Changing Tendencies in Self-Conscious Narratives: A Contrastive Interpretation

Autor: Sedláček, Martin
Přispěvatelé: Procházka, Martin, Robbins, David Lee
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Popis: Thesis Abstract The present thesis investigates correlations between a selection of metafictional texts and narrative theory. The selection consists in two sets of self-reflexive texts. The first one explores metafictional tendencies in the 17th and 18th century novels. To achieve this, the selection largely ignores their provenience. In addition to Henry Fielding's Tom Jones and Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, it also examines Cervantes's Don Quixote. The latter set of texts focuses on post-War American metafictions (John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, Donald Barthelme's Snow White, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five). These represent a coherent body of works from a particular period. Metafiction is generally understood as fiction about fiction. The present thesis challenges those assumptions and suggests interpreting metafiction within the framework of Michel Foucault's epistemes. Metafiction is not conceived of as a separate genre of literature but in the context of broader cultural tendencies in the understanding of representation. Representation is a key concept in metafiction and the increasing degree of narrative self-awareness is viewed in this light. The thesis emphasizes this contrastive and interdisciplinary approach. The text is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is a theoretical...
Databáze: OpenAIRE