The Symbolic Past in Graham Swift’S Last Orders

This essay examines the concept of the past in Graham Swift’s Last Orders, showing that it is illustrated through symbols in a postmodernist manner, being associated with the figure of a dead character perceived as a living presence and with a book whose analysis can offer multiple interpretations. Focusing on the symbols of the past and evincing the metafictional condition of Graham Swift’s novel, this essay remarks that the past is open to the readers’ analysis and different interpretations.