Metalepsis In Samuel Beckett's Late Plays

The thesis aims to explore the structural pattern of Beckett's last three monodramas for stage in a narratological approach. The three texts for study--A Piece of Monologue, Rockaby and Ohio Impromptu--have not been grouped together by the former scholars for a thorough research for now. Separately analyzing the “trilogy”,the thesis asserts that their common structural feature is metalepsis which displays itself in two forms--the tangled hierarchy and the strange loop. The tangled hierarchy helps to clarify the stratification of the stage storyworld and the verbal sub-storyworld and their mutual contamination in the plays, suggesting a trend towards finality. The strange loop helps to explain the relation between the sub-storyworld and the sub-sub-storyworld in the vocal narration, elucidating the irresistible tendency to continually revolve the same story in the audience's or readers' minds at the end of the plays, and therefore constantly disturbing the trend towards finality.