The text is an extract from David Lodge Nice Work.

The novelist introduces Robyn while she is giving a lesson at University. However the introduction to the character is a pretext to present the main features of a Postmodernist character.

Mr Lodge presents Robyn by contrast to another character, then he mentioned her own philosophy which is based on some Postmodernist beliefs.

Robyn does not believe in the concept of character, or better to say, in the traditional concept of character, because she thinks that the concept is connected with the rise of Capitalism. In this way she creates a parallel between the birth of the novel and the advent of Capitalism.

Robyn rejects also the idea of "self" because she is firmly convinced that there is no a unique identity or self on which a character is in total control of.

According to the idea that every person is a mixture of more identities , every text is a product of intertextuality, a mixture of more texts. It follows that there are only production, there are no origins and that's the reason why there are no longer "authors".

Her philosophy is defined as semiotic, because it speaks to signs, which can be interpreted. But if everyone can give his own interpretation, it means that there cannot be an interpretation recognized as the right one.