Reality and Subjectivity in Philip K. Dick’s Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines the forces that affect subjectivity in two novels by the author Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. The close reading of these two novels makes use of postmodernist theory as its theoretical foundation. In these works, stable subjects are fractured through a series of disconcerting incidents originating in a “reality shift,” an event that sees the seemingly solid state of Dick’s speculative future worlds collapse. Split into three sections, this paper first positions Dick within a postmodernist tradition developed mainly by Lyotard, Hutcheon, and Baudrillard, supported by critics such as Sim, Malpas, and Kellner, among others. It then defines the reality shift and its underlying causes, three types of science fictional drugs across the two novels: Can-D, Chew-Z, and KR-3. Finally, this essay examines the full extent of Dick’s inquiry into subjectivity by exploring the metamorphoses the subjects of his novels endure.