Advent of the Post-Narrative: Radical Abstraction and the Refusal of Meaning

Radical abstraction is a form of writing that rejects narrative meaning. It is writing with absolutely no relationship to the outside world or “reality” whatsoever. It is writing without internal logic or meaning. It is writing denuded of substance or content. It is writing stripped of “concept” or grand design. This does not merely describe a literary style; it articulates a final break with the very foundations of representation, interpretation, and communication.

Radical abstraction does not seek to distort reality, critique it, or reimagine it—it seeks to sever all ties to it.

Unlike experimental or avant-garde writing that challenges meaning, radical abstraction attempts to eliminate it altogether.

Even the most experimental literature pays homage to intelligibility.

Fragmentation still implies a whole.

Absurdity still gestures toward coherence through its negation.

Symbolism still presupposes a symbolic order.

Radical abstraction refuses even these normative structures. It is not anti-narrative so much as post-narrative. Language itself becomes pure material—sound, mark, rhythm, visual shape, and textual residue. Words no longer signify; they merely exist as is.