Donna Tartt’s Novel The Secret History in the Context of the Crisis of Postmodernism

This study aims to identify the unique features of postmodernist and metamodernist discourse in D. Tartt’s novel The Secret History . The synthesis of these characteristics enables the characterization of this work as a transitional phenomenon, reflecting the crisis of the fundamental attitudes of postmodernism and the formation of the artistic paradigm of metamodernism. The scientific novelty of the work is related to the shift of the text analysis perspective from the consideration of moral issues and genre uniqueness to the inclusion of the novel in the context of fundamental changes of the post-postmodern era. The findings of this study demonstrate that the poetics The Secret History are predominantly shaped by the distinctive characteristics of postmodernism, as manifested through the narrator’s mosaic consciousness, the absence of moral and ethical imperatives, the intertextual inclusions that contribute to the novel’s semantic field, and the dissolution of the dichotomy between ‘elite’ and ‘mass’ culture. The subsequent section aims to substantiate the thesis that D. Tartt’s debut novel exhibits characteristics that transcend the postmodernist paradigm, thereby unveiling pivotal tendencies inherent in metamodernism: an appeal to the traumatic experience of the past, the issue of reflection, the articulation of authentic sentiments, and the aspiration to establish a cohesive social community, in contrast to the postmodern disconnectedness.