In a diachronic sense, clearly the later works are, at least potentially, elaborations on the earlier ones. It is as if the sinister threat of writer's block can only or best be held at bay by never allowing a/the story to stop, by continuing to spin increasingly intricate permutations and combinations on the original or initial formulation. Unlike Samuel Beckett, who throughout his career moved ever closer to the minimal conditions of narrative, Barth has cultivated an exuberant expansiveness of the concept of story such that it threatens to absorb or overwhelm other aspects of the fictive enterprise. It is no great secret to any attentive student of John Barth's career that he is dedicated to narrativity, to the telling and retelling of stories.
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