Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

by Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close blends two distinct genres: the postmodern novel and the bildungsroman or coming-of-age story. Its postmodern qualities are immediately visible in its experimental structure. Photographs, redacted passages, typographical play, and even an inserted flip book disrupt conventional narrative flow. The story's form is as non-linear as its chronology, moving between Oskar's voice, his grandparents' letters, and other textual artifacts. These metafictional and fragmented elements place the novel firmly in a postmodern tradition.