Abstract

This research was aimed at contributing to the effort of narrowing down the knowledge gap that exists in Ethiopia regarding postmodernism as an avant-garde style in literary studies. The core objective of the study was to identify the major stylistic features of postmodernism in the selected Amharic novel ኤላን ፍለጋ/የኣዞ ኮሌጅ (Elan Filega/Ye’azo Collej) which was used as a primary source of data. The design of research is descriptive. Important excerpts for the analysis were identified from the novel through a Close Reading technique and were transcribed into English using The Communicative Approach. The data used as textual evidences were identified after a critical reading based on the knowledge of postmodernism obtained from the literature review where by the postmodernist Literary Theory Frame Works were employed during the progress of data identification and coding. The method for data analysis was qualitative. All the concepts raised and analyzed and all the judgments made are supported by clearly stated textual evidences from the novel so that the research findings will be reliable. The study has shown that the novel is rich in features of postmodernist literature like fabulation, parody, radical plurality, intertextuality, magic realism, fragmentation, playfulness, and postmodern allegory.

Key words: Postmodernism, novel, Elan Filega/Ye’azo Collej (a search for Ela/Crocodile College)