Self-examination And Rebirth:An Intertextuality Of Last Orders And As I Lay Dying

Graham Swift's Last Orders won Book Prize in 1996 with its rigorous structure and ingenious idea.It probes into many themes,such as the death,the humanity,and the influence of history.Meanwhile,it is a novel that never fails to remind its readers of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.This thesis tries to analyze the relationship between Last Orders and As I Lay Dying from the perspective of the theory of intertextuality.On the one hand,Last Orders imitates As I Lay Dying from the perspective of internal focalization,external focalization,the shift of focalization,plot,and structure.Both novels focus on human internal worlds and try to explore the root of their characters' dilemmas and confusions.On the other hand,Last Orders parodies As I Lay Dying in terms of characters and death themes.The major characters in As I Lay Dying always have passive attitude towards life and other people while the major characters in Last Orders are metaphoric of the warmth of humanity between people.In As I Lay Dying,death brings corruption while death leads to rebirth in Last Orders.Furthermore,the characters' attitudes towards history are different in both novels: people in As I Lay Dying are too cowardly to walk out of their old days while people in Last Orders courageous enough to inherit the history generosity and to face the present and the future.In conclusion,even though Graham Swift imitates Faulkner's work in many ways,his novel does not imitate Faulkner's text in a slavish way.There are innovation and breakthrough in Swift's novel.