Transcendence and Belief after Postmodernism: A Performatist Reading of Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls (2011)

Abstract

This paper sets out to analyze Raoul Eshelman's notion of Performatism as an epochal heir of postmodernism through providing, first, a brief account of Performatism and its main underlying features, then tracing its imprints on contemporary cultural developments. The paper explores the broad range of art forms, including literature, films, and artifacts that are essential to Performatism, and how various contemporary artworks are open to new methods of critical analyses that abandon, or even counter postmodern original ideals. The study then approaches Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls (2011) from a performatist perspective, with an attempt to spotlight and trace the principal features of Eshelman's proposed theory in the novel, with the aim of proving that the emerging theory qualifies as a successful illustrator of the epochal paradigm shifts in literary studies in the post-postmodern era.