The Incredulity Toward Metanarratives In Pynchon's Vineland

This thesis studies the incredulity toward metanarratives in Pynchon's Vineland. The theoretical perspective is mainly Lyotard's theory of metanarratives in his Postmodern Condition. Lyotard says, "Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives". Since Vineland is a postmodern novel, this thesis intends to study the metanarratives Pynchon questions and the metanarratives he surrenders to to reveal the essence of the postmodern: self-contradiction.This thesis includes five parts:Part One is a general introduction to Thomas Pynchon, Vineland and the critical response to Vineland. This part is to explain the reason and significance of choosing this topic as the topic of this thesis.Part Two is the theoretical perspective. It studies the most important characteristic of the postmodern-the challenge to totalizing and universalizing truths. Then, it introduces Lyotard's theory of metanarratives. In this part, the thesis tries to give a definition of metanarrative, which will serve as a standard to judge whether a narrative is a metanarrative or not. This part also reveals self-contradiction of Lyotard's theory.Part Three studies the deconstruction of two kinds of metanarratives: myths and history. Myths are always metanarratives that give totalizing explanation to this world. This thesis studies the deconstruction of four kinds of myths: the biblical myths, Buddhist myths, the myth of American dream and the myth of the courtly love. As a result of deconstruction by Thomas Pynchon, no myths can continue to be metanarratives any longer. Pynchon deconstructs historical narratives mainly in two ways. Firstly, the characters and happenings are too indeterminate and haphazard to be qualified subjects of traditional history since history traditionally refers to the causal systems of important events. Secondly, Pynchon deconstructs the methods of traditional history. Because of the selectiveness and subjectivity involved in historical narratives, the objectivity that history always claims to possess disappears.Part Four studies two metanarratives Pynchon surrenders to: television andgovernment. Both of the two metanarratives exist everywhere in society and are all-powerful to influence and finally control the people. The final part is a brief conclusion based upon the above parts. Pynchon deconstructs certain metanarratives, while he surrenders to other metanarratives. As a result, the postmodern proves to be self-contradictory.