Irony and skepticism, self-conscious narration, the interrogation of their own assumptions and narrative techniques, language games, the self-confessed inadequacy of the author are general traits of the post-modern novel.
Post-modern novels reject the opposition between “high” or elite culture and “low” or mass culture. It questions the criteria by which certain forms/texts I assumptions are canonized, projected and imposed as “good taste,” “classics”, permanent and universal. It rejects the claim of any universal or totalizing theory, a common “end” of all life, or a common ideal and aim. In Lyotard’s words, this is the resistance towards all such “grand narratives.”