Like its predecessor, The Impressionist (2002), Hari Kunzru’s second novel, Transmission (2004), is an intellectual comedy which raises philosophical and sociological questions about the construction or simulation of what we take to be reality and about the nature of the self. The extent to which the self is socially constructed is explored in The Impressionist in the context of the Indian caste system and of English imperialist discourses, whereas in Transmission it is through the messages transmitted by the globalised media networks of the World Wide Web, mass culture, and the “Total Brand Mutability” (Kunzru, 2005, 20) of consumer fashion and marketing. Kunzru focuses on three …
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Citation: Robinson, Alan. "Transmission". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 April 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20089, accessed 26 November 2024.]
