Arc of the Absent Author: Thomas Pynchon's Trajectory from Entropy to Grace

Abstract

In the simplest of terms this dissertation draws on the work of Pierre Bourdieu to study Thomas Pynchon¿s novel Againts the Day, to do so involves study of the US literary field, the history of positions that Pynchon has occupied, and the resultant trajectory that can be derived from that. This method analyzes the sociogenesis of the author¿s habitus and thus the practice that produces the literary product being studied.