The Event within the Narrative: A Postmodernist Study of “The Most Handsome Drowned Man in the World” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”

Abstract

Postmodernism critiques modernity’s grand narratives and utopias. The study is grounded in Jean Francois Lyotard’s postmodern theory, which examines how the differend and the event in narratives disrupt established norms and traditions. This research explores Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “The Most Handsome Drowned Man in the World” alongside Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” to discover the notions of postmodernism within the narratives. It is a qualitative study that employs narrative analysis to explore the postmodern concept of the event and the differend proposed by Jean-François Lyotard’s postmodernist theory. It reflects the postmodern scepticism towards grand narratives and embraces diversity and fragmented perspectives. The study highlights their contrasting responses to disruptive events. The arrival of a mysterious drowned man in a village is an event that ensues reevaluation of beauty, identity, and community values. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s text builds around differend that challenge the nature of truth and societal constructions. Le Guin’s narrative probes individual moral agency, while Garcia Marquez emphasises communal transformation. The introduction of hidden suffering is an event in the narrative: a mentally impaired child confined to a basement whose misery sustains the idyllic existence of the city. This revelation challenges the idealised facade of Omelas, exposing a profound ethical dilemma. This paper enriches the existing scholarship by offering a comparative postmodernist analysis of these texts. Previously, both have been explored individually but not in relation to each other through the notions of the event and differend. The findings suggest that the arrival of a drowned man and the hidden suffering serve as events that prompt collective transformation and emphasise ethics for societal well-being. Both stories invite readers to question their ideologies and the utopia of the grand narratives.

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