Metafiction And The Postmodernity Of The French Lieutenant's Woman

Postmodernism is being talked and written about everywhere in contemporary western society, but the concept of it is ambiguous and is not yet widely understood. Metafiction is a typically postmodernist writing model. Many critics and scholars have made a systematic study on it. The French Lieutenant's Woman is classified as a metafictional work, and is also called a postmodernist novel by some critics, but no one has ever tried to employ the theory of metafiction to interpret the postmodernity of this novel. This thesis is an attempt to do so.This thesis consists of six parts. The introduction provides an overview of the appearance of experimental novels in western literature, and at the same time points out that The French Lieutenant's Woman belongs to the postmodernist novel because of its unique style and experimental structure. Chapter one provides a definition of metafiction, and then analyzes the primary language operating mode in The French Lieutenant's Woman according to metafictional theory. Chapter two discusses some experimental techniques of metafietion in The French Lieutenant's Woman. According to David Lodge, Patricia Waugh, and Robert Alter, open form, parody, collage, anachronism, etc, are some experimental techniques in metafictional work. Chapter three focuses on the fictionality of The French Lieutenant's Woman and the reconstruction of the Victorian history in the novel. Chapter four concentrates on the postmodernity of The French Lieutenant's Woman. The conclusion is a summary of the thesis and a restatement of the main points of its argument.