Chaos, Absurdity, Indeterminacy

Donald Barthelme was a famous American writer of short fictions and novels. He also worked as a newspaper reporter and educator. He is truly an important figure in the history of postmodernism. The entire collection of Barthelme contains various explorations of describing the life and rebuilding the concepts of literature. Some critics think that his works are full of weird expressions. But no one can deny that he and his works are highly philosophical beneath the seemingly alien writing style. Barthelme creates a world so unreal and so absurd in his works but the unreal and absurd image of world is just a reflection to the real world in which we live.At present, study on Barthelme both in China and abroad mainly focuses on his writing techniques and language style. Furthermore, the study on Barthelme in China has just taken the initial step, and only one of the novels has been paid much attention to, not to mention his short fictions. Due to the lack of the study on the short fictions and the thematic analysis, based on the existentialism and postmordenism, this thesis aims at attempting to explore the themes of Barthelme's short fictions,hoping to broaden and enrich readers'vision on Barthelme and his works.The thesis is divided into six parts. The first part is the introduction, including a brief introduction to the author and his literary achievements, and critical responses on Donald Barthelme and his works ,which is designed to unfold vivid pictures of the author Barthelme from multi-angles. Chapter One provides a theoretical basis for the development of the thesis. Barthelme's deepest intellectual roots seem to be greatly influenced by the philosophies of existentialism and postmodernism. Chapter Two to Chapter Four are the main part of this thesis, which focuses on the thematic study on Barthelme's short fictions. Themes of chaos, absurdity and indeterminacy are analyzed in detail with examples of Barthelme's notable short fictions. The last part is the conclusion. This part summarizes the whole thesis. A sincere hope for further development on thematic study by scholars interested in this topic is expressed as well.