Author(s)

Wang Lei ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010010, China

Corresponding Author

Wang Lei

ABSTRACT

In Tim O'Brien's "How to Tell a True War Story", the author challenges readers to examine the relationship between truth and fiction in literature. The novel begins with the paradoxical statement, "This is true," which sets the tone for the entire work. Through the use of various narrative techniques, O'Brien blurs the line between truth and fiction, prompting readers to question their assumptions about the nature of storytelling. This essay will explore the construction and relationship between truth and fiction in "How to Tell a True War Story", and will discuss how O'Brien challenges traditional notions of truth and fiction in literature from the perspective of text analysis, intertextuality and Heroic Narratives.

KEYWORDS

Tim O'Brien; "How to Tell a True War Story"; Intertextuality

CITE THIS PAPER

Wang Lei, A Study of Truth and Fiction in Tim O'Brien's "How to Tell a True War Story" . Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2023) Vol. 6: 25-31. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2023.060705.

REFERENCES

[1] O'Brien T. (1990). The things they carried. London, Flamingo.
[2] Donovan C. (2005). Postmodern Counternarratives: Irony and Audience in the Novels of Paul Auster, Don DeLillo, Charles Johnson, and Tim O’Brien. New York, Routledge.
[3] Iser W. (1978). The Act of Reading : A Theory of Aesthetic Response. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press.
[4] Young J.K. (2017). How to revise a true war story: Tim O' Brien's process of textual. Iowa, University of Iowa Press.
[5] Wang L.Y. (2008). " 'The True Story'—Fictional Reviews and Reading of Tim O 'Brian's 'How to Tell a True War Story'." Foreign Literature 1:3-9.
[6] Foucault M. (1994). The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York, Vintage Books.

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