Crypto-Postmodernism, Pseudo-Postmodernism and Pre-Postmodernism: 'Tay John', 'Lord Jim', and the critics

Although it has been claimed that Howard O'Hagan's Tay John anticipates many of the features of postmodern fiction, an extended comparison with Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim reveals that o'Hagan's methods are those of romantic realism rather than early modernism, not to mention later postmodernism. The comparison enables us accurately to characterize O'Hagan's narrative art, to identify its relevant antecedents and milieu, and to indicate the limited extent to which his novel is a truly hybrid fusion of Euro-American and Aboriginal story elements and methods.