后现代主义小说在思想主题、表现形式和创作手法等方面显现出文学史上最极端、最反叛、最惊人骇俗的特征——晦涩难懂、语言游戏、反体裁、反情节、内在性、不确定性、非连续性、互文性、戏仿、反讽、荒诞、短路现象、碎片艺术等等,学界对此众说纷纭。但究其根源,观其表现,“平面性”是后现代主义小说的共性。本文将分析平面性特征产生的根源,并以唐纳德·巴塞尔姆的作品为例,解析平面性在后现代主义小说中的具体表现。科学是促使人类社会发展的根本动力,小说艺术与时代的发展和社会的变迁息息相关,因此不同时代的小说均有科学发展的烙印。科学的发展带来了识字的中产阶级,他们有闲情逸致来欣赏较为通 Postmodernist novels show the most extreme, the most rebellious, the most astonishing features in the history of literature in terms of their ideological themes, forms of expression, and creative techniques - obscure, language games, anti-genres, anti-plot, intrinsic, and not Certainty, discontinuity, intertextuality, parody, irony, absurdity, short-circuit phenomenon, debris art, etc., the academic community is divided on this. However, its origin, its performance, “flatness” is the commonality of postmodernist novels. This article will analyze the root causes of the planar features and take Donald Barthelme’s works as an example to analyze the concrete manifestation of the planarity in postmodernist novels. Science is the fundamental driving force for the development of human society. The development of the art of the novel and the development of the times is closely related to the social changes. Therefore, the novels of different ages have the imprint of scientific development. The development of science has led to the literacy of the middle class, they have more leisure time to appreciate the more accessible