Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Hess, John J.

Thesis/Dissertation Co-Chair

Luria, Rachel

Abstract

Set at the end of the 1960s in Southern California, Thomas Pynchon's novel Inherent Vice (2009) is a nostalgic and parodic take on the hard-boiled crime genre. With a nebulously defined search for an erstwhile lover and intimations of foul play from global corporations, its conventional plot construction has led most critics to view the frequency with which its private eye protagonist, Doc Sportello, consumes and distributes cannabis while detecting as a hyperbolic motif designed to accentuate the ostentation of the book’s stylistic parody. This thesis argues that Inherent Vice uses cannabis as a symbolic embodiment of a way of thinking about exchange that effectively circumvents the problems Pynchon perceives to be posed by capitalism. Inherent Vice represents a stylistic departure for Pynchon in that, by advocating the repeated institution of small-scale economies of gift exchange, it offers a specific proscriptive ethical guideline for readers wishing to resist capitalism.

Comments

Includes bibliography.

Extent

50 p.

Identifier

FA00003621

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