An Analysis Of Metafictional Themes In Lost In The Funhouse

AI3STRACT The present thesis is an attempt to make a thematic analysis of Lost in the Funho use by John Barth from the perspective of metafiction. This thesis consists of four parts. Part one is a general introduction to the literary career and literary views of John Barth, with a survey of the content and critical responses to his novel Lost in the Funhouse. Part two is a general discussion about metafiction from three aspects: the major features of metafiction; the background of the rise of metfiction; three recurring themes in metafiction, which afe closely related with the thematic analysis of this novel. Part three is a thematic analysis of Lost in the Funhouse. The three themes are: fictionality of reality, the exposure of narrative artifice, the thematization of the roles of the writer and the reader: the writer抯 struggle in the dilemma of writing and his pursuit as well as calling for the reader抯 participation in literary creation. The thematic analysis of Lost in the Funho use leads to the conclusion that John Barth, as the major figure of metafictionists, reveals the most themes fundamental to metafiction in one short novel. The three themes represented in this novel are actually the two essential aspects metafietion has been concerned with. One is the preliminary and philosophical question of metafiction: the ontological status of fiction, namely, the relationship between reality and fiction. Because contemporary writers view reality as uncertain and provisional, and stress the constructive powers of mind, they maintain that reality is not given. It抯 manufactured with the power of mind through language. The fictitious status of fiction and ii reality is identical. Hence, the discussions of fictionality of reality as well as the exposure of narrative artifice are the fundamental themes. The other is the writer抯 struggle of writing novels in novel ways. The traditional techniques and themes have been exhausted. To be out of the trap, it抯 necessary to reexamine the relationship between teller, told and tale. in Lost in the Funhouse, Barth demonstrates the writer抯 struggle and pursuit as well as calling for the reader抯 participation in creation. Therefore, Lost in the Funhouse is the fictionalization of the theoretical problems concerned with fictive writing. But metafiction limits itself to the representation of problems concerned with fiction only. The coverage is rather narrow and the aspects it is related to are monotonous, which are the defects of Lost in the Funhouse.