Plots van een platte aarde. Verhulsts, Verhelsts en Verhaeghens terugkeer naar het grote verhaal

In the wake of Friedman’s The World is Flat, the twenty-first century is often referred to as an all-visible flat world. This flatness both extends and challenges the postmodern ‘end of metanarratives’. After all, a world without reverse might be particularly suitable for an all-encompassing story. This seems to be the conclusion drawn by recent novels of Verhelst, Verhaeghen and Verhulst. Putting to the test existing ideas of literary presentation of modernity, they return to the metanarrative while at the same time giving an account of the main characteristics of contemporary literature: its chronic and ‘allegoric’ character.