On The Black Humor Of Gravity's Rainbow By Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon is one of the most influential novelists of the late twentieth century. Cited as the contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pynchon has won both the National Book Award and a huge audience around the world. His unique style of depicting the postmodern world, his encyclopedic exhibition of the characters and plots of his works, and his concerns for humanity make him one of the greatest names of American literature history and attract the attention of critics and readers home and abroad. Critical essays and dissertations show interests in this author who seldom appears in public since his first novel V. was published in 1963. Different approaches have been taken to study this mysterious novelist and his works, ranging from the labyrinth structure of the novels'narratives to Pynchon's personal religious belief. Among the novels he has composed, the one that can represent Pynchon's achievement and his writing style the most is Gravity's Rainbow. This novel is also, up until now, the most highly claimed one written by Pynchon. Studies have been contributed to its narrative, its similarities shared with other late twentieth century novels, its entropic structure, and its philosophical background.Before 2008 when Gravity's Rainbow was translated into Chinese by Zhang Wenyu and Huang Xiangrong, Chinese scholars had already noticed Pynchon's works including Gravity's Rainbow and contributed critical analyses. Similar to American scholars, Chinese researchers also pay more attention to the structure and entropic view of the novel. Both American and Chinese literature field mention Pynchon as one prominent author who represents American black humor literature of the 1960s and 1970s. In Chinese textbooks, critical essays, and monographs, Pynchon is frequently introduced as the spokesman of American black humor novels together with Joseph Heller and Vladimir Nabokov. However, the black humor of his novels, especially of the most highly claimed Gravity's Rainbow, is lack of exploration. How is black humor, the frequently labeled trait of Gravity's Rainbow, manifested in this novel? How is black humor elaborated? What methods or techniques are adopted to make black humor a feature by which readers accept and celebrate the novel? These questions call for answers.This thesis explores the black humor of this novel by studying its major themes, characterization, and writing techniques. The exploration starts with an introduction which provides a literary review on Pynchon and Gravity's Rainbow. The significance as well as the format of this thesis is also illustrated in this part. Chapter One manifests the black humor as reflected in the major themes of the novel. Chapter Two analyzes the black humor as illustrated in the characterization of the novel. Chapter Three studies how black humor is generated from the writing techniques of the novel, especially from the application of parody. In the conclusion it is argued that black humor is elaborated in the themes, characterizations, and parodies of the novel and the American black humor novels written by Pynchon and by other novelists have influenced contemporary American and Chinese literature.