The Nineteenth Century

The chapter deals with the references to the nineteenth century in Thomas Pynchon's works. These go way beyond the mere representation of characters, settings, or situations. As Brian McHale brilliantly demonstrated, “Pynchon appropriates the conventions and materials of genres that flourished at the historical moments during which the events of his story occur.” Nor does Pynchon restrict himself to the revision of popular genres; his works resonate in various, unpredictable ways with some of the major nineteenth-century literary figures such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.