Dialogism In John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman

John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman is one of the most importantEnglish novels in the 20th century. Since this novel was published in 1969, manyarticles concerning it have been written by critics. It is classified as a postmodernistnovel and always interpreted from the experimental techniques such as open form,parody, collage and anachronism. Feminism and existentialism are also employed toanalyze it from different perspectives. But few have tried to explain it by incorporatingmetafiction with Bakhtin's dialogism. This thesis is attempted to do so.The French Lieutenant's Woman is a typical metafictional novel. The characters areequally free persons with different world views, ideological and social positions and soon. The author can no longer manipulate the characters in the traditional sense.The metafiction helps to reinforce the sense of dialogism. The metafictionalnarrator guarantees the dialogism between fiction and criticism as well as between artand real life. The dialogism between the author, the narrator, the characters and thereader is one of the outstanding features of metaficion. The parallel between Sarah'sfiction-making and altemative endings of the novel also embodies the author'smetafictional arrangement of skills.The thesis is composed of six parts. The Introduction briefly presents the mainplots of The French Lieutenant's Woman and its author, stressing their status in theworld literature history. Chapter One provides an overview of the appearance anddevelopment of the metafictional novel as well as Bakhtin's dialogism and polyphony inwestern society. Being an important branch of postmodernism, metafictional novelchanges the monologue of novelists in the traditional novels, enabling all theirparticipants to dialogize freely and equally. Chapter Two makes attempts to analyze themetafictional factors in The French Lieutenant's Woman based on Bakhtin's dialogism. This part deals with the relationship between novel and reality as well as novel andcriticism. Chapter Three makes a detailed discussion of the relationship among thewriter, the narrator, the character and the reader in The French Lieutenant's Woman. Theonce omnipotent god grants the character freedom; John Fowles even confesses franklyhe knows no more than the reader. Reader who once follows the guide of the godpassively starts to take an active part in the creation of novel. Chapter Four is about theparallel between Sarah's fiction-making and altemative endings of the novel. Thenovelist provides readers three different endings which coincide with Sarah's stories.It also highlights the uncertainty of postmodernism and the reader's participation in themetafiction. Conclusion is a summary of the thesis and a restatement of the dialogicfactors in The French Lieutenant's Woman.