On Small World's Inheritance Of And The Transcendence Over Traditional Romance

As a novel created in postmodern context and with romance as the genre, Small World contains two attitudes toward traditional romance, i.e. inheritance and transcendence. However, previous studies on Small World pay too much attention on it postmodern attribute and writing techniques. Its relations with romance are seldom studied in a systemic way. The thesis attempts to study the relations between Small World and traditional romance, with a conclusion of its inheritance and transcendence over traditional romance.From the perspective of theme, Small World inherits the quest motif of romance about Holy Grail and knights. Persse and Angelica are respectively symbolized for these two elements of romance. On the other hand, it transcends the plot of traditional romance. Such transcendence is indicated in the rewriting of plot, suspension of quest meaning and open ending.From the perspective of discourse modes, Small World also manifests the binary relations. Firstly, Small World uses the metonymic mode of discourse in plot design. There are two lines of quest in the novel, i.e. Persse'quest for love and scholars'quest for the position chairman. Both lines embody a direct metonymy of classic grail knight legend. On the other hand, the plot structure adopts the metaphorical mode of discourses. All the intertextual parodies and imitations in the work are metaphorical. Small World's inheritance and transcendence is also analyzed from the perspective of narration modes. Narratologically speaking, Small World inherits the third-person omniscient perspective of traditional romance. The third-person narrator shows readers around the world along with the steps of Persse. However, in light of intended audience, Small World transcends the traditional romance. Traditional romance often targets only to the elites due to the predominance of elite culture at that time, and the languages are poetic. But Small World transcends that cultural bias over secular culture, and melting the two opposite cultures in one text. Based on the analysis of plot, theme, discourse, and narration modes, Small World inherits traditional romance and meanwhile transcends it.