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Name of applicant: 


Title of degree programme: 




 
  

Over the course of a three year project I intend to examine the hostility exhibited by the novels of
Thomas Pynchon towards the philosophical frameworks erected by three European theorists:
Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Ludwig Wittgenstein. In parallel to these thinkers, Pynchon¶s
novels contain, among others, scathing critiques of Western imperialism, biopolitics and structuralist
linguistics. Furthermore, each of these writers has been divided into distinct phases, has faced
charges of obscurantism and has addressed the relationship between literature, reality and ethics; as
has Pynchon. Therefore, it is curious that Pynchon makes direct ironic reference to the µindispensable¶
ô
works of French theory in Ý

 , cites Wittgenstein¶s  
 amid dubious moral circumstances
in Ý  while in   
 the trivialisation of Derridean play3 stands in stark contrast to the
2

4 5
deadly new  of the rocket-city and the transatlantic shift to the ICBM. In response to this
contradiction, I would like to address three questions: to what degree do Pynchon¶s texts understand
and interact with these theorists? Why does Pynchon adopt this double-edged stance? Finally, can
this outlook be seen as an ethical standpoint, or merely another instance of the nihilism of which
Pynchon is frequently accused?

Calls for such an appraisal were sounded as early as the ô
s by Schaub and Tölölyan, but have
not yet been satisfactorily answered. My proposed research synthesises several strands of Pynchon
scholarship, while also considering the historical reception of ³Theory´, the feedback loops between
the academy and the literature it studies and the politics of allegiance to such theories; aspects which
have thus far been lacking in the field. Pynchon¶s reputation as the American postmodernist 

 ensures that this work will also undoubtedly be of interest to those working on related
authors such as Barth, DeLillo and Gaddis.

Owing to the scarcity of archival material on Pynchon, which John Krafft ascribes to a policy of
suppression, I will employ a comparative textual methodology. The resources required for this
approach, including documents such as    archive for historical verificationism, are all
available from Sussex¶s main library, The Centre for Literature and Philosophy or the British Library.
In addition to Sussex¶s strength in interdisciplinary studies, I have an excellent supervisorial fit with
Peter Boxall, co-editor of 
  


, and Doug Haynes, whose PhD
focused on  
.

I intend to spend eight months investigating Pynchon¶s relation to each theorist and eight months
examining interrelations, thereby leaving a four month contingency to ensure prompt completion. As
the project develops I expect to be able to locate the ethical, political and philosophical stance in
Pynchon¶s texts more thoroughly than any previous study. While I acknowledge that the contradictory
nature of Pynchon¶s writing presents an active challenge for the theorisation of a unified position,
perhaps this resistance can itself be deemed a stance. In the midst of such ostensible chaos, as
Pynchon writes, such theories might act as mere consolation for, rather than solutions to, the
problems of living.

 
ô
Thomas Pynchon, Ý

ÀLondon: Minerva, ô ô, p. .
2
Thomas Pynchon, Ý ÀLondon: Vintage, 2, p. 2
.
3
Thomas Pynchon,  
 ÀLondon: Vintage, 2, p. 6.
4
Pynchon,  
, pp. 2 6-2 .
5
Pynchon,  
, p. 6.