"Secret Female Jokes" : Self-Conscious Paranoia and the Female Postmodern Condition in Diane Johnson's The Shadow Knows
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In this paper I propose that The Shadow Knows is an example of what I am calling “self-conscious paranoia,” which is a narrative style that uses humor to highlight the absurdity of the postmodern condition by trapping the reader in a position between laughter and suffering. Building on a synthesis of theories of postmodern humor and feminist humor with discourses of conspiracy and paranoia, I argue that the narrator’s self-conscious paranoia in The Shadow Knows makes visible the irony that women cannot afford to not be paranoid in a world controlled by the patriarchal system. The absurdist realization that there is no possibility of agency for women in a world like this then offers an escape route from the prison of their own mind. |
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