| The postwar Euro-American literature experienced a transitional period from Modernism to Postmodernism, which was characterized by "heteroglossia" ("various voices"). At the crossroads of the development of novel, The French Lieutenant's Woman, a masterpiece by John Fowles, the famous British novelist, came to the open, showing a talent out of the ordinary. In virtue of parody, this novel explores the British society of the Victorian Age in the nineteenth century from the perspective of the twentieth century. It not only successfully imitates but also subverts the narrative modes of traditional novel by adopting new concepts, new forms, and new techniques of contemporary novel. This thesis attempts to probe into the root cause of the special charm of The French Lieutenant's Woman and its important enlightenments to the development of contemporary novel by analyzing the profound implications: freedom, dialogue, reconstruction and intertextuality embodied by parody on the one hand; and the dual pleasures of writing and reading created by parody on the other hand.This thesis consists of five chapters: "Introduction", "The Situation of the Novel", "The French Lieutenant's Woman: a Masterpiece of Parody", "The Implications and Pleasures of Parody", and "Conclusion"."Introduction" mainly makes clear the purpose and perspective of the thesis: probbing into the root cause of the success of The French Lieutenant's Woman by analyzing the use of parody in the novel so as to bring important enlightenments to the development of contemporary novel.Chapter I: "The Situation of the Novel", composed of two sections, endeavors to explore the background against which The FrenchLieutenant's Woman was written. Section A: "Literature in Postmodern Context" aims to elaborate the cultural background and basic characteristics of postmodernist literature from the macro view; Section B: "The Novelist at the Crossroads" mainly argues that some changes appeared in Euro-American novel writing and critical theory, and that novel, as a literary genre, was faced with crisis, so as to prove the special significance of The French Lieutenant's Woman which came out at a crucial moment. After World War II, the western world entered the so-called "post-industrial" or "postmodern" age. Opinions on postmodernism in the academic circle differ greatly from each other, which creates a view of "heteroglossia" ("various voices"). As a kind of cultural current, postmodernism brings tremendous changes to people's thought pattern. Literature in postmodern context inevitably carries the mark of the time. In the late 1960's, the extremeness in Euro-American literary theory and the gradual extreme experimentation in novel writing pushed novelists to the crossroads of choices. At this critical moment, John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman was published, which found a way out for English novel in trouble.Chapter II: "The French Lieutenant's Woman, a Masterpiece of Parody" primarily intends to prove, with solid examples taken from the novel, that parody is the most striking stylistic characteristic of this novel, so as to make preparations for the deep analysis of the implications and pleasures of parody in the following chapter. Parody is a traditional narrative technique in Euro-American novels. It is, in essence, a mode of aesthetic foregrounding and imitation in a subversive form. The French Lieutenant's Woman is a masterpiece of parody, in which Fowles successfully imitates and then subverts the narrative modes of Victorian novel.Chapter III: "The Implications and Pleasures of Parody", the core of the thesis, is subdivided into two sections, which respectively expound the profound implications: freedom, dialogue, reconstruction, and intertextuality embodied, and the dual pleasures of reading and writing created by parody in The French Lieutenant's Woman. Section A: "The Implications of Parody" is composed of four subsections: 1. Freedom. In The French Lieutenant's Woman Fowles parodies the literary tradition of the Victorian Age, w... |
