A Metafictional Reading Of William Gass’s In The Heart Of The Heart Of The Country

William H. Gass is a representative figure of American postmodern writers and thefirst person to dub those innovative fictions in contemporary literature as “metafiction”. Asa language philosopher, literary critic as well as a fiction writer, Gass has devoted his lifeto metafictional creation and the study of metafictional theory. This thesis attempts to makea thematic analysis of Gass’s short story In the Heart of the Heart of the Country from theperspective of metafiction.This thesis consists of four chapters besides an introduction and a conclusion. Theintroductory part is a brief presentation of the literary career and literary views of WilliamGass, as well as a survey of the content and research status of In the Heart of the Heart ofthe County both at home and abroad.Chapter One is mainly concerned with a discussion of metafiction from three aspects:the background of the rise of metafiction: the definition of metafiction and the generalfeatures of metafiction. The indeterminacy of postmodern society, along with thedevelopment in philosophy and linguistic study lead people to doubt the conventionalconcept of fiction. It is against the background of postmodernity that metafiction was born.Then the following three chapters are devoted to examing the three major themes reflectedin In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, namely, the relationship between fiction andreality and the fictionality of the metafictional text; the exposure of narrative artifice inmetafiction; and the exploration of the relationship between the author and the reader:contemporary writers’ dilemma and the call for reader’s participation in literary creation.The analysis finally leads to the conclusion that William Gass’s In the Heart of theHeart of the Country is a typical metafiction with its revelation of the major themes ofmetafiction. The three aspects of metafiction are in fact interrelated and reveal somefundamental issues. One is the philosophical question of metafiction-the ontologicalstatus of fiction. Contrary to the traditional novelists who take fiction as a means torepresent the reality of life, metafictionists hold that fiction exists as entity in its own right,as addition to, not reflection of, the realm of matter. What we take as reality is merely constructed through our own mind powers. In this sense, the fictitious status of fiction canbe identified with that of reality. Thus metafictionists deliberately expose trails of artificein literary creation in order to remind the readers of the fictitious nature of the text. Theother one is the exploration of the roles of the author and the reader in the reading process.Confronted with the exhaustion of traditional novelistic techniques and themes, thecontemporary writers struggle to find out innovative ways of writing. And the reader’s roleis amplified and highlighted in metafiction given that the production of meaning of thetexts has to rely on the reader’s active participation and collaboration.