From Romanticism to Postmodernity: Two Different Conceptions of Nature in Julian Barnes, A History of the World in IOV2 Chapters

Abstract

This paper argues for assessing Julian Barnes’ treatment of the nature-theme in A History of the World in 10½ Chapters as Postmodern. It does so by analysing the ideological tensions that arise from its appearance in chapter 4; and by trying to account for their resolution in “Parenthesis”, the novel’s most authoritative chapter. The paper starts by presenting evidence for the fact that the tensions referred to are a commonplace in current feminist and ecological debates. Such evidence aims on the one hand at validating the thematic analysis, on the other at stressing that these ideological tensions are rooted in Modernity. To find a way out of the Modern aporias, this paper draws on the differences between Modern and Postmodern views on “nature”; as well as on their differing conceptions of the relationship between natural and human sciences. These differences provide a basis for establishing the degree to which the development of the nature-motif in “Parenthesis” is Postmodern or not.