Fiction as art : self-conscious parodies of myth and science in John Banville's the infinities

• Main Author: Balete, Candice Lauren Garcia
• Other Authors: Cornelius Anthony Murphy
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60363
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The relationship between fiction and reality is a recurring concern in John Banville's The Infinities (2009). The novel contains both realist and postmodern elements—while The Infinities indulgently glorifies the beauty of the world with its ornate descriptions and stylizations, the novel is also self-conscious of its status as a work of literature. The various self-reflexive moments allow the novel to examine the relationship between language and the world, ultimately foregrounding Banville's aesthetic concern to articulate the complexities of world in his fictions. In a narrative ontology where classical gods and other elements of the fantastic are interwoven with the textures of the mortal world, The Infinities is concerned with reality, but simultaneously subverts pre-established systems of knowledge at the same time. Moreover, through skilfully invoking elements of the classical mode and Shakespearean comedy, Banville crafts a novel that acknowledges its intertextual inheritances, but uses these allusions to ultimately craft his novel as an aesthetic object, a self-contained story world. Even though The Infinities is not conventionally realist in its concerns, the novel articulates the resonances of the real world in a highly stylized fashion; in the process, the novel celebrates mortality and the human experience of living in the world.