Treagus, MandyMurphet, JulianAdams, Benjamin Thomas2025-08-082025-08-082024https://hdl.handle.net/2440/146661Both the literary and cultural reputation of American writer Charles Bukowski has been most powerfully defined by a series of ‘either/or’ dichotomies concerning his significance for questions of individual subjectivity, representations of gender, the role of public intellectuals and how comic modes of expression can be used in either inclusive or exclusionary ways. My thesis argues that, in all these areas, Bukowski’s writing and persona in fact complicate, challenge, and frequently exceed the bounds of these ‘either/or’ terms in which he is often read and represented. I suggest that, in exceeding the terms of these dichotomies, Bukowski aligns with and can be productively read through a postmodern humanist lens, which also seeks to reevaluate various binaries across philosophical, political, cultural, and literary fields of knowledge. This conceptual lens is non-essentialist and self-reflective, premised on the idea that ‘humanity’ or ‘the human’ should be retained as valuable categories of thought and inquiry while also remaining open to ongoing critical re-assessment. Regarding literary studies specifically, I argue for a postmodern humanist perspective that, as I see it, does not deny the ways in which texts and their authors can generate resistance among readers. Thus, this thesis takes a postmodern humanist approach to explore the complexities and frequent contradictions of reading Bukowski as an example of how writers, texts and readers interact – both positively and negatively – in a range of philosophical, aesthetic, and socio-political ways. In short, it seeks to highlight the ways in which ‘either/or’ modes of analysis can be rethought in ‘both/and’ critical terms.enCharles BukowskiPostmodern HumanismSubjectivityGenderPubllc IntellectualsComedyThesis