Contemporary Literature And The Postmodern Condition

Miriam Marty Clark gives many â€Å"strategies† for identifying a piece of contemporary literature in her article â€Å"Contemporary Short Fiction and the Postmodern Condition†. One of these strategies is the lack of epiphanies in a short story. Clark says, â€Å"The end of epiphany and the exhaustion of familiar reading strategies and genre definitions call for new ways of reading and for redefinition of both the narrative and the cultural logic of short fiction† (147-148). Raymond Carver’s short story â€Å"Gazebo† implements this contemporary strategy by removing any epiphanies from the work. From the beginning, â€Å"Gazebo† throws the reading right into the middle of a troubled situation. The first line sets up a specific image, â€Å"That morning she pours†¦show more content†¦There is no further epiphany within the story after Holly breaks down from the news. Duane does not have a grand revelation of his wrong doings to his wife and that he must stop in order to keep her. â€Å"I’d open my eyes and look at the ceiling [...] wondering at what was happening to us. But maybe I should be looking at the floor† (33). Though Duane attempts through his words and actions to save them, for her sake, â€Å"I get down on my knees and I start to beg† (35), his mind tells another story, â€Å"But I’m thinking of Juanita† (35). His grand epiphany about their relationship and his true desires also occurred pre-writing, leaving only a story that Clark describes as â€Å"[...] not [containing] durable or ultimate knowledge, but narr ativity itself† (157). Carver has started the story right in the thick of Holly and Duane’s relationship problems and in doing so, has â€Å"[surrendered] [...] the [reader’s] expectation of epiphany† (147) and has left the reader to only wait for the outcome. Clark goes on to mention Raymond Carver specifically when talking about another key strategy in determining a contemporary work, â€Å"Carver’s characters negotiate the wreckage of social discourse, of community and institution† (150). While locked away together discussing their relationship’s fate, Duane remembers back when the â€Å"community† between them was still tenable, â€Å"Holly took care of the books. [†¦] I saw to the grounds