INCREDULITY toward METANARRATIVES POSTMODERN REWRITING OF SELECT BRITISH NOVELS

Abstract

A careful study of the British canonical novels-its genesis and subsequent development in the newline18th and the 19th centuries shows that the novels of this period are chiefly preoccupied with newline realism . Viewing external reality as an objectively observable truth, the novelists of the newline realist genre tend to present a verisimilitude or a replica of reality in their fictional works. newlineBut in the wake of Postmodernism in the mid-20th century, such a notion of the realist newlinenovelist s attempt to comprehend reality and its faithful representation in their fictional works newlinecame under the domain of scrutiny by several postmodern writers. They claim that since newline reality is social-construct , illusive and unstable, it is impossible to grasp reality which the newlineBritish Canonical novels of the 18th and 19th centuries tend to represent. Thus, the author s newlineattempt to present one version of the reality tends to fail as there are as many versions of a newlinestory available as much as possible. They also question the dominant discourse of the narrative newlineof these realist fictions. As a result, some postmodern novelists undertook the task of rewriting newlinesome of the canonical novels through their appropriation and reconstruction. newline