| This thesis is an investigation of John Irving's importance as a contemporary writer of American fiction who incorporates the techniques of metafictional narrative associated with the New Fiction while preserving the integrity of the story. Using Linda Hutcheon's Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox, and A Theory of Parody: the Teaching of Twentieth-Century Art Forms, Larry McCaffery's The Metafictional Muse: The Works of Robert Coover, Donald Barthelme, and William H. Gass, John Barth's "The Literature of Replenishment," and John Gardner's On Moral Fiction, as theoretical frames of reference, this thesis explores Irving's view of the process of the transmutation of life into art as it is presented both in his fiction and non-fiction. The novels--Setting Free the Bears, The Water-Method Man, The 158-Pound Marriage, The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules, and A Prayer for Owen Meany--will be studied in relation to the development of Irving's fictive aesthetic. The thesis argues that the fictional world of John Irving is a multivalent one which operates on intellectual, moral, and emotional planes; it contains contemporary as well as traditional fictional modes. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
