anti-style and the postmodernist novel

Abstract

A consideration of attitudes towards style in contemporary narratives leads to the conclusion that decorum and convention are often deliberately marked in order to draw attention to their artificiality. In particular, in what are sometimes called postmodernist novels, a critical stance is often adopted towards adequate or appropriate styles, so that anti-style, or a deliberate break with decorum or uniformity, highlights the fictitious nature of what is narrated. In the novels of B.S. Johnson, a combination of styles and deviations from them show that there is no such thing as an authoritative narrative, not even the author's, and, while the conventional nature of language, style and narrative is foregrounded, it is implied that there is always some alternative to the inevitable fabrications and distortions that they involve.