摘 要

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Methods of the study 1

2. Literature Review........................................................................................3

3. Nihilism in The Floating Opera by John Barth 5

3.1The theory on nihilism......................................................................................5

3.1.1Definition 5

3.1.2Origin, development and schools 6

3.1.3 John Barth’s nihilism 7

3.2The relationship between Todd and nihilism 8

3.2.1 Todd's awareness of death 8

3.2.2 Todd's love life 9

3.2.3Todd's nihilistic philosophy of life 10

3.2.4 The inextricable nihilism 13

3.3 Reflection.......................................................................................................14

4. Conclusion 15

References................................................................................................................16

Ackowledgements.................................................................................................17

Acknowledgments

Upon the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the people who have helped me during the process of my writing. Without their generous help, the thesis would not have been finished.

First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Wang Li, for her constant encouragement, enlightening suggestions and guidance. Without her consistent assistance and expert advice, this thesis is impossible. Her profound insights, academic capability and fine personality have guided me through the dark hours of my frustration and depression.

I feel grateful to all the teachers in the Nanjing Technology university who once offered me valuable courses and advice during my study. My sincere thanks are also given to Pro. Sun Li and Pro. Wang Li. from whose lectures I benefited greatly.

Last but not the least, my gratitude also extends to my family who have been assisting, supporting and caring for me all of my life.

Abstract

The Floating Opera is an autobiographical novel written by the famous American postmodernist novelist John Barth. Using postmodernist narrative techniques, the author weaves a narrative maze through time, space, and continual changes in narrative subjects, guiding readers to follow their narrators through his childhood, youth, college days, two marriages, and his writing process，reviewing the decades of ups and downs in American society and sharing his understanding of life.John Barth, born in 1930, is generally considered to be a postmodernist novelist in the United States. He is a writer of irony, drama, and meta-fiction. His creation reflects the characteristics of the times in different historical periods since World War II.

In this essay, nihilism would be firstly introduced from the aspects including what it it, how it developed from history and most importantly, how did John Barth interpret nihilism. Be informed about all the aspects mentioned above, we will go further into our main Character Todd’s life. We will see how nihilism reviews in his life experience and what we can see from this story. For example, we can try to think about this question: as a person living in the time, how do we think of these unanswered existential questions?

In real life, nihilism manifests itself as indifferent to everything. As an outsider around us, it loses its original desires and interests for most things. Therefore, nihilism is a passive value, "useless" and "pain" are its absolute ideological theme. Its performance is a kind of real existence, a sense of hopelessness that can be felt at all times, despair Feeling, profound loneliness. This article mainly discusses the nihilism shown in John Barth's novel The Floating Opera, his attitude towards life in different aspects of his protagonist's life, and explores the emergence of nihilism and its development in the context of the times. And the impact of its existence on an individual and the positive meaning it has for an individual.

Keywords: The Floating Opera;Nihilism;Despair;Suicide

中文摘要

《漂浮的歌剧院》是美国著名后现代主义小说家约翰·巴思的一部自传体小说。作者运用后现代主义的叙述手法，通过时间、空间和叙述主体的不断变化，编织了一座叙事的迷宫，引导读者一步步跟着叙述者经历其童年、青年、大学时代、两次婚姻和其写作历程、回顾美国社会几十年的风风雨雨，分享对人生的感悟。约翰·巴思，出生于1930年，一般人们都认为他是美国后现代主义小说家，是反讽、戏拟、元小说作家。他的创作反映了二战以来不同历史时期的时代特征。

在这篇文章中，首先将从包括是什么，如何从历史发展，最重要的是，约翰巴特如何解释虚无主义这几个方面来介绍虚无主义。了解上述所有方面，我们将进一步探讨我们的主角Todd的生活。 我们将看到虚无主义如何回顾他的人生经历以及我们从这个故事中可以看到什么。 例如，我们可以尝试思考这个问题：作为一个生活在当时的人，我们如何看待这些未回答的存在问题？

在现实生活中，虚无主义表现为对一切漠不关心，作为身边一切的局外人，对大部分事物失去了原本的欲望和兴趣。因此，虚无主义是一种被动的价值观，人参观，“无用”和“痛苦”是它绝对的思想主题，它的表现是一种真实存在的，时时刻刻可以被感受到的无望感，绝望感，深刻的孤独感。本文主要讨论约翰·巴思小说《漂浮的歌剧院》中所展示的虚无主义，其主人公生活不同方面所体现出的他的人生态度，探讨在当时时代背景下，虚无主义的产生和它的发展，以及它的存在对一个个体的影响，它所产生的积极意义。

关键词：《漂浮的歌剧院》；虚无主义；绝望；自杀

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

The term nihilism comes from the Latin word nihil, meaning nothing. The verb annihilate means to destroy completely. In the novel Father and Son, Russian writer Turgenev used the term nihilism for the first time to refer to the young educated Russian people in the 1860s. After Father and Son was published, the concept of nihilism became popular. It is generally believed that there are two kinds of nihilism, one is called social nihilism which is passive, the other is called political nihilism which is more active. Nihilism has a long history, you can see it from a lot of historical literary works. John Bath is well known for his great imagination and creativity, as well as his unique artistic skills.

The Floating Opera tells the story of the protagonist Todd Andrews recalling how he planned to commit suicide and eventually gave up the suicide. Todd is a typical nihilist, he is heartless but at the same time, intelligent. Todd is very pessimistic, feeling that life has no meaning, for which he constantly questions himself, denies himself, and looked for the reasons for himself to survive or commit suicide. All kinds of childhood and life experiences have caused Todd to lose faith in life and lose interest in everything. Living for him is no different from death.

After the World War II, the United States became the country which owned the power in the West, but it ushered in the era of social imbalances. There is widespread doubt for reason and progress in society. John Barth has joined the skepticism and irrational chorus of nothingness, existentialism and black humor since his youth. The Floating Opera therefore reviewed a sense of nihilism during this time.

1.2Methods of the study

Firstly, I tried to read as much nihilistic novels as possible, trying to seek more about nihilism, such as Sartre’s The Stranger. I also read some works about existentialism, such existentialism and nihilism share lots of thing in common, they both reviewed the absurdity and meaninglessness of the world.