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American Metafiction
Agreg2
2013-2014
I.
Introduction :
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
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2013-2014
Postmodernism:
A similar use of fragmentation but the implications are different. In
modernist literature, the use of fragmentation does not prevent the
reader from reconstructing the plotline. In Postmodern writings, we
are always prevented from reaching that stage.
A different use of psychoanalysis: Modernist writings display a
dogmatic belief in psychoanalysis while postmodern writings tend to
have a critical use of it.
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
Agreg2
2013-2014
The Sheriff
The opening section is framed by the first-person narrator (the
sheriff) that announces the familiar in the western narrative. The
figure of the sheriff in the conventional western stands for law and
order. This is meant to encourage our expectations of the typical
western plot as we get introduced to the constant threat incarnated
by the forces of the wilderness as opposed to the forces of law and
order this is a lawless country. The comic absurdities are
emphasized through the fact that the task of keeping order consists
in spying on the townspeople rather than protecting them. This
comic absurdity gradually destroys the reliability of the narrator as
he associates his existence with the environment of the jail. Thus,
the boundaries between the law keeper and the outlaw are blurred.
The Sheriff also creates confusion between the jail as an institution
of punishment and the brothel (the saloon) that incarnates moral
IV.
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
Agreg2
2013-2014
pioneers
symbolize
civilization.
This
critical
comment
questions the artificial process through which the native tribes are
often depicted in the conventional western narrative. The Beetle Leg
demystifies the imperialist vision that informs the portrayal of the
native figures. Their emergence encourages us to expect that
traditional scene of confrontation between the forces of the
wilderness and the representatives of civilization.
Notice
The novel is thus a critique not only of the literary form but
through texts.
Even historical
interpretation.
narratives
came
into
being
through
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
Agreg2
2013-2014
discourses.
In fiction, nothing is natural, everything is artificial.
In postmodern metafiction, the myth of originality
is
abandoned.
VI.
The Great
Slide
It is presented as the source of a constant threat.
It is what gives Mulges death a pseudo-epic quality.
It announces the dead Mulge as a central figure.
The third person voice is also an accomplice in turning
him into a myth. His reliability is undermined just like the
VII.
Sheriffs credibility.
The dam incarnates a constant threat. Its an area of
imminent apocalypse.
No psychological impact is produced by this accident on
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
Agreg2
2013-2014
space. The only area that incarnates a form of life is the jail. This is to be
interpreted as an ironic denial of the very possibility of progress.
VIII.
Mulge
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
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2013-2014
Cap Leech:
He incarnates the native practice of witchcraft. He is characterized
by his ambiguous ethnic identity. The concept of identity does not
hold anymore as its not stable or even reliable. He is focused upon
in section 9.His ambiguous ethnic origins only suggest his deformity.
The fact that he is associated with witchcraft symbolizes his
creativity as he functions as the ironic double of the author.
Authorship is mocked and the process of writing is reconsidered
within the frame of irony. This is meant to challenge the belief in the
authors mastery of the act of writing. Just like witchcraft, art is
transformative and creative. Cap Leech echoes Hawthornes analogy
XI.
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
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2013-2014
by the way he and his wife react when their childs life is seriously
threatened after being bitten by a snake. They dont adopt the expected
rational reaction which reinforced the dream-like quality. The readers
expectations of the typical western plotline are encouraged only to be
defeated.
XII.
XIII.
Harry Bohn
He is the ironic double of Frankstein
The Theme of the Wasteland:
Deformity
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
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2013-2014
Characterization
All the characters are flat and not meant to be life-like. They are denied
any psychic complexity as they are meant to convey the postmodern
critical questioning of all the previous novelistic convention. Their
deformity is meant to serve the anti-realistic effect in matters related to
characterization. The characters rather emerge as death-like as part of an
apocalyptic space of total decay. The flatness of the characters implies a
critique of the convention of character portrayal.
XVI.
Mobility:
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
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2013-2014
XVII.
Myth-making:
This is one of the tools through which the convention of the plot is
challenged. Indians who are associated with a potential threat for example
do not show any threatening attitude. The conventional western was not
received by readers as fiction but rather as an attempt at historicizing that
particular phase of American history. The Beetle Leg constantly challenges
the frontier myth. It totally destroys the epic quality of the frontier story.
The fictional world is governed by a dream-like logic that the historical
reader cannot share. There is an insistence on the fact that the myth of
the white mans civilizing mission tends to be confused or mistaken for
history by the audience who usually take it for the actual history of the
westward expansion.
XVIII.
The Dam:
Professor Karoui-Elounelli
American Metafiction
Agreg2
2013-2014