Forming Identity in Jennifer Egan's Novels

KOUKLÍKOVÁ, Tereza

This diploma thesis focuses on the question of identity and its formation in the novels of the contemporary American author, Jennifer Egan. At first, it characterizes the concept of identity in literature in relation to literary characters, and it attempts to define the term as such. After the introduction, it moves to situating the concept in particular literary periods, with an emphasis on the context in which the writer has built her career of a successful novelist and in which there is a continuation of postmodern heritage on the one hand and the emergence of contemporary novelistic writing that is sometimes called "post-postmodernism" on the other hand. In the practical part, the thesis examines selected Egan's novels, Look at Me, The Keep, A Visit from the Goon Squad a Manhattan Beach, and thoroughly analyses how she deals with the topic. By a method of close-reading and interpretation, it aims to capture the essence of characters' identities, if there is any, and subsequently to identify the nature of today's American fiction.

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