Example: The Holy Grail (which incidently also opens as a story within a story), Percivale experiences several hallucinations on his journey through the desert, and even what is real doesn’t seem real. As Percivale remarks in the retelling, “All men, to one so bound by such a vow, and women were as phantoms.” (221)

The Last Tournament – While journeying to Isolt with his tournament prize, Tristam falls asleep. “He dreamed; but Arthur with a hundred spears rode far…” (259) and the narrative abruptly switches to Arthur’s battle with the Red Knight, which appears to be a real event in the narrative until…”Then, out of Tristram waking, the red dream fled with a shout.” (261) It seems like the battle was real, but it could have all occurred in Tristram’s head. We don’t know. This sort of thing reminds me of Latin American postmodern writers like Borges.

So I guess I agree that Tennyson’s rather postmodern, although the postmodern aspects seem more in the little details. The big picture of the narrative seems to follow convention fairly well.