Indeterminacy, Fragmentation And Decanonization

Taking American society from primarily 1950 s to 1970 s as the historical background, Philip Roth’s American Pastoral describes the life experiences of a Jew.A few critics have noticed that Philip Roth presented nonlinear plots in the novel,which opposes his previous writing style. What’s more, the content is also disputable.However, these queries haven’t drawn enough attention from scholars. This thesis will apply Ihab Hassan’s postmodern theory to study closely the text of American Pastoral.By focusing on postmodern features in the form of narrative, characterization and theme, it tries to interpret the real intension of the employment of the special writing skills.Firstly, the thesis draws support from Hassan’s theory on fragmentation to analyze the form of narrative which is reflected by non-coherent narrative order,randomness and openness of plot and abrupt changes of perspectives. Traditional coherent chronological order has been less conspicuous and the plot has become random and open, showing discontinuous history consisted of fragmented accidental events. Also, the swift changes of perspective destruct the continuity of narrative. The fragmented narrative form not only alludes to the disorder of society but also caters for the brokenness of human mind in postmodern culture.Then, the thesis studies the shaping of characters with Hassan’s theory on indeterminacy. By analyzing the uncertainty and ambiguity in different images, it attempts to find the reason and aim of the application of indeterminate characters,showing the indeterminacy of people’s knowledge about surroundings and the world.The thesis also tries to interpret the doubt of epistemology as well as reflection of nullification of traditional moral judgment criteria.At last, Hassan put forward that all canons and authorities have to bedecanonized. The postmodern feature of decanonization will be discussed in the theme of the novel. It will center on deconstruction and disintegration of such authorities as capitalistic system, patriarchy and the binary opposition of reason and emotion. The revolt and attack against these authorities conveys the author’s query and criticism of the conventional systems and powers.In short, America Pastoral has shown postmodern writing characteristics that are in accord with Hassan’s postmodern theory including fragmented narrative form,indeterminate images of characters and decanonization that moves a will to unmake authority and conons, which not only uncover Roth’s postmodern consciousness and reveal the moral crisis but also reflect the uncertainty in the mind of people after the Second World War. Still, the thesis hopes to contribute to the study of Roth’s postmodern writing skills and the theme.