The Language Labyrinth in Peter Ackroyd’s Fiction

Abstract

Peter Ackroyd’s fictional devices are analyzed with a view to revealing the postmodern frame of mind that informs novels such as “Chatterton” and “Hawksmoor”. Special attention is given to frame-breaking, linguistic games, intertextuality, and the issue of authenticity and forgery. The hybridity of the fictional genre, namely the anti-detective and pseudo-historic form, is seen as another device for enhancing the postmodern atmosphere of confusion, indeterminacy, and ambiguity.