Abstract

LOPEZ ALZATE, Yasmín. METAFICTION AND SUBJECTIVITY IN AMERICAN PASTORAL BY PHILIP ROTH. Íkala [online]. 2012, vol.17, n.3, pp.273-284. ISSN 0123-3432.

American Pastoral is proposed in this article as consisting of two narrative levels in which the life of the main character is deployed, that is a diegetic level and metadiegetic level. Then, various metafictional resources are analysed, particularly a reorganization of narrative levels. On the basis of the proposed division, the article explores American Pastoral as a novel which, through the use of metafiction, reconstructs and challenges the subjectivity of the main character set out in the diegesis. Based on the metafictional turning point, a parallel is then established between the main character's identity both in the diegesis and in the metadiegesis. To conclude, several implications of such metafictional reframing of subjectivity in American Pastoral are proposed: as a marker of the text construed character, as a major narrative strategy and as an element underlying literature as a form of intersubjective knowledge.

Keywords : metafiction; subjectivity; diegesis; metadiegesis; narrative levels.

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