Jonathan Franzen at the End of Postmodernism

Jonathan Franzen is one of the most influential, critically-significant and popular contemporary American novelists. This book is the first full-length study of his work and attempts to articulate where American fiction is headed after postmodernism. Stephen Burn provides a comprehensive analysis of each of Franzen's novels - from his early work to the major success ofThe Corrections- identifying key sources, delineating important narrative strategies, and revealing how Franzen's themes are reinforced by each novel's structure. Supplementing this analysis with comparisons to key contemporaries, David Foster Wallace and Richard Powers, Burn suggests how Franzen's work is indicative of the direction of experimental American fiction in the wake of the so-called end of postmodernism.

1. Jonathan Franzen and the End of Postmodernism2. In the Concrete Waste Land: The Twenty-Seventh City3. Midnight in the System Rooms: Strong Motion4. Millenial Fictions: The CorrectionsConclusionBibliographyIndex