This thesis challenges the persistent explication of contemporary literature through the narrative structures and aesthetics of established literary forms. British novelist Tom McCarthy’s text "C" plainly incorporates narrative elements of the Bildungsroman, modernist aesthetics, and postmodern aesthetics, yet ironic treatment of the aesthetics of each form through dissonant style asserts an insurmountable gap between inherited narrative structures and the language of McCarthy’s fiction. Through close reading, I argue that the novel’s style expresses the interiority of the central figure, and that consequently a gap emerges between personhood and inherited conventions. This incompatibility highlights elements of consciousness which cannot be read through traditional formal schemas but may be partially illuminated through synthesis of elements that are usually opposed to each other. McCarthy’s contemporary novel compels innovative readings of human interiority, disentangled from strict adherence to literary forms inherited from the past.