On The Failures In The Novels Of William Gaddis

Despite unique narration in the form of dialogue and winning The National BookAward twice, William Gaddis neither aroused interest from common readers norattracted due attention in critical circles. His frustrated writing career and family lifeinduced the failure theme to be one of the most important threads of his novels. Evenso, there is few discussion of the subject. This dissertation, on the basis of its analysisof the category, genesis and impact of failures in J R, C，arpenters Gothic, and AFrolic of His Own, aims to study Gaddis’ depiction of fictional failures and theirvariation in different periods, outline the structural correlation among theabove-mentioned novels, and indicate Gaddis’ gradually heavier and more pessimistictendency in his creational pathos.The three novels forge a chronological trinity of Gaddis’ ifctional failure. J Rexemplifies a social vista of failures. Individual simulacrum correlates biographicaldetails with fictional plots, attracting the reader’s attention to various frustratedattempts and revealing the author’s expectation of aspired valour in the face ofsetback. Social simulacrum implies that individual failures intrinsically grow from thenihility of social values which are attributed to postmodern simulative transformation.Carpenter’s Gothic exhibits the individual failures under the curb of subjectivehistorical consciousness. In the novel，historic elements are invariably presented inalienated ways while fictional texts coexist with historical ones. It is asserted thatfailures always accompany an overloaded awareness of historical past，or in otherwords the agony of failure derives from the perception of cultural historicity whilerenouncing tradition equals abandoning failure. A Frolic of His Own acknowledgesfailure as the fundamental means of existence. Common communication in brokenfragments question the normal sustaining of interpersonal interaction and the collapseof professional discourse interrogates the subsistence of legal justice, the combinationof which suggest Gaddis considers failure as an indispensible element of presence.It is observed that failure for Gaddis assumes at earlier stage the form of intentional breakdown while the theme later includes physical, psychic andintentional frustration. The three novels constitute a tridimension of failure in theaspect of the future, the past and the past, implying that the author holds noconfidence in overcoming failures. And failure does not only mean a personal setbackbut also a shared aesthetics. It is from the author’s inner embitterment out of theunder-recognition of his literary creation that the years-long obsession with failurebursts out.This dissertation adopts a thematic approach to analyze the change of Gaddis,concerns for failures from a postmodern perspective. Literary theories such as studieson simulacrum, historical consciousness, and discourse are applied to conductanalysis in certain parts of the dissertation which enriches studies on William Gaddisand his works, enhancing the understanding of his authorial intention of writing.