Indeterminacy And Meta-fiction: A Postmodernist Study Of Mosaic Man

Ronald Sukenick is one of the most striking Jewish authors in modern America, and as a prolific writer, he has won many honors and rewards. Mosaic Man(1999), is an avant-garde fiction that is generally regarded as a typical postmodernist novel.Based on postmodernist theories, especially on the theories of postmodernist literature presented by Ihab Hassan, Fredric Jameson, this thesis aims at revealing the postmodernist features of Mosaic Man, of which indeterminacy and meta-fictional features are the most important ones. Through an application of these theories to the textual analysis of the book, we will better understand postmodernism, postmodernist features and this particular postmodernist work.The thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter One introduces Ronald Sukenick and Mosaic Man as well as the literature reviews of Mosaic Man.Chapter Two is about the postmodernist theories, which includes the introduction of the history of postmodernism, and a detailed introduction of the postmodernist theories of Ihab Hassan and Fredric Jameson.Chapter Three focuses on indeterminacies displayed in the novel. By means of indeterminate language, indeterminate character, indeterminate literary genre, Ronald Sukenick creates a piece of successful postmodernist work.Another important feature of postmodernist writing technique---meta-fiction is discussed in Chapter Four.The last chapter draws a conclusion that Mosaic Man is a typical postmodernist novel which is challenging but also worthwhile to read and to explore.