Many pieces of literature were written during the Victorian era, often focusing on the concepts of death and love. The Victorian era saw unequal treatment of women and huge technological advances. It was considered an important literary period with romanticism at the forefront. However, the novel Sixty Lights, by Gail Jones, contradicts the expectations readers have for a novel set in the Victorian era. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Jones' novel follows the postmodern movement which is seen as a response to previously accepted expectations in the culture and literature of the time. The Oxford Dictionary defines postmodernism as an artistic and critical style and concept of the late 20th century, characterized by the conscious use of previous styles and conventions, a mixture of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories. Jones uses postmodern techniques to challenge people's expectations of the Victorian period and uses the perspective of marginalized people during the Victorian era to allow readers to recognize different aspects of the time. Jones also uses the technique of fragmentation to distort time and allow the reader to view multiple experiences, points of view, and memories. Jones also references other texts in his novel to foreshadow events and includes the various ways one text references another. The novel, Sixty Lights, begins by chronicling the life of eight-year-old Lucy Strange along with her brother Thomas as they experience the deaths of their mother, Honoria, and father, Arthur. Lucy is the protagonist of the novel, contradicting the expectation for Victorian novels of the time that Thomas would take the lead. Lucy represents the marginalization of women during the Victorian era and challenges how women were expected to behave and think during this time. This is a common practice in postmodernist texts. This is shown in the novel when Lucy was fourteen and working in a factory full of eggs. Rose, one of Lucy's colleagues, who has been "gagged and abused by her much older husband", is asked to be seen by her controlling husband. Lucy bravely confronts him and authoritatively asks him to leave. In response, she is hit in the face with the back of her hand. Although Lucy was shot, she managed to make the man leave and provide the other women with hope and strength, as seen in the narration: "All this crazy courage and her battered, bleeding face, lying on its side in a thin pool of broken water." eggs, which look like many smashed and still shining lights. This completely ignores the literary expectations of Victorian novels and provides a postmodern perspective, revealing how women are just as strong and important as male figures. The character of Lucy also challenges the expectations of women of the time as she openly expresses her opinions and thoughts, acting freely, without being oppressed or controlled by anyone. The marginalized point of view of women continues in the novel Sixty Lights, when Honoria's life is narrated. . Honoria's perspective continues to defy the expectations of literary novels set in the Victorian era by openly expressing her opinions and demonstrating that she is in control and not repressed by male figures, including her husband. When Honoria was pregnant with her first child, she observed the changes in her body and reflected on her changes. The book narrated: “In the first two years of her marriage Honoria Strange had unlearned and relearned her body, and now, totwenty years old, he seemed uneducated again. Yet she looked at herself naked in the mirror and lived her existence as one of complete self-control.” This continues the idea that Honoria was in complete control of her decisions, her life and her body and was not oppressed by male authority figures such as her father or husband who should have had ownership and control over her during 'Victorian era. This postmodern text reveals the perspective of women, a highly marginalized group in this era, and presents the idea that women are able to freely express themselves and their opinions and are more than someone's property. The novel, Sixty Lights, continually changes the characters' points of view and distorts time. This allows the characters to reflect on memories and different points in their lives. The novel achieves this only through postmodernism and the technique of fragmentation. Fragmentation is where experiences are represented without chronological order and include dream immersions and side stories. It is used to imitate human memory. Expresses the idea that time and experiences are relative. At the end of chapter eleven, Lucy goes through her mother's things after her death and tries to summon her mother's face but fails. From this moment on, he looks carefully at every face he sees, with the intent not to forget a face “And every photographic ambition will transform into the evocation of a face and the recovery of what languishes just beyond vision. Years later, in the middle of the night, in a twist of time, Lucy wakes up to find herself whispering the words: mother of pearl. After this Lucy clearly remembers all her mother's things. This use of fragmentation allows the author to replicate human memory and change the sequence and direction of the story. This postmodern technique challenges the rigid structure of novels set in the Victorian era by providing a story that is not linear or subjective. An element of postmodernism is the intertextuality that is expressed in the novel Sixty Lights. This alludes to and predicts the outcome of the novel. Intertextuality is the formation of the meaning of a text by another text. It is defined as the association between similar literary pieces that control the audience's interpretation of a text. The author uses this technique to compare the novel to "Jane Eyre" and "Great Expectations", reminding readers of their similarity several times in the novel. All three novels focus on an orphan who goes through a great struggle or experiences a great loss in his life. Sixty Lights and the novel Jane Eyre both have strong female heroines who drive the narrative, however, "Great Expectations" has a male protagonist but is still just as marginalized and experiences similar struggles to Jane Eyre and Lucy Strange. Jones decided to compare her novel to these coming-of-age novels to foreshadow the experiences Lucy will have and control readers' interpretation of the novel as a journey of self-discovery with a strong female protagonist. The author also uses the technique of pastiche which involves imitating other texts and adopting the styles and ideas of the original while creating something new. This is evident in the novel Sixty Lights, due to the numerous similarities between the texts "Jane Eyre" and "Great Expectations". Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get Custom Essay The novel, Sixty Lights, responded to previously prevalent expectations in literary pieces set in the Victorian era by using postmodernist techniques throughout the novel. This contradicts the expectations readers have for novels set in the Victorian era by ignoring a structure.