CHAPTER-V: CONCLUSION

V.1 Major Findings of the Present Study

V.2 Practical Implications of the Study

V.3 Academic Implications of the Study

V.4 Pedagogical Implications of the Study

V.5 Scope for further Research

 Chapter - V: Conclusion 193

CHAPTER-V
CONCLUSION

The chapter presents an overview of the ongoing research and

the researcher has presented the main findings of the study. This
chapter also explains the pedagogical implications of the study and
finally, gives suggestions for further scope for research. An attempt is
made to offer critical observations and remarks on the postmodernist
characteristics found in the novels by the British novelist, Maggie Gee.
The selected four novels are sub-divided into two groups. The first
group is of the two novels – The White Family (2002) and The Flood
(2004), which belong to the category of the condition-of-England
novels. The second group is of the remaining two novels. These two
subsequent novels My Cleaner (2005) and My Driver (2009) belong to
the group of Maggie Gee‘s Ugandan novels. This chapter offers a
review of the entire research study undertaken to search the post-
modernism in Maggie Gee‘s novels.
As with structuralism and post-structuralism, there is a great
deal of debate about how exactly modernism and postmodernism
differ. The two concepts are of different vintage, 'modernism' being a
long-standing category which is of crucial importance in the
understanding of twentieth-century culture, whereas the term
'postmodernism', as is well known, has only become current since the
1980s.
Modernity versus postmodernity is a densely packed piece. It
presents an analysis of (aesthetic) modernism, it defends that
modernism against ‗neo-conservative‘ criticism, it gives an explanation
for the ‗failure‘ of the surrealist revolt and it ends with an overview of
anti-modernists and their positions, ranging from the ‗old
conservatives‘ to the ‗neo-conservatives‘ by way of the ‗young
conservatives‘. Modernist that was a prevalent practice among critics,
theorists had a real difficult time in accepting postmodernist values
and ideas and it was looked at it with scepticism.
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 194

Both postmodernism and postcolonialism are ideas and signs

what can be called the presence of the past and a marker of events
that has already happened in the past. Postmodernism draws our
attention to modernism, which it supersedes. The past, it reminds us
of, is lived history and not just a literary and cultural movement. That
difference alone should alert us to the political implications of pitting
these terms together. For ‗postmodernism‘ is not merely a term, a
mere label to designate a cultural phenomenon, for those who have
been through the experience of this. Because our societies, the so-
called Third World, have been denigrated as ‗backward‘ by those who
consider themselves modern, modernity itself has been a problematic
concept so imagine them dealing with the possibility of a
postmodernist society.
As developing societies, the idea of modernity is still distant as it
only moving towards modernity. On the other hand, the attitude
modern literatures is not that of parody but respect for their
equalitarian and committed vision but postmodernist creates a
difficult problem as modern literature becomes a fodder, a parody, a
pastiche, things that have been done by Maggie Gee herself in the four
works that have been selected for the present study. Race has made a
tremendous difference in how the empire treated us. And those
differences, alas, continue to this date. And this is the reason why
Maggie Gee's Ugandan novels are as important in the context of this
research as it shows how brutal the repercussion of colonialism has
been.
Talking of disintegration of social institutions family and
marriage in Maggie Gee's work, it is essential to look at the
postmodernist ethos generally associated with such themes.
Postmodernist roots started somewhere after the World War II when
the entire world was in chaos and disorder. It was a time when people
had to rebel and fight against the inequalities that was happening in
the world and postmodernist creators too came forth doing the same.
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 195

One of the major aspects of postmodernism was the lack of

spirituality and the loss of morality. But this came because human
faith was shaken because of the conflicts and the loss of lives. If we
look at Hitler and his persecution of Jewish people, it becomes more
clear. Also, postmodernism came together with the freedom of colonies
but the existence of colonies became other conflicts. Human Beings,
seeing so much bloodshed totally lost faith in god, immigrants who
travelled to distant countries in search of better livelihoods, too got
trapped in this.
Maggie Gee's works have a lot of biblical references, like The
Flood, which is a resemblance of Noah's Ark and god flooding the
earth to purge it of sins that was troubling the world. But ‗the flood‘
here is extremely metaphorical and has nothing to do in general and
concerns with the characters of Maggie Gee's works in particular. This
game of metanarration could go on and on, since arguably the
narrative remains vulnerable, thanks to the author's concerns. But
this is not the point. What is important in all these internalized
challenges to humanism is the interrogating of the notion of
consensus. Whatever narratives or systems that once allowed us to
think, could define, public agreement that are now being questioned,
by the acknowledgement of differences in theory and in artistic
practice.
Maggie Gee's works have resulted in creating a broader
paradigm that has created as the novels are manifestations of late
capitalist, bourgeois, informational, post-industrial society, a society
in which social reality is structured by discourses postmodernism
endeavours to teach and bring out the problems that were there.
The cinematic technique used by Maggie Gee in her work is
another postmodern creation. When postmodernist writers came
together, their idea was to totally dismantle the modernist setup and
bring a mixture of high and low, to question, to usurp what was there.
Hence, narratives became much more radical, and denounced the
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 196

regular forms of writings. Maggie Gee and other British

postmodernists precisely, create new from the old.
What does the postmodernist try to achieve when he or she is
creating a pastiche? It is a random assortment of memories, memories
that were lost and later found. The attempt of the postmodernist is to
create a long chain of memories. The modernist often in an attempt to
create the pure art refuses to look beyond the 'high' and avoids the
'low'. Here, the high means things that have philosophical value,
things that were used by the aristocrat, things that the makers of the
society feel have some intrinsic value.
Another important element in the postmodern setup is the
narrative technique. If a thorough assessment is done, not a single
postmodern writer will follow similar pattern and that's why the
established notions and regulations came under challenge. A
comparative study will reveal as to how every regular narrative pattern
has been deconstructed and destroyed by postmodernist writers. Is it
to confuse the readers or to challenge them? Of course, it is done so
that the readers can think. A normal narrative often escapes the
reader's attention.
Postmodernist writers have often effectively tackled the subject
of class conflicts as well as inequality. Maggie Gee's novels are
reminiscent of J.M. Coetzee's work, especially the life and times of
Michael K. Maggie Gee is more concerned about camouflaged
apartheid that was happening in England and other countries and no
country was able to save itself from the inequality, class conflict, from
the tremendous problem of racial tension. Postmodernist writers like
Maggie Gee have used their writing as a tool to bring them down.
But the world, as it has become, is now a multicultural world,
where borders have broken down. It is only because we see that the
colonizers and colonized have been able to come together. It is not
easy as problems like cultural gap exists; it is also because the
globalized, multicultural, world is, never easy to accept. The basic
problem is the term equality. It is only when the world will seriously
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 197

taking the postmodern writer to solve. Till then, no way the writer will
let these things go. As Maggie Gee has done in her work or other
British postmodernists have done like Martin Amis who have
consistently attacked the aristocratic values of the British people.
Same goes with other British writers like Angela Carter who totally
annihilated the very idea of decorum and attacked everything possible.
The writers have had their own version of dystopia and they
challenged it.
The postmodernist's world is something that is made of
nightmares. Here the poor and the rich are both under attack. The
global and domestic concern that we see has its roots in history as
history has constantly favoured the rich and not the poor. But as the
postmodernist age approached, conflicts like World War II happened,
the suffering spared no one. But this is not the only aspect of
postmodernism. The suffering that we are talking about can be
existential and that's where the focus was. But the existential crises of
the rich and the poor itself is very different and that's what Maggie
Gee has shown.
Postmodernism relies heavily on confusing the readers. The
writing style itself becomes more complex as it is a challenge thrown
to the reader to understand, to decipher. The writer is a creator here,
and he refuses to challenge his authority and if possible undermine it
at any cost. The reader has to understand beyond the mere words
uttered by the characters. Postmodernist age offers no concrete
answers or hope to the then existing challenges/ issues. And every
postmodernist character is marginalized even though the surrounding
that he is in, gives the hint that he is free. The idea of postmodern
theorist‘s is to discover where the freedom lies and how one can be
free. French philosophers like Sartre as well as British playwrights
like Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett have all created and debated
this issue as to whether the human being are really free or otherwise.
Maggie Gee too has followed this ideal and that's why in her writing,
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 198

we see that not a single character is free, they are all trapped in their
personal hells.
The world has changed and as it entered the digital world, the
crisis of the postmodernist only increased. Media that was the fourth
pillar was even more prying than we could think. But a large chunk of
human life came online and the crisis, the suffering only increased.
Rather the suffering now had a different avenue as such. Maggie Gee's
novels and its characters too focused on that, as they displaced from
one place to another but as they got uprooted their sadness, their
problems too got uprooted and traveled with them and this was not
going to end so soon as long as the postmodernist world stands. New
theories will come out but the problems will remain the same.
Depends on how it is dealt with.
The postmodernist age is also fought with the conundrum
related to sociological, psychological, political as well as economical
aspects. The economic problem after the end of the Second World
War, lost its balance, but this was not the end. The rich had the
infrastructure, and they started exploiting and the freed countries
soon started suffering. Maggie Gee's Ugandan characters like Tendo,
comes in search of that economic freedom that was denied. The
argument that identity does not derive from class positions, never
definitive, always relational and social reality is a differential system
produced a multiplicity of subject-positions. And this is, where the
Ugandan novels of Maggie Gee helps us understand the postmodernist
discourse of race, racial superficiality properly. Inevitably, it casts a
shadow, as it projects a world, howsoever partial or incoherent.
The aim of such texts is not to prevent the reconstruction of a
world but only to throw up obstacles to the reconstruction process,
making it more difficult and thus more perceptible to the racial
tensions. To accomplish this, it has at its disposal a repertoire of
stylistic strategies and other methods.
Nature again plays an important role. The interrelationships
created are another point, as humans mix their emotions with the
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 199

physical objects. The settings come together to create this

relationship. When humans try and transfer their problems to such
non-humans, then and then only the problems occur. A non-human
can never become the companion of the human. Most theorists of
postmodernism who see it as a cultural dominance agree that it is
characterized by the results of late capitalist dissolution of bourgeois
hegemony and the development of mass culture that creates these
difference and they can't reciprocate the way they want.
The increasing uniformization of mass culture is one of the
forces that postmodernism exists to challenge. But it does seek to
assert difference, not homogeneous identity. Of course, the very
concept of difference could be said to entail a typically postmodern
contradiction: ―difference,‖ unlike ―otherness,‖ has no exact opposite
against which to define itself. Postmodern difference or rather
differences, in the plural, are always multiple and provisional.
Postmodern culture, then, has a contradictory relationship to what we
usually label our dominant, liberal humanist culture. It does not deny
it, as some have asserted it. Instead, it contests from within its own
assumptions. Modernists like Eliot and Joyce are usually being seen
as profoundly humanistic in their paradoxical desire, for stable
aesthetic and moral values, even in the face of their realization of the
inevitable absence of such universals.
Postmodernism differs from this, not in its humanistic
contradictions, but in the provisionality of its response to them: it
refuses to poset any structure or, what Lyotard calls, master
narrative—such as art or myth— which, for such modernists, would
have been consolatory. It argues that such systems are indeed
attractive, perhaps even necessary; but this does not make them any
less illusory. For Lyotard, postmodernism is characterized by exactly
this kind of incredulity toward master or metanarratives: those who
lament the ―loss of meaning‖ in the world or in art are really mourning
the fact that knowledge is no longer primarily narrative knowledge of
this kind. This does not mean that knowledge somehow disappears. It
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 200

is all there, inside the writer's mind and reading and understanding
Maggie Gee helps us reach closer to the knowledge that is offered in
the postmodernist landscape.
Loss of ecological equilibrium is random in the postmodernist
age. It is nothing but the culmination of something that was bound to
happen and Maggie Gee focuses on how such ecological problem
misbalances the narrative itself. This is an extremely important part of
Maggie Gee's writing. In the postmodernism the ideological and the
aesthetic have turned out to be inseparable. The self-implicating
paradoxes of historiographical metafiction, for instance, prevent any
temptation to see ideology as that which only others fall prey to.
Maggie Gee's works are historiographies as well, but fictional as she
brings out the history through common men and women. What
postmodern theory and practice has taught is less than that ―truth‖ is
illusory, than that it is institutional, for we always act and use
language in the context of political conditions. Ideology both
constructs and is constructed by the way, in which we live in the
totality and by the way we represent that process in art. These are has
to be natural, ordinary and appealing to common sense. Our
consciousness is usually, therefore, uncriticized because it is familiar,
obvious, transparent and Maggie Gee's observation is more than what
many can digest.
Such catalogues seem to project a crowded world, inexhaustibly
rich in objects, that it defies our abilities to master it through syntax;
the best we can do is to begin naming its many parts, without any
hope of ever finishing. Yet, at the same time, the decontextualization
of words through the catalogue structure can have the opposite effect,
that of evacuating language of presence, leaving only a shell behind—a
word-list, a mere exhibition of words. Both tendencies are represented
through the impossibility of violence and racial tensions that keep on
coming up again and again. Catalogues in postmodernist fiction seem
inevitably to gravitate toward the word-list pole, even if they begin as
assemblages of objects.
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 201

Postmodernist fiction is morally bad art, and tends to corrupt its

readers but this is just a fad created by the modernist critics. It does
so by denying external, objective reality. There was a time when
denying the reality of the outside world could be seen as a bold
gesture of resistance, a refusal to acquiesce in a coercive order of
things. Nowadays everything in our culture tends to deny reality and
promote unreality, in the interests of maintaining high levels of
consumption. It is no longer official reality which is coercive, but
official unreality, and postmodernist fiction, instead of resisting this
coercive unreality or even celebrates it. This means, ironically enough,
that postmodernist fiction, for all its antirealism, actually continues to
be mimetic. Unfortunately, it has chosen to imitate the wrong thing,
and it imitates it passively and uncritically: Where reality has become
unreal, literature qualifies as our guide to reality, by de-realizing itself
in a paradoxical and fugitive way, mimetic theory remains alive.
Maggie Gee herself imitates as she uses history, suffering and
other things to fill up her work. Literature holds the mirror up to
reality and unreality; its conventions of reflexivity and anti-realism.
Postmodernist fiction is a manifestation of a consciousness, so
estranged from objective reality, that it does not even recognize its
estrangement, as such the vaunted fragmentation of art is no longer
an aesthetic choice; it is simply a cultural aspect of the economic and
social fabric. According to this view, postmodernist fiction has become
just another part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.
These are serious charges, and need to be answered. They are all the
more serious for having come from critics sophisticated enough to
know not to identify reality simplistically with the conventions of
nineteenth-century realism. It is too late in the day, even for those
who are most nostalgic for unproblematic mimesis, to recommend a
return to the fiction of Austen, Balzac, Tolstoy, and George Eliot.
Everyone knows now that the conventions of nineteenth-century
fiction were just that, conventions, and not a transparent window on
reality, and that there are other, equally legitimate means of getting
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 202

access to the real besides Victorian realism. Or rather, these critics

are sophisticated enough not to openly recommend a return to the
nineteenth century.
However, the more one probes their critical assumptions, the
more it appears that Victorian realism is, after all, the norm against
which they have measured postmodernist fiction and found it
wanting. The critical problem, not always attended to by contemporary
critics, is to discriminate between anti-realistic works that provide
some true understanding of non-reality and those which are merely
symptoms of it. In practice, this turns out to mean that the only
acceptable anti-realistic writing is antirealism that implies nostalgia
for a lost order and coherence like in Maggie Gee's Ugandan novel
where the immigrants come in search of a better life, while in The
Flood the metaphorical apocalypse is persistent as this antirealism in
the service of social satire.
In other words, writing is acceptably anti-realistic only if it
stands in some fairly explicit and direct relation to a form of realism.
Where this relation becomes more distant or oblique then certain
legitimacy to art that is not realistic. Fabulous art can be morally as
good as realistic art, as long as it stands by its (fantastic) premises
and proceeds honestly from them. Like Henry James, whose argument
in ―The art of fiction‖ (1884) that willingness to grant the artist his or
her subject, refusing to judge a realistic as necessarily superior to a
non-realistic one. Yet in fact the case has been prejudged, as it is
required that fiction should project the air of reality. And that's what
Maggie Gee's work has done- it has projected an air of reality by
taking several things that many readers might find preposterous and
absurd.

V.1 Major Findings of the Present Study

A search of the social institutions which have been prevailing
from the times immemorial is made and found that the family system
is bound by the blood relations. It is said that walking from steps
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 203

together is sufficient to form a permanent friendship between the two

individuals. However, it is observed that the family ties are broken in
the contemporary society. The old structure of the joint family of the
traditional times has totally disintegrated. The nucleous family has
become the standard norm. Individuals are self-centered and they
prefer this break-up of human relationships.
It is observed that the marriage system also seems to have
collapsed. Tendo married Omar, a Librarian in England; Omar
deserted her to go to his native country. She then marries Charles, the
Accountant. Vanessa Henman has divorced her ex-husband Trevor
Patchett. Even then, they continue to communicate and contact each
other quite frequently. Justin is the link that holds both of them
together. Marriage in the postmodern setting is as hopeless and as
meaningless as Maggie Gee portrays in her writings.
The next finding of this study is based on the characterization of
the two young men. Dirk White has a bias against the coloured. He
has attained nothing and therefore, he plays the game of blame to the
others for his present condition. The other young man is Justin, the
son of Vanessa Henman and Trevor Patchett, who has lost his
confidence and his nerve. These frustrated young men show that
rootlessness and unluckiness is the characteristic feature of the
postmodern life of the individuals.
The social as well as the individual life in postmodern times is
almost a meaningless struggle for mere survival. To exist is to live. To
breathe is to live. There are uncompromising hostile circumstances
through which men and women have to wriggle through to pass from
breath to breath, experience to experience as aliens and strangers.
The researcher is of the opinion that love, faith and integrity are
thrown to the winds. Old values have disappeared and wrong, bad,
harmful practices are rampant. What man has made of Nature is that
Nature‘s bounty is plundered and looted. Pollution in the
environment, corruption in public life and violence to others are some
of the malpractices which has become the value system of the day.
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 204

During the study, the researcher has observed the total

disintegration of the self, spirituality reflected in the selected novels.
There is a rat race to gain material benefits in this age of earning and
spending. Gross materialism has become main characteristics feature
of the consumer capitalism.
It is observed that the world is divided on various parameters.
The divisions in the social fabric are like rich and the poor, the have‘s
and the have-not‘s, the developed and the undeveloped, the civilized
and uncivilized, the literate and the illiterate and so on.
The researcher is of the opinion that 'all is not lost' in the
postmodern period of the twenty first century. There are two women
in these four novels that stand out as mothers, not of their sons and
daughters and even of their husbands, grandchildren, neighbours,
other relatives and everybody around them. Mary White is the linking
bond and the balancing ring for her husband Alfred, her sons Darren
and Dirk, her daughter Shirley, her grandchildren, her daughter-in-
law, her son-in-law, her neighbours. Love wins all. Love embraces all.
Love links all. Love encompasses all.
Like Mary White, there is another Mary, Mary Tendo from
Uganda. She loves Justin; she holds together both Vanessa and her
husband, Tigger, Omar and the Uganden Charles. She is reconciled
with Jamil, her son from Omar. She loved everybody, crossing the
boundaries of race, religion and nations.
The researcher speaks out that compassion is a rare virtue.
Vanessa's husband Patchett even after their divorce continues to keep
himself in contact with her, helps her in her need, and repairs
whatever is out of order in Vanessa's house. Patchett goes to Uganda
because Mary Tendo, their former maid servant has requested him to
visit her village and help her in building a well for the thirsty villagers
there. Pachett notices a young boy being harassed by hooligans and
gives him a life. This young man finally drives the car to the safe
destination and brings Vanessa to Mary Tendo's house and there is
the reunion of Mary Tendo and her lost son, Jamil, the young driver
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 205

who brought Vanessa and Patchett safely. Patchett's compassion

makes him attend on Vanessa, help Mary Tendo and rescue Jamil.
Compassion is therefore, a virtue that always needs to be adopted by
the entire mankind.
Further, it is stated that the present study brings out the truth
that developing human relationship is surely a path of progress to the
overall development of the community at large, the society as a whole.
Races, religious, castes, classes, genders, distances will not obstruct
progress and prosperity of human if one heart is linked to the other,
one lamp is lit by the another. This is what the bond of human
relationship can achieve. Maggie Gee emphasizes the boding through
human relationships.
It is also confirmed that discrimination is a vice which has
vitiated social fiber human life. Discrimination is the biased attitude
and the prejudicial behaviour towards others. Discrimination is
practised on various levels and against different groups based on
gender, class, race, religion and nationality. Gender discrimination is
practiced against women. Class discrimination has divided the society
into the groups of ‗haves‘ and ‗have-nots‘, the rich and the poor. Racial
discrimination has segregated whites, blacks, yellows and brownies in
different racial conglomerations, religious discrimination has
separated Christians and Muslims in particular and International
discrimination has divided the world into East and West, North and
South divisions of the developed and undeveloped which have divided
the entire human population.
The divided selves, divided families and the divided society have
torn the entire fabric humanity. The breakdown of social institutions
that have existed from the times immemorial, in the present times, is
a major blow to the social fabric/ unity. It is found that the social
institutions have completely collapsed on account of the man-made
upheavals. The breakdown of the family system itself is a byproduct of
the postmodern breakdown, as the writer witnesses.
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 206

The damage in the relations between the husband and wife

which were brought together through the age-old system of marriage
is another conclusion of the present study. The sanctity of the
marriage system has been largely lost on account of the loss of basic
cementing trust that holds the married couples together. This lack of
trust has caused divorces and separations among the partners in
marriage.
The social and individual life is scrutinized through the study
and found that man has lost his confidence and is confused in facing
life challenges. The loss of confidence has resulted into the maladies of
the present times such as rootlessness meaninglessness,
hopelessness and homelessness. The remedial measures are
necessary to improve the situation that prevails in the postmodern
time.
The hostility with the environment has crippled, constrained
and weakened human beings, in the conditions that exist around. The
hostile circumstances are the results of what man has made of other
men and of course the Mother Nature. The tragedy of the man lies in
his own doing in the postmodern time. Man is getting the fruits of
what he had sown of his own wrong doings. The hostile environment
is uncompromising and man is trapped in troubles on account of that
adversity.
The strong attraction for material pleasures and material
possessions has put men into wrong values indulging in corruption
and violence. This has resulted in the loss of spiritual strength of the
individual among the people. This may be seen in the colonial and
postcolonial conflicts. Largely, the British people destroyed this very
moral fabric whose sole intention was only to get profit.
It is concluded that of all the religions, the best religion is
Humanity. Love and pity of Christianity, peace and justice of Islam,
compassion and wisdom of Buddhism, non-attachment and non-
violence of Jainism, community boding and selfless service of Sikhism,
truth, goodness and beauty of Hinduism, discipline of Judaism and
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 207

liberty and brotherhood of tribal people are all integrated in

Humanism.
Maggie Gee has contributed to the postmodern British literature
through all her writings, speeches, articles and interviews. She has
presented the combination of the popular arts, media hype, pop
music, the commercialism, the technological advances, the supersonic
speed, the evolutionary biology, the interdisciplinary approaches and
the other marks of highly mechanized and urbanized life of the
contemporary times. She has dealt with the loss of spirituality,
emergence of materialism, corruption, pollution, self-centeredness,
lack of bonding in family, as well as, marital relations in the two
conditions of England novels,. The violent fundamentalism, terrorism,
discrimination, widening gap between have‘s and have-not‘s,
psychosis and neurosis, the political divide, the religious fanaticism,
the social disintegration, the economic depression, sociological
separatism, the philosophy of negation, nihilism, the lack of
positivism, the hopeless condition of human existence, the
uncompromising hostile environment and other postmodern features
are reflected in her novels. The method of narration, the construction
of plot, the use of sensuous colour and nature imaginary, the
appropriate structural design, the suitable setting, parody, irony,
pastiche, satire and other stylistic peculiarities make her as the
leading postmodernist female British novelist. Two of her characters
will stand as memorable humanitarian figures - the genuine mother-
Mary White and generously active Mary Tendo.
Maggie Gee deserves the front rank position among the
postmodern British novelists of the twenty first century. She occupied
this place through her novels, short stories, her autobiography and
her public appearances in conferences, interviews and on other public
platforms.
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 208

V.2 Practical Implications of the Study

The first practical implication of the present study is that the
concept of postmodernism, its definitions, its nature, its functions and
its scope are brought out through this study. The most significant
practical implication is the dissemination of the detailed discussion,
with copious examples of the major features of the conceptual theory
and practical implementation of postmodernism in the contemporary
age.
The second practical implication of the present study is that the
exposition, the analysis and the evaluation of the novelistic elements
such as the theme, the plot, the characterization, the narrative
technique, the structure, the setting and the style are given in the
course of the present study. The four selected novels are The White
Novel, The Flood, My Cleaner and My Driver by Maggie Gee. Her novels
are replete with postmodern features and these are examined in
details, with illustrations from the text to support the argument.
The third practical implication of the present study is that the
presentation of textual data, its interpretation and analytical
evaluation and other assessments have the utility value, in the critical
theory of the postmodernism. This is beneficial informative data which
has the practical advantage of the study.

V.3 Academic Implications of the Study

The postmodernism and its features with illustrative examples,
analysed and interpreted in the present study can be considered as a
part and parcel of the literary studies of the twenty first century
literature. It will also have the relevance of being included in the
curriculum of contemporary literary criticism. The theory and practice
of literary criticism and the survey of contemporary literature will
remain incomplete, if the present study, its data and its conclusions
are not taken into consideration, while designing the course contents
related to the contemporary literature and contemporary literary
criticism. Academically, the literary theory is of the great significance
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 209

as it marks a definite progressive stage in the development of the

multiple approaches to the contemporary literature.
The second scholastic implication is that the texts on
contemporary literature and contemporary literary criticism will have
the significant portions of the textual presentation in the materials
production process. Syllabus designing and materials production are
the two areas of the academic discipline and the academic implication
of the present study has a relevance of its own in this regard.
The next proposition of the present study is that the evaluation
pattern of both internal and external tests and examinations can be
properly determined. The data used in the present study has the
potentiality of being put to such use of academic significance.

V.4 Pedagogical Implications of the Study

The academic discussion and the relevant data will help the
pedagogues, that is, the teachers of literature, understand the novels,
in question, in their proper perspectives and enjoy the reading of the
present study. The concentration on the single novelist Maggie Gee
and that too on four of her postmodern novels and the futures of
postmodernism will help the pedagogues to appreciate, understand
and evaluate the novels in the light of the present study,
postmodernism and its features will enrich their use of the present
study. Both the teachers and their students will be at great advantage
through the intensive and extensive use of the present study. It will be
a powerful instrument to the practicing pedagogues and their
students of the present and successive generations.
The second pedagogical implication is that the actual learning
and teaching process and its methodology will make use of the study.
This will help the understanding of the theory and practice of
postmodernism and to find out the innovative techniques of teaching
the similar texts in the light of the present research work.
 Chapter - V: Conclusion 210

It will have benefits to the prospective features as a model of

teaching the theory of literature the schools of literary criticism and
the texts that illustrate the theory and practice of literary theories.

V.5 Scope for Further Research

The present study was exclusively devoted to the postmodernist
interpretations of four selected novels of Maggie Gee. The term
postmodernism can also be used to interpret other novels of Maggie
Gee.
Thematic study of Maggie Gee‘s novels can also be a research
area as she has used many themes in her novels. So, thematic study
of her novels can be an interesting area to study. Maggie Gee‘s novels
represent contemporary conditions in England and hence, realism in
her novels can also become part of research.
Maggie Gee‘s writing technique, artistic plot construction,
setting of her novels and art of characterization can also be another
area of research.
Comparative study of Maggie Gee and other postmodern
novelists can be explored as further area of research.
Discourse analysis of the novels of Maggie Gee can also be
undertaken by way of research, as she has shown thematic
complexities and stylistic devices in her novels.

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