巴塞尔姆在艺术革新以及后现代主义寓言小说创作方面做出了十分重要的贡献。他也许是后现代主义作家中最擅长于“改写”和“反讽”的佼佼者。这两个要素融入其本人的后现代主义写作倾向，共同构成了巴塞尔姆作品特有的肌质，创造出了一系列光怪陆离、飘忽不定的后现代主义寓言世界。本书选取其作品中强烈的寓言化倾向为视角，将其作品的内涵和外在表现统一考察，以期推动国内学界巴塞尔姆研究的深入开展。

郭亚娟，1981年9月出生，福建厦门人，文学博士，现为厦门大学外文学院助理教授。多篇论文发表于《外国文学》、《国外文学》等国内核心刊物，主持和参与多项校级、省级研究课题。目前的研究领域为美国文学。

A Note on Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter One Toward Postmodernist Allegory
I. The Transformation of Allegory
i. From Interpretation to Narrative
ii. The Return of Allegory in the 20th Century
II. Allegorical Trinity
i. Postmodernism
ii. Postmodernist Parody
iii. Irony as a Vision
III. Donald Barthelme as a Postmodernist
Allegorist
i. A State of "Not-Knowing": Donald Barthelme's
Allegorical Impulse
ii. Allegorizing the Word and the World
Chapter Two Texts Unbound: Donald Barthelme's Allegorical
Visions in Short Stories
I. The Postmodernist Allegorical Rethinking of the Modernist
Subjects
i . Postmodernist Allegory Starting from a Modernist
Assumption: "Me and Miss Mandible".
ii. Allegory Starting from a Parody of the Existential
Language : "A Shower of Gold".
II. Allegories Through Form and on Form
i . Allegory Through Typography: "The Glass Mountain" ...
ii. Dialogic Allegory : "The Explanation" .
III. Allegories on Meaning
i. An Extended Metaphor on Meaning: "The Balloon" .
ii. Utopia or Dystopia? : "Paraguay" .
Chapter Three Palimpsest Texts: A Plurality of Allegorical
Worlds
I. A Plurality of World Visions in Snow White
i. Heterotopia: Reworking Within the Frame of the Fairy
Tale
ii. Language of Babel : Worlds of Discourse
iii. Neutral Parody: A Postmodernist Allegory
II. A Moral Allegory: The King
i. Anachronism: A Sharp Contrast of Two Worlds
ii. The Immanence of Media: Confrontation Between the
Public and the Self
iii. The War Between the Sexes
Chapter Four Texts of Self-Deconstruction: Allegory Against
Itself
I. A Counter-Allegorical Allegory: The Dead Father
i. Hybrid Allegories: Myths Deconstructed and
Reconstructed
ii. Rewritten Allegory: Oedipus Complex Revisited
iii. Paternity Under Erasure
iv. Counter-Narratives
II. Heaven, Haven, or Hell?: The Deconstructive Narratives
in Paradise
i. The Male Fantasy Deconstructed
ii. Paradise Subverted
Conclusion
Works Cited
Acknowledgments