lecture_7美国文学史课件.ppt

Postmodernist Fiction Major concepts: 1.emphasizing randomness, discontinuity, absence of answer 2.self-reflexive 3.the rule of the absurd and arbitrary 4.nature of life: elusive , uncertain 5.popular forms Common Techniques 1. irony: 2. playfulness 3. black humor 4. pastiche: 5. parody: 6. burlesque: 7. intertexuality: 8. metafiction: Kinds of Postmodernist Fiction: 1. Novel of the absurd: the universe is absurd, neither God nor man nor theology nor philosophy can make sense of the human situation; 2. Metafiction: Metafiction is a kind of fiction which self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction. It usually involves irony and is self-reflective. Metafiction does not let the readers forget they are reading a work of fiction. Metafiction is primarily associated with postmodern literature. Some common metafictive devices include: 3.avant-gardism: an avant-garde novel represents a clean breakaway from normal novelistic conventions, has little or no story interest, often dull, not satisfying, even offensive to middle brow taste, and is often not readable. Joseph Heller and Catch22 Black Humor The use of morbid and absurd for darkly comic purposes; the tone of anger and bitterness; the grotesques situations of sufferings, anxiety and death --comic way to deal with tragic event --aim to reveal the oppression of man --anti-hero --illogical narrative structure Heller ( May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) Catch-22 2. Themes: -- The Absolute Power of Bureaucracy --Loss of Religious Faith -- The Impotence of Language -- The Inevitability of Death 3. Features of the Book: --Burlesque --use of absurd linguistic surface to reflect the depth of absurdity of the modern world. --formlessness of the book --humor * *