The Benefactor: A Text Of Modernist Literature

Combined with her criticism and essays, this dissertation explores characteristics of Susan Sontag's novel writing in her early career based on the text of The Benefactor, and demonstrates her literary identity of modernist. It first puts forth BrianMchale's postmodernist narrative to illuminate the ontological dominant of the novel, then according to Linda Huncheon's theories about metafiction , categorizes the novel into an overtly diegetic narcissistic text. Both prove that The Benefactor is of modernist poetics. Then enters in the exploration of the sensibility of "morbidity" and theme of "self-destruction", which reflect Sontag's aesthetic or intellectual preference, and moreover, her resort to aesthetics as a disillusioned modernist. Thirdly, the dissertation studies Le Nouveau Romanciers's influence upon Sontag in the composition of The Benefactor, and elucidates the features in structure, language, form, ect , to promote understanding of the novel proper.