Metafiction and Social Commitment in Pynchon's V.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse Thomas Pynchon's V. within the tradition of metafictional literature, and to show that it proposes a new view of social commitment for the novel. The paper studies V. as a parody of reflexive literature in order to reveal that its reflexive nature emphasises the novel's incapacity to shape its material and bestow a truthful meaning on it. History, the act of narration, language's relationship with reality, the metaphorical and metonymical functions of language and mises-en-abyme are some of the strategies the novel parodies. Such reflexive mechanisms are refused the possibility of providing an integrating meaning. They are inscribed in a linguistic system whose processes of codification entail a trasformation and manipulation of reality. As a conclusion, the text proposes the absence of language as an alternative to a state of affairs which has been traditionally used by the dominant classes in order to oppress the rest of society.