Decoding Tom Stoppard's Works In The Postmodern Context

This study seeks to decode Stoppard's canon in the postmodern context. To that end, Chapter One is devoted to define "postmodernism"and to identify the major postmodern features in Stoppard's works; Chapter Two focuses on his textual strategy of "intertextual parody"exploited in his most-discussed play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Chapter Three explores the use of collage in Jumpers and Travesties; Chapter Four attempts to discuss Stoppard's paradox involved in "playing"with seriousness in these three plays. Concentrating upon Stoppard's distinctive use of parody and collage, this thesis may be said to be a stylistic approach to Stoppard's postmodern theatricality. Throughout the thesis I have been trying to argue that: Intcrtextuality is an important instrument of postmodem aesthetics, an effective strategy for transforming the monuments of literary history and making it new in an age that remains troubled by the myth of originality. In this sense, Stoppard can be said to be a prince of intertextually parodic letters; For the postmodernists, collage contributes to creating open, dissonant texts, emancipating the audience to read their own meanings into the texts, meanwhile subverting the idea that a text is meant to have closure, homogeneity and unity. Stoppard is distinguished by his collage of conflicting ideas or perspectives as well as his open ending in his plays. He is the kind of artist with the capacity to locate the audience at the center of meaning reconstruction, and to allow them writing along with his texts; Under the surface of being obsessively playful, the sense of seriousness can always be felt in Stoppard's major plays. Stoppard is truly concerned and serious in his playfulness, and he can always play at incredible ease in his seriousness. The combination of high and pop culture, the marriage of ideas and farce differentiate him from modernist school and establish him firmly as a postmodernist; Because of the characteristics such as its delight in play, its preference of intertextuality over referentiality, its collage over uniformity, and its montage over single perspective, one may say that Stoppard's art is postmodern not just in form but also in theme.