The Originality of Humor in New Sincerity Novels

Abstract

The article presents a brief history and provides an overview of the well-known movement in English-language literature, which manifested itself in the 1990s and became known as “New Sincerity.” The author of the article gives various opinions regarding the naming and genre of the novels within this movement, establishes its chronological boundaries and the texts belonging to it, and reviews the scholarly and critical works that influenced the novels of New Sincerity. The primary focus is placed on the originality of humor in the novels of New Sincerity, with the author describing a number of comic devices common to the novels under study: inside jokes, tragic irony, and dramatic irony. An attempt is made to trace the attitude of the authors of New Sincerity toward postmodernism, popular culture, liberal culture, multiculturalism, modern technological progress, and the historical and political situation of recent decades.