“An Open Mind”, or, the Art of Killing in Jest: Postmodern Detection, Comic Parody and Rhizomatic Labyrinths in Charles Palliser’s Betrayals
“An Open Mind”, or, the Art of Killing in Jest: Postmodern Detection, Comic Parody and Rhizomatic Labyrinths in Charles Palliser’s Betrayals

Summary/Abstract: The present article deals with the most experimental of Charles Palliser’s novels to date: Betrayals (1994). In the first part, I explain a typology of labyrinths and books, following Eco as well as Deleuze and Guattari, and I introduce Betrayals as a labyrinthine novel that fits the features of the rhizome/the rhizomatic maze. Then, I focus on “An Open Mind” — the novel’s seventh chapter — in order to analyze its comic playfulness, its use of parody and its postmodern subversion of the detective formula. The analysis also considers the recurrence of certain themes, motifs and narrative strategies, in an attempt to throw light on Betrayals as a whole by focusing on one of its sections and its connections with the overarching architecture of the narrative.

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