Abstract
Postmodernist fiction, Brian McHale believes, is always about death. Nabokov's Pale Fire (1962) as an allegory of death and writing is about John Shade’s poetic meditations on life and death. The present study is an attempt to explore the relationship between death and writing by applying McHale's theory to Nabokov's novel to show how life is equated with discourse, and death with the end of discourse and silence. The two author-figures—Shade and Kinbote—struggle to continue their narration(s) by reconstructing their selves through and into language, for they know that end of discourse brings their nonexistence. Ontologically speaking, Kinbote who can be Shade the poet provides the reader with a long commentary on Shade's poem, and extends his narration in order to delay fate and remain alive.
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