Canon Rewriting

As the"father of the new generation of postmodernism writers", Donald Barthelme ranks top among most influential postmodernism writers. In 1972 he arrived at his literary prime by winning the National Book Awards. Barthelme's representative work Snow White is the modern version of the Grimm's canonical fairytale Snow White and Seven Dwarves, and successfully incorporates typical postmodernism techniques. This thesis attempts to approach Barthelme's Snow White from a postmodernism perspective by addressing its salient features of anti-traditional character revision as well as massive usage of postmodernism techniques.The post-World War II age abounds in reconstructing and rewriting works, especially popular are the rewriting of canonical fairytales. Nevertheless, the rise of canon rewriting dates back to as early as the 1960s, when Ronald Barthelme, the typical postmodernist, published his milestone-like novel Snow White, a parody of German Grimms'Snow White and Seven Dwarfs. Barthelme's Snow White forms sharp contrast to the original fairytale, provokes deep thoughts from readers and thus is enlisted into best canon-rewriting novels. A canon rewriting view of Barthelme's Snow White is essentially innovative and important to literary research. Hence, this thesis seeks as an exploration to fulfill the mission.Altogether the thesis is composed of six chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction, which includes the significance of the research, the structure of the thesis and a note on vocabulary. The second chapter explains the definitions of canon and canon rewriting as well as introduces Grimm's Snow White and Seven Dwarves as a literary canon. In chapter three, I expand to illustrate Donald Barthelme and his Snow White with most space devoted to his writing technique features. Of same importance are the literary criticisms towards his epoch-making work. Chapter four, a case study of canon rewriting, is the focus of my thesis. Whereby I analyze Barthelme's Snow White from a postmodernism perspective, casting light on the anti-traditional characterization of Snow White, Paul and the seven dwarves and the sharp contract between the lacking of hero in Barthelme's Snow White and the eulogizing of unbeatable hero in canonical works. Moreover, I illuminate the postmodern writing techniques employed in the Snow White by exemplifying the texts accordingly. Based on the passages from Snow White, applications and embodiment of such postmodernism techniques as fragmentation, collage, irony and metafiction are analyzed in detail. In chapter five, I attempt to provoke thoughts upon the causes and contributions of canon and canon rewriting by presenting author's personal complex, social and historical factors and by demonstrating the novelty effects of canon rewriting. In the conclusion, I summarize and supplement the whole thesis concerning both contents and structures, pointing out the limitations of my thesis so as to encourage further researches.