On Parody In Donald Barthelme’s Snow White

Donald Barthelme (1931-1989) is one of the most important representative writers of postmodernism in the United States. Snow White, his representative work highlights the characteristics of the time. Its close relationship with Grimm Brothers’Snow White has been sensed by many critics. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore the parodies in Barthelme’s Snow White on the basis of Linda Hutcheon’s theory of parody.Beside a concise introduction to Barthelme and his novel Snow White, Linda Hutcheon’s theory of parody is also illustrated. The nuclear part of the thesis offers an analysis of the parody in Snow White from four aspects:parody of the traditional writing techniques, parody of the popular cultures, parody of the political and economical systems in America and parody of the themes of the Grimm’s fairy tales. Through analyzing the parody of the writing techniques of the fairy tales, it is found that although Barthelme borrows the framework of Grimm Brothers’Snow White, he subverts the traditional linear narrative, the causality of the plots and other traditional narrative elements through the non-linear and anti-climax narration; furthermore, through the anti-traditional representation of the characters, the plots and the settings, Barthelme feels free to explore more subjects. Besides, this thesis also offers analysis of the parody of American politics, economics and pop-cultures in the novel, through which it can be seen that Snow White is actually an irony and also a criticism against American society and its author only intends to disclose the corruption and decay, pervading the seemingly splendid American society. Finally, through exploring the parody of the themes, it can be seen that the novel presents a parody of the traditional themes conveyed in fairy tales, that is, the good always overwhelm the evil at last and live successful and happy lives ever after. Through parodying the traditional themes, Barthelme exposes that the people in American society live in misery.The conclusion part reveals that Barthelme subverts the traditions through the employment of parody, which indicates that humans have fallen into an unsatisfactory state and any efforts or hopes of them will end up in failure. Thus, Snow White conveys the author’s reflection about humanity and many facets of the social life.