Narrative Carnival And Existential Anxiety:Study Of The Universal Baseball Association From The Perspective Of Postmodernism

In the past decades,postmodernism has always been the focus of many writers and critics and accordingly there have sprung a great many literary works and research papers in relevance.However,what is worthy of attention is that there still exist some outstanding writers and works neglected more or less in previous studies.That is why this thesis intends to give an all-around and profound analysis of The Universal Baseball Association,Inc.,J.Henry Waugh,Prop.,a novel by Robert Coover which deserves more attention for its rich postmodern postmodern themes concerning the issue of existential anxiety and its application of the metafictional writing technique of fiction-making,both of which are seldom referred to in both foreign and domestic studies.Based on literary theories of postmodernism and metafiction,this thesis intends to deal with two questions,that is,how the fictional nature of the established systems and their underlying cultural implications are exposed by Coover with the application of the metafictional writing technique of fiction-making,and what traditional binary oppositions are challenged andsubverted by Coover so as to find out the reasons for and possible solutions to individuals' existential anxiety in modern society.In regards to the first question,with his playful application of the writing technique of fiction-making,Coover successfully constructs three major true-to-life fictional systems,including sports game,religious myth and historical recording,which intermingle with each other and form a scene of narrative carnival within the novel.Seeing through the playful and orgiastic scene,this thesis intends to expose the playfulness of sports games,the fictionality of religions and myths,as well as the uncertainty of historical recordings,so as to draw the conclusion that all established systems are fictional and artificial in nature.Meanwhile,through the analysis of sports culture,religious culture and historical traditions,this thesis also endeavors to explore the underlying social cultures' domination and restrictions on individuals' behaviors and thoughts in modern society.As for the second question,the issue of individuals' existential anxiety in modern society is explored from the perspective of postmodernism through the analysis of three pairs of binary oppositions concerning the protagonist Henry,that is,Subject and Object,Order and Chaos,as well as Reality and Fantasy.Firstly,the part of Subject and Object mainly discusses how the protagonist Henry lost his identity as the subject in the game world,ending up with himself being restricted and dominated by the object he creates.In short,this part deals with the reversal between subject and object.In the second part concerning Order and Chaos,the focus will be Henry's efforts to construct an orderly world of fantasy as an escape from or even a rebellion against the chaotic world of reality.However,the order Henry constructs is chaotic innature owing to its foundation on chances and accidents.As for the third part,it endeavors to deal with Henry's oscillation between the world of reality and that of fantasy.With the intention of relieving the sense of anxiety he suffers in real life of absurdity,Henry,the alienated individual in modern society,blurs the distinctions between reality and fantasy and hopes to achieve redemption in the constructed world of fantasy,only to find himself lost in it with no way out.Through the analysis of the three pairs of binary oppositions,this thesis manages to draw the conclusion that the possible solution to individuals' existential anxiety in modern society is not to escape into the world of fantasy like the protagonist Henry or get ourselves restricted and dominated by the established systems of society,but to live in the moment with awareness that the world is dynamic,chaotic and fictional in nature.