On Donald Barthelme's Deconstructive Strategies In Snow White

Donald Barthelme is one of the most famous American postmodern writers. Employing deconstruction as its theoretical basis, the thesis analyzes Barthelme's postmodern novel, Snow White, from three aspects: the textual form, the textual meaning and the textual content to illustrate how Barthelme deconstructs the three levels of the text with the deconstructive strategies. Chapter One attempts to illustrate the center-dissolving strategy applied by Barthelme to deconstruct the textual form. By means of the collage technique, Barthelme subverts the traditional hierarchy in the novel and renders it centerless. The chapter demonstrates respectively the three kinds of literary collages that Barthelme employs to deconstruct the textual form in Snow White: the pictorial collage, the collage of 'found materials' and the collage in terms of the fiction form. Chapter Two elucidates that by deconstructing the function of language on the two levels: stylistic strategies and tropology, Barthelme makes language untrustworthy, thus challenging the conventional hierarchies of meaning and stressing the indeterminacy of the text. It further illustrates the purpose of Barthelme's deconstruction of textual meaning is to disclose the fictionality of reality and history, to subvert the present ideology and value systems representative of the dominant class and to liberalize the public from the fictional reality that the mass media construct in language.The last chapter attempts to show how Barthelme employs intertextuality as a strategy to deconstruct the textual content in Snow White. It first points out the intertextual relationship between the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale and Barthelme's postmodern version. Then it illustrates that Barthelme deconstructs the textual content by contrasting the themes and characters of the two versions. Finally, it elucidates that Barthelme's deconstruction of the textual content can not be conducted if readers do not undergo an intertextual reading experience. In conclusion , with his deconstructive strategies, Barthelme successfully deconstructs the textual form, meaning and content in his postmodern novel, Snow White. ...