On The Sublime Essence Of Donald Barthelme's Snow White

As a trailblazer of his time, Donald Barthelme is one of the most original and influential American postmodern writers. Among all his writings, the novel Snow White is his masterpiece and has been considered the classic of American postmodernism. The novel has striking and unique aesthetic features. And these aesthetic features emanate from its sublime essence. From the perspective of aesthetics, the author of this thesis reveals the sublime essence of the novel from three aspects, namely, aesthetics of the ugly, indeterminacy, and tragedy. The thesis consists of four parts.The first part is introduction. It begins by raising the subject of the thesis and providing a literature review to state the significance of this research. Following it is an introduction to Donald Barthelme and Snow White. It also includes the structure of the thesis.The second part serves as the theoretical foundation of the thesis. Starting from a review of the evolution of the theory of the sublime, the author of this thesis tries to summarize the connotation of the sublime. Then, it analyzes the forms of the sublime in art and points out that the novel belongs to a work with sublime thought.The third part is composed of Chapter Three, Chapter Four, and Chapter Five. It is devoted to reveal the sublime essence of the novel from its aesthetic features, namely, aesthetics of the ugly, indeterminacy, and tragedy. In Chapter Three, in conformity with an account of aesthetics of the ugly and its relationship with the sublime and an elaboration of aesthetics of the ugly of the novel i.e. Barthelme's creation of an anti-fairy tale and his portrayal of the ugly characters, the author of the thesis reaches a conclusion that the sublime essence of the novel lies in: first, the depiction of the ugly makes people observe carefully the ugly social reality and the decadent spirit of postmodern society once more, which arouses their bitter hatred for ugliness and stimulates their ardent love for beauty; second, Barthelme's great courage to expose the ugly of both humanity and society displays his noble character and great heart. In Chapter Four, in line with an explication of indeterminacy and its innate relationship with the sublime and an elucidation of the indeterminate features of the novel i.e. indeterminate story and plot, indeterminate characters, indeterminate language, and indeterminate theme, which directly challenge man's ability of cognition and open a new vista, the author of the thesis states that the sublime essence of the novel manifests in both man's transcendence over the contradiction between the finite and the infinite and the writer's pioneering and innovative spirit. In Chapter Five, in the light of an analysis of tragedy and its relationship with the sublime and an exposition of the tragic feature of the novel i.e. a tragedy of moral degradation and a tragedy of American women, the author of the thesis concludes the sublime essence of the novel is that Barthelme's presentation of this postmodern tragedy stimulates people's feelings of grief and indignation and impels them to revalue the meaning of life, thus, to vanquish the distress and the tragic destiny and to advance to the sublime.In the conclusion, the author of this thesis summarizes that Barthelme's Snow White, in essence, is sublime. It is a superb postmodernist work radiating with sublime thought. Essentially, the sublime, as a category of aesthetics, is the victory of man's rationality, namely, the victory of human nature and human dignity over the rough nature, harsh society, and the impermanence of man's destiny. It always accompanies human beings in their development and progress.