Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.
Introduction
Analyzing postmodernism, its description is often examined through such literary phenomenon as metafiction. Metafiction can be defined as a fiction that makes the readers realize and acknowledge the nature and the meaning of the process of creating the fiction. Self-reflectiveness makes the reality of the texts, the author, and the reader problematic.
Additionally, metafiction puts the author and the reader in a position of the protagonists of the literary work, taking them to the stage in those roles, in the process of creating or perceiving the work. In order to analyze metafiction and its various techniques through the literature, this paper examines and compares two literature works, which are The Babysitter (1969) by Robert Coover, and The Balloon (1981) by Donald Barthelme, in terms of the metafictional techniques employed and the relation of the stories to postmodernism.
Overview
In The Babysitter , the story is basically a representation of different points of view on similar or close events. These events are focused on a nameless babysitter arriving to the house of the Tuckers, a family she is babysitting their kids. In the story the fiction and the reality are mixed, making it difficult to distinguish the events that did happen, including the actions of the babysitter inside the house, the actions of the babysitters boyfriend Jack, and the assumingly the center of the story, i.e. the tale of the rape.
The Balloon is a short story about the creation of a giant balloon inflated by the author. The story is mainly, a record of the reactions of the people to the balloon that appeared in New York and covered forty-five blocks north-south and an irregular area east-west (Barthelme, p. 46), and the way the peoples perceptions somewhat were change after the balloon occurred.
Analysis
The Babysitter
Summarizing metafiction techniques, it can be said that they are the ways and the methods by which the author narrows the line between the fiction and the reality to a degree that is recognizable and acknowledgeable by the reader.
Transferring such notion into Coovers Babysitter, it can be seen through the way of the narration. The story is narrated through paragraphs of various lengths, which are different in the perspective, switching from a character to character, setting, and reality. In that regard, the paragraphs might represent they pattern of human thoughts, taking the position of different characters, in a way that forces the reader to constantly ask the question what if?
Accordingly, that style of narration can be considered a technique in which the author does not use a conventional way of narration, or a conventional plot. The reader going through the text for almost all of the time is not sure what is really happening in the story. In that sense, the author is leaving the interpretation for the readers.
In what concerns the imaginary part and the reality, the distinction is so vague that the reader is cannot determine the supremacy of the particular part, and the only one to determine that there is a reality and a fiction is that the events contradict each other, while variety of the event imply that some contradicting events might have never happened.
An example can be seen through the rape scenario, where on the one hand there is a description of a mutual consent having an orgy,
Kissing Mark, her eyes closed, her hips nudge towards Jack. He stares at the TV screen, unsure of himself, one hand slipping cautiously under her skirt. Her hand touches his arm as though to resist, then brushes on by to rub his leg&. Mark is kissing her& Mark is stripping, too. God, its really happening!&Stop it! she screams. Please, stop! Shes on her hands and knees, trying to get up, but theyre too strong for her. Mark holds her head down. Now, baby, were gonna teach you how to be a nice girl, he says coldly, and nods at Jack. When shes doubled over like that, her skirt rides up her thighs to the leg bands of her panties. Cmon, man, go! This babys cold! She needs your touch!(Coover, pp. 216-31).
It can be assumed that many events are taking place in the imagination of the characters, and the readers are put in the position where through the course of the story they change their preference on the reality part, and acknowledging the fiction in the rest. It should be noted that at the end of the story the reader comes to the conclusion that it was all a fiction and with a parallel to the television and the superficiality of the events presented on TV screens, the reader might have an impression of a direct parallel between the chaos of events in reality and the fiction.
Summarizing the metafictional techniques in the text it can be said that the main techniques employed revolves around the over-plotting of the text], where the reality is not understandable, and the foregrounding the fiction of between the reality and fiction, where the reality of the events taking place is constantly questioned.
The Balloon
The approach taken in The Balloon was different, where although the events are clearly defined in terms of their sequence and narration, the purpose of the article and its main thesis is clearly left to the interpretation of the reader.
Similar techniques can be seen in a way that the reality is also not understandable, and as the balloon stands for the main phenomenon in the story there is no clear understanding to its purpose or significance. In terms of the description, there is also a dual approach, where an imaginary fantasy feeling can be sensed through the story through such descriptive excerpts as, hung green and blue paper lanterns from the warm gray underside (Barthelme, p. 47), the balloon was& something inferior to the sky (48), and the balloon hanging there muted heavy grays and browns for the most part, contrasting with the walnut and soft yellows. (p.46).
On the other hand, the seriousness of the reality was amplified through such accurate description as the location and the area, forty-five blocks north-south and an irregular area east-west, as many as six crosstown blocks on either side of the Avenue (46), and expressions such as laboratory tests prove or 18% more effective . (p.48).
Thus, a transformation of the reality into a specific fictional aspect can be outlined as a technique employed by the author with a specific purpose. In this case the purpose can be seen through an metaphor of the way people react to something unknown, [t]here was a certain amount of initial argumentation about the meaning of the balloon , and the way they get assimilated with it, Daring children jumped& at those points where the balloon hovered close to a building& [and it] was extremely exciting for children. (p. 47).
Another important notion of the metafictional aspect of the novel can be seen through the examination of the balloon as a fictional subject. In that regard, the reader acknowledges that the existence of such balloon is a fiction, however, the way the author describe and examine the balloon through the narration, emphasizes foregrounding fiction. Thus, the fiction in the story does not pretend to be real, and in such way it becomes even more real for the reader.
Postmodernism
Metafiction can be considered among the main representations of postmodernism in literature. In that regard, the metafiction represented in the novel can be related to postmodernism through the perception of the stories in the context of the social setting of that time. Looking at Babysitter, which was published in 1969, might be understood through the cultural tendencies at that time.
It might be assumed that all the possible outcomes, fictional or real in the story might be assumed to be a critique of the contemporary life at that period, e.g. sexism, morals, perceptions and etc. In the Balloon, the storys main idea can be understandable through the relation to the context of that time, i.e. 1981, where the story can be seen as a representation to the mass culture, where the reaction of the public to the balloon was an allegory to the new and unusual in literature, art, and etc.
In both works it might be seen that that the metafiction is targeting an intellectual reader, where the various interpretations and the reality-fiction borders forces the readers to employ their imaginations to understand the message conveyed within the works. Additionally, the essence of postmodernism in general, and not only in literature, can be understood as a reaction to modernism, and the works reflection of themselves, which can be implied from the tone of the stories and their narration.
Conclusion
It can be concluded metafiction, as a post-modernistic direction in literature, is a way authors create a new realm between them and the readers. The purposes of the creation of such realm might vary, as well as the techniques characteristic to the metafictional literature vary. Nevertheless, a common theme can be trace through the expectancy of a certain reaction, in which the reality and the fiction are combined and making the reader acknowledges the fiction over the reality.
In the presented analysis of the works, it can be seen that the metafiction in the novel serves its purpose of constructing a reality, in which the fiction and the way it is constructed are of importance to the reader, as they are the ones delivering the message rather than the story itself.
Works Cited
-
Barthelme, Donald. Sixty Stories. Penguin Books, 2003.
-
Coover, Robert. Pricksongs & Descants : Fictions. 1st Grove Press ed: Grove Press 2000.
Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.