Unveiling the fabulative art: Exploring english metaphysical detective fiction in Robert Irwin's the Arabian Nightmare and Lawrence Norfolk's Lemprière's Dictionary

In this dissertation, the role of fabulation, and more specifically the manifestation and influence of fabulation in metaphysical detective fiction, is intended to be explored and discussed meticulously within the selected novels of Robert Irwin's The Arabian Nightmare (1983), and Lawrence Norfolk's Lemprière's Dictionary (1991). Robert Irwin and Lawrence Norfolk, with their innovative writing style and various themes that touch upon the reality of life and existence, take a special place in postmodern English literature. Irwin and Norfolk's works not only "explore the possibilities of fiction, the kind of fiction that challenges the tradition that governs it" (Federman, 1975: 7) but also make great contributions to fabulation and metaphysical detective fiction with their mythical, magical, metafictional, and historical subjects. Their novels deconstruct and subvert what is assumed to be real and meaningful, drawing the characters and readers towards ontological inquiries, and, through the use of symbolic and allegorical language, they manifest an atmosphere of eerie and uncanny nihilism. Chapter One presents a detailed elucidation of fabulation theory and metaphysical detective fiction. The discussion is further developed by emphasizing the analogies between fabulation and metaphysical detective fiction. A thematic analysis is carried out in the second and third chapters, and the question of how one perceives and constructs reality within the books is attempted to be answered. Structural analysis has been conducted in the following subchapters of the second and third chapters to demonstrate Irwin and Norfolk's artistic abilities as fabulators. In light of these analyses, this dissertation suggests that Irwin and Norfolk, with their innovative and complex narration techniques, not only destabilize what is assumed to be real and meaningful to renovate our understanding of the world but also endeavour to make philosophical claims about the nature of existence and being. Key Words: Fabulation, Metaphysical Detective Fiction, Robert Irwin, Lawrence Norfolk, The Arabian Nightmare, Lemprière's Dictionary.