Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America & Postmodernism

How Far Can Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America be Considered Postmodern?

A Close Reading Exploring Examples of Postmodernism

If we are to assess Trout Fishing in America (Brautigan 1967) in terms of its postmodern attributes, we must first establish the presence of both modernism and postmodernism within the novel. The novel indeed highlights many postmodern ideas throughout the text; however, the extent to which these ideas are solely postmodern is unclear and fragmented. Therefore, this discourse cannot be analysed without reviewing modernist themes alongside postmodernist ideas. Postmodernism often either attempts to reject and react to modernist tropes entirely, such as the elevation of its low cultural forms within the elitist institution of literature, or, extends on modernist ideas, such as surrealism leading to postmodern magic realism. To think about postmodernism is to not dismiss modernism, but rather to address the relationship between the two concepts, something that will be understood during this close reading. The passage from Trout Fishing in America (Brautigan 1967) that will be studied for a close reading is the chapter is that labelled SEA, SEA RIDER, corresponding to pages twenty-nine through to thirty-two. This extract will be read in relation to the wider work that contains it, and studied to manifest the texts postmodern features.

Before analysing SEA, SEA RIDER, it is imperative to understand Trout Fishing in America (Brautigan 1967), as a whole. In alliance with postmodern tropes, the novel is non-linear and fragmented, with all the chapters being either cut from, or slightly interrelated to, each other. The figurative phrase itself, Trout Fishing in America, takes the form of many meanings and assumes many identities. These multiple meanings, such as the book title, a hotel, a character, graffiti and more, reject the literary conventions modernism proposes. This is important in the context postmodernism. By highlighting that words can obtain multiple purposes arguably catapulted the 1960s social revolutions, and critiqued American culture on singular interpretations, something Brautigan embeds in many of his writings. As contended by Barth, these subversions are the “artistic conventions are liable to be retired, subverted, transcended, transformed, or even deployed against themselves to generate new and lively work” (1984: 205). Barth explicitly outlines that literature will, and subsequently has, deviated from traditional literature/art in many aspects to create these, as I will label them, new postmodern works. Interestingly, SEA, SEA RIDER is one chapter where the words ‘Trout Fishing in America’ do not occur, in one context or another. The purpose of this is unclear, however after reading this chapter analytically, the conclusion for this may be the focus it has on critiquing society. Having this as a stand alone chapter without Trout Fishing In America being mentioned or appearing, allows it to protrude within the novel.

During the few opening lines of the extract, the narrative voice introduces the bookstore owner and begins with a description of him, “He learned about life at sixteen, first from Dostoevsky and then from the whores of New Orleans” (1967: 29). Here, the narrative voice is paradoxical and contradictory, both of which are themes inherent in postmodernist literature. This paradox can be understood when the intertextual reference of “Dostoevsky” is acknowledged. Dostoevsky is a Realist theorist, and with Realism and Modernism both aiming to produce an “illusion of reality” (1995: 265), although the two do differ in other manners, this is far from postmodern ideas on mimesis. To have a character within an arguably postmodern fictional novel aspire towards a figure such as Dostoevsky and almost promote this lifestyle is paradoxical and satirical. However, as Nünning highlights, modernist fiction extended the “descriptive impetus of realist and naturalist fiction… in which…the use of impressionism is at the service of a kind of realism” (2015: 121). Despite having postmodern elements, “Dostoevsky” conveys that the boundaries between each concept are blurred, and argues that it is difficult to be entirely one singular concept. To further this, DaDa provides an approach that allows Brautigan’s novel to exist within both modernism and postmodernism, which is what may be happening here. DaDa, as contended by Sheppard’s study is “an achievement in repositioning and reassessing DaDa as a major staging post between Modernism and postmodernism” (White 2002: 1028). Therefore, Trout Fishing in America as a whole, can be understood as a product of DaDa, rather than either modernism or postmodernism. Labelling this particular section of the novel as DaDa enables terms such as “Dostoevsky” to be modernist, but the satirical nature of the terms usage allows it to also be postmodern, therefore reflecting DaDa’s inclusion.

Despite absurdity and surrealism being concepts from the modernism movement, these techniques have engaged with magic realism within the novel, to provide the postmodern angle for this reading. This surreal, magic realist presentation can be seen when the narrator begins a paragraph with, “The bookstore was a parking lot used for graveyards” (1967: 29). Here, as Begum explains, there is a “presence of a fantastical element which cannot be explained according to our knowledge of the world” (2014: 12). These moments of magic realism are key themes of postmodernist writing and are apparent throughout the novel as a whole. Similarly, this phrase presents the extension of possibilities of language, while still remaining grammatical and surreal. This leads into the concept of Metafiction and self-reflexivity. Although less centrally metafictional, under Waugh’s characteristics of postmodern writing, the novel is also parallel to some of her ideas. She states that an “arbitrarily arranged or collapsing narrative” (1984: 21-22) is a theme of postmodernism, and this is apparent in the text. The novel can be regarded broadly and within these lines as postmodernist metafiction as it explores the uncertainty of language and the world that it is within. Alternative linguistic features are explored here but still expect the reader to recollect their knowledge on old literature conventions while, at the same time, constructing new meanings for the text. In that manner, this section is extremely fragmented.

Although Waugh’s definition is less aligned with Trout Fishing in America being considered as metaficition, Bennett and Royales ideas on metafiction may be more inclusive. With postmodernism being difficult to define, and a range of theorists and writers having imposing ideas on what it entails, to discuss postmodernism within the text means that multiple conflicting ideas need to be discussed. Using the following definition, I will discuss this chapter further. The term metafiction is “to designate ‘fiction about fiction’ or ‘self-reflexive fiction’” (90). Therefore, it is appropriate to pair this definition with McHale’s thoughts on ontological concerns. McHale argues that postmodernism engages with the shift in dominance from epistemology, a study typically synonymous with modernism, into to the dominance of Ontology, now dominantly associated with postmodernism (1999: 9-10). “The bookstore was a parking lot used for graveyards” (1967: 29) is an example of an ontological break where the reader takes a moment to reflect on the linguistics of the words. Much like the opening chapter, THE COVER FOR TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA, and the novel overall, the narrative is overtly self aware of its existence. Brautigan’s manipulation of the conventions of common cover illustrations and literature more widely “serves to foreground the ontological opposition between the fictional world and the material book” (McHale, 1999: 190). Breaks in reading prevent the reader from any sustained immersion and opposes modernist agendas on epistemology. However, these ontological reminders are not strictly or entirely postmodern, but do present new approaches to fiction, and exposes the workings of it.

Brautigan’s novel contains a critique American society and capitalism through his magical realism and satire. This collapse in grand narratives is key in postmodern literature and this novel is not of exception. The sequence of the male character’s rich background exposes this, “These things make no difference to him. He’s rich. He has 3, 859 Rolls-Royces” (1967: 31). The exaggeration of his vehicle possessions, and importantly, his entitled position because of this wealth is presented here. As Hassan paraphrases, “Lyotard’s central theme is the desuetude of the ‘great narratives’ and ‘metanarratives’, which organized bourgeois society.” (Hassan 1983: 26) something Brautigan engages with in the novel here. This point is furthered later in the chapter when there is a reflection back onto this point, “I guess he was rich and owned 3, 859 Rolls-Royces.” (1967: 32) Where the stress is emphasised on the “was” breaks away from modernist and traditional conventions. In modernist literature where there is the trajectory to show rather than tell, postmodernism rejects this and tells rather than shows. Having a direct dismissal of these conventions is both a rejection to American trends and the established writing style, and is also arguably is also self-reflexive. By placing stress on that term in particular is a humorous critique on Western society, as if to mimic the capitalist agenda that is upheld here. Horvath argues this idea, “[Brautigan’s] work… continues to forward an especially severe critique of American society” (1895: 455). Likewise, the over-exaggerated figure of Rolls-Royces owned has a similar effect. The reader understands that this number is impossible but accepts this statement regardless of its play on the novels form.

The sexual sequence between pages thirty and thirty-two is another example of magic realism. Throughout this there are moments where things happen without explanation and the oddities are not commented on. The scene begins with the bookstore owner and the narrative voice looking around the bookstore and then abruptly turns to this disillusionment, “Would you like to get laid?” (1967: 30). In response to this, the narrator says “no” and the owner replies, “You’re wrong” (1967: 30). This interaction is stylistically abrupt and steers away from any kind of minimalism or immersion, regardless of being in the first-person. The response of “You’re wrong” is grammatically correct in its own right, but in relation to the previous speech it does not make sense or follow on from it. There is an underlying confusion and awkwardness on behalf of the characters during this encounter. Having this response from the reader is somewhat postmodern too because they question the situation, but continue reading, assaulting conventions. Ideas on the “death of the postmodernism” may also be apparent here. The shift of focus from the sexual encounter onto the bookstore owner explaining what ‘really’ happened to the character is contextualised by the introduction of anarchism and Greek statues (1967: 32). The explicit intertextual inclusion of both of these postmodern ideas within this discourse creates an argument that the novel acknowledges that it is postmodern, and does this via postmodern techniques. Firstly, the mention of Greek statues relates to postmodernisms concern with ancient Greek, such as the Aristotle Republic engaging with mimesis and the process of representations. Many terms deemed as postmodern are derived from Greek words. Secondly, the repetition of “anarchist” in relation to death and violence, “dead” and “killed” corresponds to the death of the anarchist, and therefore possibly hints to the death of postmodernism. The scene surrounds the woman painting a dead anarchist, and in a satirical stance, the narrator slaps her when she asks for him to act as if he had done the killing. By responding this way we clearly understand that the narrator is an anarchist, or at least sides with anarchism. This is also ironic if we take the first person narrative voice as Brautigan, as his death was caused by suicide.

In conclusion, as Hutcheon epitomises, “postmodernism is fundamentally contradictory, resolutely historical, and inescapably political” (1998: 4). Therefore, to omit a close reading of postmodern features within this passage is on the one hand clear-cut in the novel, yet also causes concern. There are indefinitely postmodern features found in Trout Fishing in America, but how far these themes belong to the postmodern movement alone is debated. Likewise, defining the term postmodernism itself is an “intractable problem” (Malpas, 2005: 4) and therefore identifying its features is also non-linear. This is also clear when looking at more postmodern works aside from Brautigan, it is concluded that there is not one singular mode of writing or reading these texts, as by nature they defy expectations and limitations that modernism and other antecedents hold. Overall, the novels passage does license a variation of postmodern techniques proposed by the writers of the concept and movement, and, by leaning on Hutcheons’s thoughts, the text is vastly contradictory and therefore adheres to that aspect of postmodernism, amongst many others as discussed.

References

Barth, J. (1984). The Friday Book: Essays and Other Non-fiction. New York: Putnam: 205.

Begum, A. (2014). ‘Magic Realism’ – ‘A Postmodern Device to Depict the Alternative Realities of Life: With Special Reference to Grimus by Salman Rushide’. Veda’s Journal of English Language and Literature (Joell). 1(1): 12-18.

Bennett, A & Royale, N. (2009). An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory: Fourth Edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

Brautigan, R. (1967). Trout Fishing in America. New York: Vintage.

Ford, M, F. (1995). ‘On Impressionalism’ in The Good Soldier. London & New York: W. W. Norton & Company: 221.

Hassan, I. (1983). Ideas of Cultural Change in Hassan and Hassan 1983. Innovation/Renovation: New Perspectives on the Humanities. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press: 15-39.

Horvath, B. (1985). Richard Brautigan’s Search for Control Over Death. American Literature. 57(3): 434-455.

Hutcheon, L. (1988). The Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. London: Routledge: 4-5.

Malpas, S. (2005). The Postmodern. London: Routledge: 4-5.

McHale, B. (1999). Postmodernist Fiction. New York: Routledge.

Nicol, B. (2009). The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction. New York: Cambridge University Press: 36-37.

Nünning, V. (2015). Unreliable Narration and Trustworthiness: Intermedial and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Germany: Walter de Gruyter & CPI books: 121.

Waugh, P. (1984). Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-conscious Fiction. London & New York: Routledge.

Way, B, T. (1991). The Fiction of Fishing: Richard Brautigan’s Metafictional Romance. London, Ontario: University of Western Ontario.

White, J, J. (2002). Reviewed Work: Modernism: DaDa: Postmodernism by Richard Sheppard. The Modern Language Review. 97(4). 1028: 1029