This paper examines the theme of identity fragmentation and the deflation of self in Julian Barnes' postmodern

fiction, specifically analyzing Metroland (1980) and The Sense of an Ending (2011). Drawing on the

theoretical framework of postmodernism and existential philosophy, the study explores how Barnes depicts

characters struggling with loss of identity in contemporary British society. The analysis reveals that Barnes'

protagonists—Christopher and Tony in Metroland, and Tony Webster in The Sense of an Ending—embody the

postmodern condition of fractured selfhood, characterized by rootlessness, alienation, and the failure to

maintain authentic relationships. Through close textual analysis, the paper demonstrates how Barnes employs

narrative techniques such as non-linear structure, memory fragmentation, and intertextuality to reflect the

The conspicuous feature of the postmodernism fiction of Julian Barnes is the pervasive vogue of the fracture of

the identity of characters who live in a harsh British environment. Ihab Hassan (1961) made serious efforts to

resolve the issues of loss of self and disruption of human relationships. Hassan argued that the predominant

features of postmodern society are violence, aggression, fear, oppression and alienation. In this chapter, the

loss of self of the protagonists of Julian Barnes is explored. Interestingly, the British novelist focuses on the

gradual and continuous deflation of self. He was confronted with the problem of deflating self since there was

no absolute reality and truth. The brutalities of the Great War brought about moods of nihilism and despair as

man lost faith in religion and God. Primo Levi exposed the atrocities perpetrated on the Jews and the

grotesque, and the scenes of genocide in the concentration camps shattered the faith of people. They believed

believed that all rituals were false and misleading and that no spiritual power was operating in the universe.

The only power is money and state power, which can rule and crush people's liberty anytime. People are freely

robbed and killed in the streets, and there is no saviour. Love had been a source of eternal domestic happiness

in the past, but in the post-world war society, all values are meaningless, and even life has no purpose. They

argue that all religious ideas are misleading. Man found himself lonely in the crowd as he struggled for his

identity. The loss of self had become a reality. Truth had no relevance in British society. In the present Paper,

the process of deflation of self-man is explored. The wave of pessimism and nihilism got impetus by the

Holocaust of the concentration camps of Auschwitz. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Tender is The

Night depicted the nightmarish experiences of the American Dream. All values of human society collapsed,

and the dollar became God in America. Barnes deals with the themes of loss of life and the decline of human

novels explore the themes of human relationships; the characters come in contact with others and develop

relations to enjoy romance, love and sexuality. Barnes explores the fundamental nature of love and romance

and depicts people's strange behaviour and attitude. He is a postmodern novelist who dramatizes real-life

situations to explore the reactions and attitudes of people about love and sex. Barnes depicts the themes of love

from a postmodern perspective. The characters are not serious about love as they are selfish and money-

minded. Adultery and betrayal in love are everyday things in his novels. Barnes' Talking it Over and Love, Etc.

deal with postmodern human relationships. It is not high love found in the plays of Shakespeare, but the

feelings of love are non-serious. For the characters, love is not a way of life; it doesn't sustain their life, but it is

past time pleasure. The characters find a lack of faith, ambiguity and loss of truths.Barnes observes that values

have changed as the postmodern society is based on money culture. His characters are helpless people groping

environment of the postmodern world. His characters are forced to live in a cruel and oppressive world where

values are declining and man has no future" (Patterman 234). Barnes's 1980) is the debut novel characterized

as a meta-historical romance describing the culture of two cities, Paris and London. The book explores the

truth that is there and highlights the struggles of two young men, Toni and Chris, who struggle to escape their

roots. The story is set in the suburbs developed due to a complex mix of economic and commercial

advancement. The Prime Minister of England, Lloyd George, dedicated this suburb to commemorate the

memories of the heroes who had won the war. Barnes describes the landscape of Metroland thus: Metro-Land

is a country with elastic borders which each visitor can draw for himself. It lies mostly in Bucks but choice

fragments of Middlesex and Herfordshire may be annexed at pleasure. A much of the country side as you may

conveniently cover afoot from one Metropolitan Railway Station to another you may add to your private and

main theme of the novel Metroland is growing up and the growth of self-consciousness in developing relations

with the Other. Barnes's main focus is to depict the trajectory of the adolescent identity of the main characters.

1963 is the beginning of their identity, and both are or 16 years of age schoolboys at the City of London

School. They make notes, hoping to discern and record the experiences and reflections of life. Christopher is

haunted by the fear of death and is disturbed by the art. Barnes observes thus: "Belief in art was initially an

effective simple against the routine ache of big D" (55). Toni and Christopher are two 16-year-old schoolboys,

sneering, contemptuous and aggressive. They have inexhaustible energy to explore the Truth of the universe,

establishing relationships with other people in the process of their self–development. Toni believes in the

decadent of aesthetics and is mesmerized by the "art for art's sake" philosophy. He is motivated by the values

of independence, self-determination, and responsibility in life. He believes in the burgeoning principles of

wife from where he had started in his teenage. The plot is replete with scenes of excitement and erotic in

London and Paris. The three-part structure of the novel takes the action from Metroland to Paris and back,

development of a structure, an arc to show how people can change" (Barnes, Metroland 12). Metroland, Paris,

and Metroland II are three interesting sections dealing with various stages of growth. Each section highlights

new episodes and describes new challenges and new situations, and these events are integrated into a fabric of

interconnection. Christopher Lloyd and Toni Barbarowski hold similar views about love, life and sex at the

novel's outset. But their ideas and opinions change with the passage of time and the result is the difference and

separation; break up of relationships. Barnes believes it is not easy to keep lifelong relationships because

human beings are suspicious, greedy and uncertain in their commitments. They have divergent opinions about

life, art, and society. Toni grows rebellious and takes the job of a university scientist. In his revolting spirit, he

refuses to marry. Metroland deals with the challenges of the youth living in harsh postmodern British middle-

class society. Matthew Pateman observes thus: Barnes has depicted the heartrending journey of the life of

Moseley observes that "each part of the novel ends with a recurrent statement of "Object Relations" as Barnes

examines the evolution and the process of deflation of self' (Moseley 16). In the novel's first section,

Christopher, who is self-conscious about his struggle in life, is introduced. He is mature, looking back on his

past and telling how he looked once when he was a young teenager. He has "narrated the ironic ways of his

life, his problems and the eventual sufferings" (30). In the novel's beginning, the two main characters, Chris

and Toni, hold the same views on life, art and sex. However, both the protagonists differ in their opinions as

the plot progresses. Chris is critical of the middle-class sensibility. Toni revolts and joins the science

department at the University. He refuses to marry and decides to lead a lonely and carefree life. No wonder

Chris assumes multiple identities. He travels, and his passion for the art and culture of London and Paris

symbolizes his revolutionary fervour. The French part of the novel is revealing and structured to depict the

new self of Chris in the chapter "Object Relations'' highlighting the memories and awareness of his self as he

admits: ''I remember things" (71). His room is filled with the stuff which hate; the whole room is filled with

unwanted things, and each thing is revolting and dissatisfying" (72), articulating a sense of hope and

frustration. Barnes depicted Chris as a teenager exploring the mysteries of truth: "I went to Paris with passion

to learn love, art and life and to learn new language and culture. I was determined to get lost in the new culture

and explore the street life of Paris" (105). In Paris, he begins to dream of "himself as an autonomous being"

(85). His passion for research is meaningless compared to his exploration of truths about life and its existence.

His stay in Paris transforms his thoughts and opinions. The large city Paris "reveals new life, new history, new

culture and new spirit of revolution. I was immersed in new history and art and got new awareness of life and

art" (93). When he begins flirting with a French girl, Annick, Chris experiences a fusion of art and life. When

passionate life that he led in Paris. Barnes completes the circle as the novel moves from all art and no life. All

his childhood ideals vanish as the real challenges of his adult life threaten him. However, his friend Toni still

Dickens in depicting the challenges of teenagers. He inspires the readers to contemplate life and art.

has experienced life and has accumulated all the experiences of the world. Webster is leading a contented life,

but he gets a letter from the mother of a girlfriend and is forced to go down into the memory lanes and

recollect all the events of the past. The narrator, Webster, raises many questions relating to memory and its

function and role in life in shaping the sensibility of an individual. Imagination and emotional outbursts play

vital roles in the novel as he is forced to revisit his past life to continue his self–reflexive journey of life.

Barnes believes that the self of a man is mainly responsible for shaping and constructing human relations. No

human being can lead a life of isolation.The plot of the novel The Sense of an Ending deals with the themes of

youth and age, innocence and experience. Barnes gives the message in the plot that life can be awful. Tony

Webster is the main narrator in the novel. The plot challenges this commitment to ethics in his commentary on

the instability of memory. But Barnes demonstrates that Tony's real problem is his inability to make sense of

lonely life because of his fractured identity and harrowing experiences. In this period of life, he receives a

letter that compels him to recall the old information. The letter is a source of psychological torment to him as

he is not in a mood to recollect the past. Barnes depicts Tony as a product of postmodern forces. He is not very

concerned about human values and thinks that life is about enjoying sexual pleasures. He has no convictions as

he emerges as a shifty character. Barnes has pointed out the stages of his growth from teenage to adulthood.

His fractured relationships are pointed out thus: I had no doubt that she was not a woman of tastes as she had

read many books lying in my shelf. Her mind was grown up and she looked sensible but passionate. I tried to

observe her activities and found her in dilemma. She had two sides of personality; she thought something else

and did something else. This disparity threw me into a panic. (24) Tony was not a genius and lacked cultural

intelligence. He had poor intellectual acumen and remained on the surface of life, struggling for higher

social superiority. He imposes his cultural norms on others, but he is a big hoax. He proudly says: "I hate

English people who are not serious about life and art" (33). Veronica comes under his magical influence and

follows what he says. No wonder she breaks up with Tony and develops sexual relations with Adrian. She had

been under his influence right from the beginning of the novel, but she betrayed and employed her sexual

charms to bewitch Toni. Adrian treats Toni as his rival.Tony's letter in The Sense of an Ending exposes

everything and unmasks the villainy of each character. Toni suffers because of Veronica's betrayal, but Adrian

pays for his villainy and double standard. His victory in love is short, and the pains he has given Toni are

immense. Adrian and Veronica enjoy for a brief period, but duplicity and treachery remain only for a short

time in life. Veronica, proud of her cultural superiority, suffers at the end of the novel as she fails to achieve

permanent domestic happiness. Adrian commits suicide, and she is punished for her betrayal. Tony, Veronica

and Adrian are in a struggle to develop human relationships but suffer depression and deflation of self because

of their lack of conviction and commitment in life. The novelist has indicated the presence of cultural power

his self-condemnation thus: "Unfortunately, Toni had never seen things clearly; never acted decisively. He

disregarded truer values of life and was not very serious about his settlement and life. In the last phase of life,

he realized the meaning of happiness and contentment" (97). . He is interested in his ideas and prejudices about

others and doesn't bother to think critically and review the situations. He says: "When we are young, we invent

different future for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different past for others" (88). He reflects on

Veronica's character and concludes that she is one of those girls who is ruthless and careless and takes sadistic

pleasure in damaging others" (48). Tony contemplates the character development thus: life outstrips him; his

smallness undoes him. He contemplates the development of a personality thus: How about the character

development? In fiction character development takes a lot of time. I wonder sometimes otherwise there

wouldn't be much of a story. What about life? No wonder, the attitudes and opinions and perceptions of an

obviously, as it was written by the father of your son, it belongs to you. I'm puzzled why your mother left it to

me in the first place, but that's no matter. I'm sorry to have been so vexations. You were trying to show me

something and I always was too crass to understand. (136) Jan-Erik Ruth and Gary Kenyon elaborated on the

significance of old age and its impact on life. Ruth and Kenyon (1996) have expressed the role of memory and

its dialectical relationship with old age thus in building human relations: "Many studies in gerontology reveal

that ageing is a very crucial process as the health starts deteriorating and regeneration of the life cells is not

possible in old age. Humans begin to forget the things in old age often memory is their main source of

happiness" (1). Kenyon has explored the impact of the ageing process on the physical and biological aspects of

human beings and their sociocultural importance. He described the understanding of the ageing process: "life is

vital to each individual, the people struggle to explore the meaning of old age and the process of decay of

this same theme in a particularly vivid way. But that is, I think, to take Tony's schoolboy musings about

memory and history, his own commentary on how he is unreliable, as we all are (one more feature of his

dedication to being unremarkable), too much at face value. (Barnes, Frightened 90). The novel's plot poses a

profound challenge to explore human tragedy. Tony Webster realized that he was old when he turned sixty-

six. He had experienced everything in life; he had explored the mystery of human relations and found the real

cause of human suffering and the need to understand the real meaning of life and truth notwithstanding the fact

that his self- deception clouded his understanding of his past. Adrian's tragedy is traumatic, and this brings

depression in the mind of Tony. Tony's reflection leads him to conclude that certain things may be regretted

about how he has led his life. Being a victim of his own circumstance, Tony's actions profoundly impacted

Adrian and Veronica, distorting his grasp of reality. His unresolved past keeps haunting him and challenges the