Flann OBriens At Swim-Two-Birds is a complex reflexive novel that explores the creation of fiction. OBriens layered narrative includes several author/characters, each with his own literary theory. This discussion traces OBriens reflexive structures development and demonstrates its repercussions on the characters within the novel, and the novel as a whole. Beginning by placing OBriens novel within a critical framework, this study examines each of the four narrative levels and the uses of reflexivity in each. OBrien builds and dismantles several structures within his narrative levels, and this thesis shows that the basic reflexive structure of At Swim-Two-Birds is the only remaining structure at the novels end.

Flann OBriens At Swim-Two-Birds is a complex reflexive novel that explores the creation of fiction. OBriens layered narrative includes several author/characters, each with his own literary theory. This discussion traces OBriens reflexive structures development and demonstrates its repercussions on the characters within the novel, and the novel as a whole. Beginning by placing OBriens novel within a critical framework, this study examines each of the four narrative levels and the uses of reflexivity in each. OBrien builds and dismantles several structures within his narrative levels, and this thesis shows that the basic reflexive structure of At Swim-Two-Birds is the only remaining structure at the novels end.