The postmodern text in recent American fiction

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between the American meta-fiction of the 1960s and 1970s and postmodernist theoretical discourse. The author contends that a reader's response to postmodern American fiction is assisted by recent theories of author­ship and readership, and also that the problems raised by postmodernist meta-fiction have a bearing on postmodernist discourse itself. Using illustrations from meta-fictional and theoretical discourses, a link is suggested between the two: both resist 'the hegemony of representational truth', undermine authority in all its forms, and threaten the reader's sense of security.

Opsomming
Hierdie artikel gaan die verhouding na tussen die Amerikaanse metafiksie van die sestiger­en sewentigerjare en die teoretiese diskoers van die postmodernisme. Die skryfster se uitgangspunt is dat resente teoriee oor outeurskap en lesers lig werp op die resepsie van postmoderne Amerikaanse fiksie en dat vraagstukke geopper vanuit die postmoderne metafiksie juis iets te se het vir postmodernistiese diskoers. Aan die hand van illustrasie­materiaal uit sower metafiktiewe as teroretiese diskoers word 'n verband tussen die twee strominge aangedui: albei verwerp 'hegemonie van representatiewe waarheid', ondermyn alle vorme van gesag en bedreig die sekuriteitsgevoel van die laser.