A Study Of The Sense Of An Ending From The Perspective Of Metaphysical Detective Fiction

Julian Barnes' s The Sense of an Ending is welcomed by the public.This thesis aims to analyze the novel from perspective of the metaphysical detective fiction.By treating the protagonist's investigation of his own past connected with a friend's mysterious suicide as a kind of detection,the thesis focuses on analyzing his deception by time from the aspects of the beginning,middle and ending: the beginning looks into the shaping of the protagonist when he was a schoolboy,which lays the foundation of his self-reflection;the middle analyzes the protagonist's methods of self-deceiving by means of fabrication,modification,etc.;the ending reveals the outcome of the case and examines the protagonist's self-reflection about history and reality.The analysis of details in the three stages is in order to prove that the writing modes of the fiction conform to metaphysical detective features.Under this kind of detective mode,the novel has portrayed a failed detective who successfully deceives himself out of some secret intention,but finally falls into selfsuspicion.The ending of this novel is involved in the uncertainty of meaning and selfreflection,which are typical characteristics of this new subgenre of detective fiction.That is to say,perhaps we are suffering from self-blindness and thus not able to obtain all the facts that we really need.Thereby,this novel encourages in persistent pursuit for truth by self-reflection and exploration of history.