Metafiction and Social Commitment in Pynchon's V.
The aim of this paper is to analyse Thomas Pynchon's V. within the tradition of metafictional literature, and to show that it proposes a new view of social commitment for the novel. The paper studies V. as a parody of reflexive literature in order to reveal that its reflexive nature emphasises...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad de Zaragoza
1993-12-01
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| Series: | Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies |
| Online Access: | https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/11505 |
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| Summary: | The aim of this paper is to analyse Thomas Pynchon's V. within the tradition of metafictional literature, and to show that it proposes a new view of social commitment for the novel. The paper studies V. as a parody of reflexive literature in order to reveal that its reflexive nature emphasises the novel's incapacity to shape its material and bestow a truthful meaning on it. History, the act of narration, language's relationship with reality, the metaphorical and metonymical functions of language and mises-en-abyme are some of the strategies the novel parodies. Such reflexive mechanisms are refused the possibility of providing an integrating meaning. They are inscribed in a linguistic system whose processes of codification entail a trasformation and manipulation of reality. As a conclusion, the text proposes the absence of language as an alternative to a state of affairs which has been traditionally used by the dominant classes in order to oppress the rest of society.
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| ISSN: | 1137-6368 2386-4834 |