the following chapter as Stephen and Mr. Deasy discuss history. For Stephen, history is not something that can be told in a detached, universal manner. Rather, history is a “nightmare,” which suggests subjectivity, imagination, and dreams (bad dreams at that). Deasy seems to take up an anti-postmodernism point of view when he replies that all “human history moves towards one great goal, the manifestation of God.”

The novel itself seems to debunk Deasy’s perspective with its emphasis on fragmentation. The novel is broken down into disparate viewpoints. Stephen, Leopold, and Molly all get a chance to command the text in some way. Other minor characters also take over the text for a time. For example, by including Martha’s letter to Leopold, Martha receives a brief chance to control the text. Martha’s letter leads to further fragmentation because she addresses Leopold as Henry.

The postmodern elements arguably come together emphatically in the last section narrated by Molly. Here, Molly does away with grammatical rules, expresses the deeply personal nature of experience, and welcomes fragmentation in how she moves from one anecdote/emotion to the next.