Looking for the Meaning of Life in the Postmodern Age

This is an analysis of the postmodernist author Douglas Coupland's fiction as an example of how the possibility of looking for the meaning of life is addressed in the postmodern novel. It specifically focuses on Generation X, Microserfs, JPod and The Gum Thief to analyze the effects of technology and media on individuals identity development in terms of different perspectives that might play an important role in the process. It explores the marketability of identity, daily life and relationships to find out about the twenty-first century identity and the search for the meaning of life represented in these novels. It aims to show that the modern humans are highly influenced and manipulated by media and technology. As a result, the meaning of contemporary life is in a continuous re-construction process which complicates and even makes it impossible to find a definite answer to the question who am I?

Autorentext

Gülce Trak, MA: Studies Contemporary Literature and Culture at Brunel University. This book is her thesis on technology and its influence on re-construction of identity. Currently, she is writing a novel for her PhD in Creative Writing at the same university. She lives in London and works for BN Magazine as a writer, sub-editor and translator.

Klappentext

This is an analysis of the postmodernist author Douglas Coupland''s fiction as an example of how the possibility of looking for the meaning of life is addressed in the postmodern novel. It specifically focuses on Generation X, Microserfs, JPod and The Gum Thief to analyze the effects of technology and media on individuals'' identity development in terms of different perspectives that might play an important role in the process. It explores the marketability of identity, daily life and relationships to find out about the twenty-first century identity and the search for the meaning of life represented in these novels. It aims to show that the modern humans are highly influenced and manipulated by media and technology. As a result, the meaning of contemporary life is in a continuous re-construction process which complicates and even makes it impossible to find a definite answer to the question who am I?''