The Broken Self in Postmodern America: Identity, Society, and Cultural Disillusionment in William Gaddis’s Fiction

Abstract

William Gaddis’s fiction presents postmodern America as a world of fractured selves, unstable values, and collapsing social structures. His novels expose the difficulty of maintaining an authentic identity in a society shaped by capitalism, imitation, bureaucracy, institutional language, and cultural exhaustion. This paper examines the representation of the broken self in Gaddis’s fiction, particularly in The Recognitions, J R, and A Frolic of His Own. It argues that Gaddis’s characters experience identity not as a unified inner truth but as a fragmented condition produced by external systems. Through his complex narrative techniques, fragmented dialogue, and satirical treatment of American institutions, Gaddis reveals a society in which individuals are alienated from art, morality, community, and even themselves. His fiction therefore becomes a major postmodern critique of American life, showing how the modern subject is broken by false cultural values, economic pressures, and institutional absurdities.