A Carnival Of Indeterminacy: An Analysis Of In America From The Perspective Of Postmodernism

Susan Sontag was one of the most important and most controversial femaleintellectuals in the Western world. She was a writer and filmmaker, critic, literary icon,and political activist with acumen and knowledgeability. In America is her final novel andreceived the National Book Award and the Jerusalem Prize. This paper is to study thisnovel from the perspective of Postmodernism with the analysis on its indeterminacyembodied in the text and on the subjectivity of characters, aiming to demonstrate thatSontag has brought the reader to a carnival of “indeterminacy”.This paper consists of five chapters.In the first chapter, a general knowledge of how Sontag and her novel In Americawere studied home and abroad will be provided.The second chapter first makes an overall review of the Postmodernism. It thenmoves to explain the term “indeterminacy” and touch the issue of subjectivity inpostmodern context, providing the theory guidance for the following analysis.The third chapter mainly focuses on how the novel displays indeterminacy in thelayer of text of the novel via such postmodern techniques as fragmented narrations,shifting narrative voices and multiple themes which mix with each other complicatedlyand push the reader forcefully to think and reason as if wandering all by himself in acarnival of “indeterminacy”.The fourth chapter is the analysis on the “indeterminacy” of subjectivity embodied inthe characters. The self-identification of Maryna seems to be constructed anddeconstructed all the time; the identity of America is diverse and never stops changing; theself-review of American people is self-contradictory. The reading process became evenmore intense for the reader in the experience of “indeterminacy”.The fifth chapter is the conclusion of this thesis. Behind many tactful postmoderntechniques, the main character of Postmodernism--indeterminacy--is fully embodied andits display gets even more intense when the novel moves deeper to the indeterminacy ofthe subjectivity by showing the indeterminacy of the self-identification of Maryna,America and the American people. All this allows the reader to wander and stroll freelyand set their mind free to float in their own way and indulge themselves in such agreeable experience, as if lost in a carnival of “indeterminacy” that Sontag created.