![]() The Shining represents this phenomenon and the failure to construct overarching discourses in postmodernity that give life meaning, particularly cultural production. The resulting fragmentation and pluralism produce a traumatic sense of incoherence and meaninglessness. House of Leaves represents this type of trauma through a house literally haunted by emptiness, its inhabitants as searching for spectres to combat this emptiness and the text’s characters experiencing traumatic, existential crises.īy contrast, The Shining represents Lyotard’s concept of micronarratives, the individual localised narratives that replace metanarratives in postmodernity. ![]() This perspective is depicted as traumatic because it produces feelings of nothingness in individuals and reveals life to be meaningless. This refers to the scepticism towards the overarching grand narratives which purport to explain how the world works, such as history and religion. ![]() In certain contemporary popular and cult texts, trauma is attributed to postmodern conditions, specifically, Lyotard’s characterisation of postmodernism as incredulity towards metanarratives. I argue that contemporary American popular culture and cult produce innovative trauma representations through their engagement with postmodern themes rather than solely its experimental aesthetic. ![]() This chapter examines popular trauma texts’ engagement with postmodern perspectives in House of Leaves and The Shining. ![]()
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