The Absence And Presence Of "Reality"

Julian Barnes is a ground-breaking and experimental writer in contemporary British literature who has written several biographies in addition to fiction.But Barnes’ s real intention is not to demonstrate his great experimental skills,but to explore the ultimate real issues through multiple narratives,showing a high degree of subjectivity and a genuine concern for the individual.Flaubert’s Parrot,The Noise of Time and Nothing to Be Frightened of are three of Julian Barnes’ s most celebrated experimental biographies,demonstrating Barnes’ s multifaceted skills and innovations in biographical writing,while thinking and discussing the question of truth in greater depth,i.e.questioning traditional biographical models and objective historical “truths”.The aim is to reconstruct the "truth" of the present time.The study in this paper focuses on these three works as analytical texts to explore Barnes’ experimental biographical practice and philosophy.The first section focuses on the heterogeneity of Barnes’ s experimental biography.In writing biographies,Barnes rejects a coherent narrative,allows for multiple voices within the text,employs postmodern artistic techniques such as parody and collage,and adds imaginary and fictional elements to biographies,considering that it is impossible to present a true picture of the biographer,intending to show that biographical writing inevitably contains omissions and obscurations that do not guarantee objective veracity,and thus dissolves the truth of so-called objective history.The second part focuses on Barnes’ s dissolution and reconstruction of the ’real’.While questioning the authenticity of the biographical genre,Barnes maintains the principle of "truth",insists on objective historical information,acts on his argumentation,and imagines and fictionalizes on the basis of truth.Barnes uses artistic texts as a path to authenticity in biography,deconstructing grand narratives,focusing on personal histories,and constructing a "polyphonic" idea of truth,that is a subjective "truth".The third section focuses on the characteristics of Barnes’ subjectivity as presented within the text.The choice of the biographer and the adaptation of the biographical material are the author’s self-projection.In his biography,Barnes expresses a kind of existential anxiety in the current context,namely the fear of death after the loss of faith in religion and the moral crisis of the individual in everyday life,and he in turn finds a way to overcome the anxiety-love,using love as a constructive ethical paradigm,and constantly making a decision about his own identity and asserting the writer’s subjectivity,espousing the spiritual pursuit of art beyond the flesh,while the actual landing point of the text is the individual’s existential situation and Barnes’ own humanistic concern for the individual.The essay seeks to explore Barnes’ questioning and construction of ’truth’ through the analysis of the textual narrative,starting from Barnes’ representative experimental biographical texts.While focusing on the question of truth and survival,he is also promoting the development and innovation of literature,devoting himself to blurring the boundaries of the genre and bringing together fiction and biography,the interplay of the two genres contributing to the flexibility and vitality of literary creation.