PARODIC FORMS AND THEIR USE IN THOMAS PYNCHON'S THE CRYING OF LOT 49
PARODIC FORMS AND THEIR USE IN THOMAS PYNCHON'S THE CRYING OF LOT 49

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores different theoretical views of parody as one of the key elements of postmodern literature and how it is employed in Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. The paper tackles parody's structural and functional features, such as allusive structural inclusion of different texts into the text of the novel and the effect produced by means of that inclusion, the possible polemical intentions of parody and the manner in which the polemic is induced and executed. The paper shows how Pynchon's parodic practice in The Crying of Lot 49 uses past cultural and language forms in order to make an evaluating context for those forms in the present time, and how the novel's different parodies are peculiarly randomized in an effort to both obfuscate and shed light on, to state nothingness, as well as to inspire subversion.

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