Postmodern And Postcolonial Discourses in Yann Martel's Life of Pi

International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 27 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 Postmodern And Postcolonial Discourses in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi 1 Dr A. Balu Vijayaraghavan & 2 Aparna K N 1Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sree Krishna College, Guruvayur 2B.A. English Language & Literature Student, Department of English, Sree Krishna College, Guruvayur ABSTRACT Yann Martel‘s Life of Pi (2001) is a bildungsroman incorporating elements of philosophy and fantasy. It is an experimental survivor narrative, a discourse on trauma and postmodern culture. Life of Pi lends itself to a postcolonial reading as well. Yann Martel‘s biography itself is read along the lines of postcolonial theory, in terms of his travels and journeys. As a postmodern novel, Life of Pi challenges conventional storytelling, embraces ambiguity, and explores the nature of truth and belief. Through its unreliable narrator, metafictional elements, intertextuality, and philosophical themes, it invites readers to question the nature of reality and the role of stories in shaping human experience. Through Pi‘s journey, the novel explores the complexities of identity in a world shaped by colonial histories, questioning dominant narratives and emphasizing the power of storytelling as a form of resistance. Keywords: Yann Martel, Life of Pi, postcolonial, postmodern INTRODUCTION Yann Martel‘s Life of Pi (2001) is a bildungsroman incorporating elements of philosophy and fantasy. It is an experimental survivor narrative, a discourse on trauma and postmodern culture. This survival adventure of 15-year-old Piscine (Pi) Patel involves his endurance against odds for 227 days in a 20-foot lifeboat with an adult Bengal tiger. The narrative invites possibilities for Pi, who is a postmodern survivor, and for the reader of his postmodern tale. Martel adopts fictional strategies and reshapes the survival narrative using metafiction and self-reflexivity to suggest that a survivor must not only survive the crisis, but also come to terms with the consequences of having survived. The survival is interpreted in a International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 28 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 postmodern context, employing postmodern forms of expression in its story-making. Pi contextualizes his early life in the family‘s zoo, revealing an encyclopaedic knowledge of animal behaviour. Thrown from the sinking cargo ship that carries the family and its menagerie from India to Canada, the boy draws upon this knowledge to subordinate Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger, to his will and thus prevent the beast from devouring him. Yann Martel‘s novel conveys a fanciful tale of survival consisting of a vast blue ocean, a lifeboat, a young boy and a tiger. Yann Martel presents Life of Pi in such a way that appeals to the characteristics of modern literature, blurring the lines of fantasy and non-fiction. Pi is a postmodern subject, determined in religious faith and voluntarily decentred from cultural or philosophical ideas. The story he tells at one point becomes an absurd tale, similar to the survival tales that are dramatized. Its sense of parody, told through an existential lens, provides entertainment, a serious interrogation of the state of the survivor narrative and dynamics of memory in a postmodern world. The novel‘s narrative structure – its multilayered focalization and plot sequencing – positions it as postmodern. Life of Pi is considered a postmodern novel on account of its blending of storytelling, metafictional elements, and themes that challenge objective reality. One of the hallmarks of postmodernism is the questioning of truth. In Life of Pi, Pi Patel provides two versions of his survival story – one involving animal and another with human characters. The novel never confirms which is true, leaving reality ambiguous. This destabilization of truth aligns with postmodernist tendencies to question objective facts and embrace subjectivity. The novel emphasizes the power of storytelling, another key postmodern theme. Pi explicitly discusses the nature of storytelling, and the narrative itself plays with fiction and reality, suggesting that stories shape our perception of the world. This self-awareness about storytelling aligns with the metafictional elements of postmodernism. Linda Hutcheon opines that the position of the postmodern author is one of ―discursive authority‖ (151). The author acknowledges the reader his or her presence, admitting his complicity in deciding meaning from the text. The frame narrator constantly adds to Pi‘s narration, and the narratological disruption engages the reader‘s interest to figure out issues International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 29 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 left unresolved. Blending fact and fiction, Life of Pi challenges and engages the reader. Brenda Marshall maintains that, ―the postmodern meta-fictionist challenges the reader to recognize that together they determine meaning‖ (151). The reader is enjoined to dive into the text for meaning, as well as visualize what is presented. Martel uses postmodern techniques such as carnivalization and grotesque to examine alternative ways of experiencing the world. Life of Pi resists all the consequences of a rationalist worldview and infuses the notions of alterity, duality, hybridity and otherness pertaining to postmodernism. They challenge the boundaries in support of a more dynamic connection between characters and environment that generates shifts in the development of identity. The novel‘s narrative structure, specifically its multi-layered focalization and its plot sequencing, further positions it as postmodern. Life of Pi lends itself to a postcolonial reading as well. Yann Martel‘s biography itself is read along the lines of postcolonial theory, in terms of his travels and journeys. Born in Spain, and then moving to Portugal, Alaska, British Columbia, France and finally Canada, then, as an adult, to traveling to Latin America, Turkey and India, Martel embodies a Canadian condition of homelessness. The story of Life of Pi takes place in post-independent India, particularly Pondicherry; the capital of the French colony in India. The narrator exposes severe colonial impacts on the Indians, including the establishment of French schools. Mimicry, coined by Homi K. Bhabha, is ―adopting the colonizer‘s cultural habits, assumptions, institutions and values, the result is never a simple reproduction of those traits‖ (Ashcroft, PKC 125). Mimicry is demonstrated in Life of Pi in the character of Mamaji, a friend of Pi‘s family, who is an example of an Indian man receiving his education in Paris, the metropolis, part of the colonial administration. He enjoys luxurious means of entertainment in the civilized world, and has a passion for roaming among French swimming pools looking for French high standards of personal hygiene. The protagonist Piscine Molitor Patel was named by Mamaji after one of the most beautiful swimming pools of France. The novel has multiple perspectives in terms of postcolonialism. The perspective of the Indian family who leaves India, unable to bear the Indian administration, in search of greener International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 30 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 pastures to Canada from Pondicherry itself unfolds the Occidental perspective that a better life can be promised only by the white. The Patel family had a zoo. The relationship between the animals and the owner is similar to that between the colonized and the colonizer. Just as the owner feels that the animals cannot live outside the comfort zone of the zoo, the colonizer asserts that it is his duty to civilize the uncouth for a better life. Perspectives of Pi Patel about religion and society are conveyed through the symbols of the zoo and various animals in the zoo. Postcolonialism works at two different levels in the novel. The writer‘s narrative strategy mirrors his perspective of the Orient and Pi‘s perspective about the Bengal Tiger symbolizes the colonizer-colonized relationship. Pi Patel‘s family could not acclimate to the new administrative situation that developed in India after the French retreat from India. Times turned out to be unfavourable, so they were forced to leave their own soil. The characters experience alienation in the hands of their own rulers because French practices and way of life have become their own for the people of Pondicherry. Even though they followed all religious and ritual practices, Pondicherry has so many indelible marks left by the French, including the lifestyle, that they were completely alienated from the rest of India. It still remains as a union territory indulging in French cuisine and the French language. The seeking of one‘s identity leads many people on a path of discovery, understanding, and reflection. In Life of Pi, Piscine embarked on a quest to discover who he was and with whom he could have an intimate connection. He finds an answer to his questions that finding a cosy association with someone and deciding the genuine uniqueness of an individual are basic components to fashioning an individual‘s character. Personality is a lot of natural attributes, characteristics, and information that recognizes one individual from the rest. This story is an illustration of the process of discovering the identity of one‘s self. After Pi is rescued, he is taken to Mexico and interviewed by members of the Japanese Ministry of Transportation, who are interested in finding out about the sinking of the ship. The story Pi tells them does not seem to meet their expectations, so they are not willing to accept it because they are concerned that society will not believe it. Pi realizes this and gives International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 31 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 them another story, similar to the first, but instead of animals, he substitutes humans, knowing that the culture in the story presented to them will be more likely for them to believe. This shows how postcolonial criticism has a unique perspective; anything that seems strange or out of place (like Pi‘s story) is not accepted. Instead, it draws unwanted attention to the topic. This unreliability in narration is a key characteristic of postmodernism as it reflects a skepticism towards objective reality and suggests that truth is a matter of perspective. The two versions of Pi‘s survival story – one involving animals and the other involving human characters – leaves it to the reader to decide which is true. The novel‘s ending does not provide a clear resolution, a characteristic common in postmodern texts. This ambiguity resists the traditional, authoritative closure found in modernist storytelling. As a postmodern novel, Life of Pi challenges conventional storytelling, embraces ambiguity, and explores the nature of truth and belief. Through its unreliable narrator, metafictional elements, intertextuality, and philosophical themes, it invites readers to question the nature of reality and the role of stories in shaping human experience. Yann Martel‘s novel is also interpreted as a postcolonial novel, as it engages with themes of cultural hybridity, displacement, survival, and the legacy of colonialism. Postcolonial literature often explores the effects of colonial history, identity formation, and the blending of different cultural influences—all of which are central to Life of Pi. Through Pi‘s journey, the novel explores the complexities of identity in a world shaped by colonial histories, questioning dominant narratives and emphasizing the power of storytelling as a form of resistance. LIFE OF PI: DECONSTRUCTING THE CASTAWAY NARRATIVE In a postmodern view of the novel, the ocean space has acquired a new meaning as a place of leisure. For centuries, this space meant danger, but at present it evokes a sense of safety, allowing people to enjoy and value this space. In Life of Pi, the image of the ocean is a place of leisure while Pi is on board the Tsimtsum. For Pi, having been raised in a globalizing world, the sea image is associated with leisure. Contemporaneity influenced Pi‘s ways of International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 32 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 perceiving the ocean as a safe environment, and even a place of leisure. Another postmodern aspect in the novel connected to his feelings of security is his confidence in modern technology. His trust in technology is clearly stated at the beginning of his adventure: I had bought a map of the world for the trip: I had set it up in our cabin against a cork billboard. Every morning I got our position from the control bridge and marked it on the map with an orange-tipped pin… I loved every minute of it. It was a thrill to be on a ship. (125) The survival manual that he finds on the lifeboat looks very promising at first, but then he realizes that all his navigational knowledge disappeared together with the Tsimtsum. His trust in technology demonstrates a modern and realistic way of reasoning that matches his family‘s beliefs. Martel criticises several contemporary ideologies such as consumerism, materialism and positivist view of truth in the Western world, which is the most significant of all postmodern ideologies. It is structured around the fact that contemporary societies prefer reason over imagination, science and technology over religious beliefs, and realistic facts over fiction. In this respect, the contemporary world sets up a strong opposition reflected in the novel by the two Japanese officials who are investigating the incident that led to the sinking of the Tsimtsum. Mr. Okamoto investigates the incident and his understanding of the world is controlled by logical and rational thinking. Mr. Chiba, however, is attracted by Pi‘s story. Therefore, his point of view is subjective and determined by imagination, meaning that his way of apprehending the world relies on emotions. These two officials represent the binary systems embodied in the novel by the opposition between reason and imagination. The fusion between fiction and reality, imagination and reason suggests that any form of belief should be accepted when it comes to matters that the human mind cannot explain rationally. In this respect, Life of Pi relies on techniques such as metafiction, allegory, parody, carnivalesque and grotesque, which involve the rethinking of the binary opposition between facts and fiction, the reasonable and the irrational. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 33 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 In Life of Pi, aspects of the carnivalesque undermine and dissolve boundaries of space and time to merge the boundaries of rational and irrational. In this aspect, the carnivalesque emphasises the importance of imagination and fiction, and connects them with the ability to apprehend the world in an irrational, incomprehensible and inventive manner. Described by Mikhail Bakhtin and derived from carnival, carnivalesque is a medieval practice expressed through music, dance and other forms of entertainment, exploring popular cultural practices. It puts into action the power of imagination by including the grotesque within the representations of characters, animals and events. Grotesque represents the most important practice within carnivalized writing. The grotesque realism is relevant in Life of Pi as it destabilises spatial and temporal boundaries to merge human beings and animals. The novel is mostly concerned with the relationship between humans and animals. The protagonist Pi is the only human being who survived the shipwreck, who finds himself on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Pi realises that the only way to survive is to start training Richard Parker to submit to him, showing that he is the ―top tiger‖ (168), demarcating space so that both of them can have their own territory: I had to make him understand that I was the top tiger and that his territory was limited to the floor of the boat, the stern bench and the side benches as far as the middle cross bench. I had to fix in his mind that the top of the tarpaulin and bow of the boat, boarded by the neutral territory of the middle bench, was my territory and utterly forbidden to him. (168) The training sequence in the narrative parodies the traditional adventure novel and the classical castaway narrative that were once defined by heroism, masculinity, conquest and domination. But Pi‘s lifeboat resembles a floating circus where he surrenders himself to his savage existence in his continuous struggle to stay alive. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 34 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 Pi‘s encounter with a cannibalistic Frenchman is considered a narrative strategy to undermine the rational side of the novel, stressing the futility of human existence. Both Pi and the Frenchman are blind as a result of being lost at sea for many days without food or water. The Frenchman tries to strangle Pi, but Richard Parker attacks and kills him: This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker. He gave me life, my own, but at the expense of taking one. He ripped the flesh of the man‘s frame and cracked his bones. The smell of blood filled my nose. Something in me died then that has never come back to life. (255) Grotesque realism is also underlined throughout the novel by the brutal representations of the realities Pi faces during his shipwreck. There is a lot of blood and death in the story, and all the violent acts are recollected in detail – the hyena attacking the zebra and the orangutan, and Richard Parker killing the hyena and the Frenchman. Martel‘s references to physical suffering and violent acts signify that humans are dominated by impulses and instincts, behaving like animals, regressing to a savage state of being in extreme circumstances. Therefore, grotesque realism shows that extreme conditions and surroundings lead humans into a degraded state of mind, corrupting the moral sense of the individual. However, Life of Pi reveals the complex nature of human bestial relations, using magical incarnations as a supporting supplement to the life-threatening existence of Pi. The hero experiences a ‗Darwinian‘ struggle for survival, as he is not only stranded at sea without enough resources, but also undergoes the trial of coexisting with a predator. Brenda Marshall underscores the blending of the magical and the real: ―Life of Pi‘s narrative structure falls into magic realism which blurs the boundaries between what is ‗magic‘ and what is ‗real‘. In Life of Pi, the blurring takes the form of a lack of distinction between the animals on the boat and the characters they represent between the animal world and the human world – between imagination and reality‖ (179). The novel highlights the power of storytelling to create a sense of the magical that challenges any conclusive perspective. Through its use of magic realism, Life of Pi becomes more than just an adventure story, since it addresses some of the most complex and meaningful issues. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 35 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 When Tsimtsum sinks with his entire family on board, Pi finds himself in a life-or-death confrontation with the powers of nature. He says: ―Every single thing I value in life has been destroyed. And I am allowed no explanation? I am to suffer hell without any account from heaven? In that case, what is the purpose of reason, Richard Parker?‖ (108). With these words he addresses the tiger, and from hence on a human-animal bond is established between them. He expresses his appreciation for Richard Parker‘s presence through his fight-for-survival ordeal: ―It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peace, purpose, I dare say even wholeness‖ (179). What Pi experiences fulfils one of the major components of a magical text. The tiger‘s presence triggers in Pi the will to live, and instigates him to develop a practical survival strategy based on coexistence. Pi‘s sense of companionship with the tiger contributes strongly to Pi‘s mental health. Pi‘s behaviour, in contrast to the tiger‘s, is a highly emotional expression of affection and a promise to save Richard Parker as Richard Parker saved him. The descriptive details of the animals‘ behaviour on the boat and how they attack and eat each other invite the reader to concede to the plausibility of what is depicted. As the improbability of the events increases, a magical aura is created. In Martel‘s novel, carnivalization and grotesque realism undermine, subvert, and erase the borders between rational and irrational, analysing Pi‘s savage behaviour resulting from his physical suffering, limitations and deprivations. The accent falls here on the irrational part of human existence, highlighting the fact that established authority and truth are relative – it also challenges the individual identity. Both stories in the novel suggest that human nature is dual, made up of positive and negative traits, and individual identity is mostly an unbalanced hybridization between the two. The author views the individual identity as a shifting construct at a social and cultural level, resulting in the destabilisation of any dichotomy between the rational and the irrational, converging different modes of existence, allowing the human being to exist in a liminal and transitory state. In Life of Pi, Pi‘s character transforms himself, becoming a hybrid with human and animal traits, oscillating between the rational and the animalistic. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 42 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 According to Lyotard, postmodernism also constructs a condition that he called ―anything goes‖ in which things are done without following the rules that have been constructed and considered ―right‖ or ―good‖ by modern society. In postmodern society, an artist or a writer produces their works ―not in principle governed by pre-established rules, and they cannot be judged according to a determining judgement, by applying familiar categories to the text or to the work of art‖ (81). The artist and writer make their own rules. Yann Martel in Life of Pi reflects the postmodern condition by projecting supernatural events and objects. Pi taming Richard Parker in the lifeboat in the middle of the ocean is the representation of ―anything goes‖. Yann Martel emphasizes how his work creates its own rules. He also shows that everything is possible in the postmodern condition. Pi‘s strange religious practice of Hinduism, Christianity and Islam started when he was in Pondicherry. Martel rejects the rule of accepting a single religion and projects three religions in one person. This represents the postmodern condition of ―anything goes‖, that one can choose to be a believer or not, or that they can choose whether they want to believe in one religion or more. Life of Pi carries problematic undertones about sustainability. Written by a male, Frenchspeaking, white Canadian, it elects as its protagonist an Indian boy who hails from a onceFrench colonial settlement in India, whose life falls apart, who overcomes all odds, and whose ‗happy ending‘ materialises in North America. Pi‘s journey is at the cost of appalling loss – his parents and brother, his nonhuman companions, his home – and he undergoes near-starvation at sea. These events are structurally linked to the novel‘s global outcome, which Pi‘s traumatic transformation achieves. The narrator of the novel who presents himself as its author meets Piscine in his apartment in Toronto many years after the ordeal in the Pacific. While being at his place, the narrator notices some interesting issues that tell a lot about the adult Pi and his identity. The immigrant has never broken his ties with the country of his childhood. He is still a believer in the three religions – there are pictures of Shiva, the Virgin Mary, and wooden crosses on the walls. Another change in Piscine‘s identity is the fact that he is a part of a new family. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 43 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 The protagonist undergoes a lot of identity changes during his voyage through the Ocean. He faces extreme situations, most of which are full of violence. During his strand Pi is not only forced to resign from his vegetarianism but also to kill. He develops self-schemata of ―I as a hunter‖ and ―I as a sinner.‖ He acts against all his believes, his ipse identity. This breaks him down and pushes to create his own ―here and now‖ – an illusionary algae island, where he and the tiger can rest. The character becomes a non-subject and deepens in his fantasies, which almost makes him lose his mind. However, Pi is strong enough to overcome the depression and win back his humanity. He becomes a subject again and decides to leave the place. With time, he starts a new family and gains new roles as a husband and a father. Pi stays a Christian and a Muslim while never forgetting his Hindu roots. The voyage in the Pacific revealed both the weakness and the strength of Pi‘s character. Nevertheless, it has not changed his priorities. Family and religion, the two aspects of his life which were important for him as a child, stay equally important after his voyage. Analysing and contextualising Life of Pi as a postmodern and postcolonial novel, the past can be brought to life only through the narrative. Postmodern narratological techniques are used to demonstrate the dominant shifts that express social and cultural transformations within our contemporary society. Pi‘s story may look unrealistic, but Martel takes advantage of all postmodern literary devices to give the novel a realistic touch. His story is a hybridisation of realism and myth, often giving a touch of surrealism. Pi destabilises his tale, offering two versions of his adventure – one with animals and another without. Inverting the traditional animal-human relationships, Life of Pi refutes the binary divisions between animal and the human, civilisation and wildness, and rational and mysterious. The reader shares a partnership with the postmodern writer figuring out the meaning of the text. As Linda Hutcheon remarks, ―the present and the past, the fictive and the factual: the boundaries may frequently be transgressed in postmodern fiction, but there is never any resolution of the ensuing contradictions‖ (69). By and large, postcolonial literature brings to life such vivid experiences, and postmodern theory contributes in enriching the same. Life of Pi is such a model of a postmodern novel, bringing a postcolonial discourse in human-animal relationships International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 Special Issue October 2025 Received: 3 October 2025 44 Revised: 5 October 2025 Accepted: 8 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17349299 as an allegory of the colonizer-colonized relationship. Humans and animals are set on the same pedal as an illustration of a postmodern perspective on postcolonial theory. References Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. Post-colonial Studies: The Key Concepts (PKC). Routledge, 2007. Duncan, Rebecca. ――Life of Pi‖ as Postmodern Survivor Narrative.‖ Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal 41.2 (2008): 167-183. Dwyer, June. ―Yann Martel‘s Life of Pi and the Evolution of the Shipwreck Narrative.‖ Modern Language Studies 35.2 (2005): 9-21. Hutcheon, Linda. The Politics of Postmodernism. Routledge, 2002. Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester University Press, 1984. Marshall, Brenda K. Teaching the Postmodern: Fiction and Theory. Routledge, 1992. Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Penguin India, 2002.