ABSTRACT
Through an analysis of Anita Brookner's "wounded heroine", the author defines the type of wound she suffers from and situate her whole œuvre with reference to Northrop Frye's fictional modes, which are classified according to the "hero's power of action". The "wound" that defines the Brooknerian heroine is manifested in a specific brand of unhappiness and the feeling of being marginal, unloved and vulnerable. Her feeling of exclusion and of marginality, both in her own family and in English society, has its origins in the transgenerational trauma of her Jewish origins. The heroine, who is issued from a Continental European Jewish family, is thus situated on the periphery of English life and looks with envy at those who appear to her to be truly English. The anti-humanist element in Brookner's depiction of her heroine is in itself enough to establish her novels as postmodernist texts.
