The Crying Of Lot 49 Under The Perspective Of New Historicism

The Crying of Lot 49 written by Thomas Ruggles Pynchon is one of the American postmodern literature canon. It gains great popularity and success for its mysteriousness, language games and entropic theme. In recent years, researches on Pynchon has shifted towards historical concern in his works. He has been recognized not only as a postmodernist novelist but also as a historical novelist. In spite of the fact that The Crying of Lot 49 shows its profound historical consciousness, researches on historical concern of this novel in China are still barren.Under the disguise of fictionality, the historical narrative in The Crying of Lot 49 weaves factuality with fictionality, self-consciously challenging the boundary between texts and history. This thesis purports to approach “the historicity of texts” and “textuality of history” in The Crying of Lot 49.This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one gives a brief instruction to Pynchon and his novel, literature review and New Historicism. From the perspective of “historicity of texts”, Chapter two explores the interactive relationship between the novel and society that it not only reflects the outer society and has made some reverberations in society to some extent. From the perspective of “textuality of history”, Chapter three is dedicated to explore strategies Pynchon adopts to narrate historical stories and the hidden meaning behind those historical stories. Chapter four draws out the conclusion that under the disguise of fictionality, the novel truthfully reflects silent histories of the marginalized groups and it inspires readers to anticipate and then create a diverse and plural picture of history.