McHale's Postmodern Perspective in Aimee Carter's "The Goddess Test"

Abstract

This research study intends to reveal the postmodern features in The Goddess Test (2011), especially in the existence of the plurality of the worlds, the strategies used to construct the worlds and in its construction, the worlds under erasure. This article uses the concepts of postmodern fiction by Brian McHale to analyze Carter’s The Goddess Test. The theory and the strategies are based on the assumption that posmodern fiction is ontological dominant. In his theory, McHale adapts Hrushovski’s three dimensional model of semiotic objects called repertoire strategies to show the ontological dominant in fiction. Those are worlds, words and construction. There are plurality of the worlds in The Goddess Test. The author uses McHale’s strategies to construct the worlds in The Goddess Test . There are also the construction of world under erasure in the novel. Therefore, The Goddess Test fulfills the postmodern fiction requirements by using McHale’s strategies to illustrate the worlds, and its construction.