Parody, A Critique Within

Parody, a literary form based on imitating a specific literary work or the style of an author, has become a popular topic among researchers of European and American literature. Current studies on parody focus on researching into the relationship between a parody text and its target text from how parody works within a text as a writing technique. Relatively speaking, there is hardly any systematic study on parody itself and the act of parodying a text as a means of literary criticism.The thesis tries to discuss the critical function of parody from both theories and textual analysis. Firstly, by reviewing the modifications of definitions on parody, the thesis demonstrates the gradual changes in parody as a result of the development of literary theories and criticism. Then, the thesis reveals how parody serves as a literary critique by discussing its subversion and continuance function. This thesis also discusses parody according to the principles of dialogism and intertextuality, which further proves the critical function of parody. Finally, the thesis analyzes parody in a typical parodic novel Small World, through which the thesis studies the critical function of parody from the perspective of general and specific parody. The thesis concludes that the implied purpose of parody is for literary criticism, and parodying a text is for presenting a literary critique within a parody text.The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter one deals with the omniscient presence of parody in various literary works as well as with an introduction of researches on parody by foreign and domestic scholars. Chapter two discusses definitions and related forms of parody for defining the connotations and denotations of parody. Of the chapters which follow, the third chapter studies functions and features of parody in order to reveal the critical function of parody, while the fourth chapter is about parody and other related literary theories for further proving that parody can act as a critique within a text. The fifth chapter is a textual analysis on Small World aiming at making an empirical study on parody. After studying both theories and applications of parody, the thesis ends with the conclusion that parody can serve as a critique within a text.