A READING OF THE APOCALYPSE IN THOMAS PYNCHON'S GRAVITY'S RAINBOW

Abstract

Although Thomas Pynchon incorporates apocalyptic narratives in his highly complex novel Gravity's Rainbow (1973), no apocalyptic events materialize in that novel. Each apocalyptic narrative is set and then subverted or effaced through the promotion of a counter transcendence which is mainly textual in nature. Pynchon interrogates the apocalypse as a visual spectacle of the media culture which entraps the readerconsumer into a false reality.