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John Barth's eminence as a postmodernist is indisputable. However, much of the criticism dealing with his work is prompted by his own theories of "exhaustion" and subsequent "replenishment," leaving his writing relatively untouched by theories of postmodernism in general. This book changes that by focusing on the relationship between Barth's aesthetic and the ideology critique of the historical avant-gardes, which were the first to mobilize art against itself and its institutional practices and demands. Examining Barth's metafictional parodies in the light of theories of space and subjectivity, Clavier engages the question of ideology critique in postmodernism by offering the montage as a possible model for understanding Barth's fiction. In such a light, postmodernism may well be perceived as a mimesis of reality, particularly a recognition of the collective nature of self and the world.
Info autore
The Author: Berndt Clavier earned his doctoral degree in English at Lund University, Sweden, and he is a former Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently, he is Assistant Professor at IMER (International Migration and Ethnic Relations) at Malmö University, Sweden. Clavier has published articles on postmodernism, travel, and transnationalism.
Relazione
«This book will have a special appeal not only for those interested in John Barth but also for those pursuing postmodernism and metafiction. Berndt Clavier takes up the issue of spatiality and re-examines its centrality for our inherited notions of historicity, temporality, and causality. Through a series of perceptive analyses Clavier demonstrates how John Barth's focus on these concerns allows us to re-think such fundamentals as representation, the subject-object distinction, and, indeed, human consciousness. The book offers an extremely useful and thought-provoking discussion of some of the key phenomena of postmodern literary fiction, and it is clear that all future studies of Barth will also need to take this important book into account.» (Richard Murphy, University of Sussex; Author of Theorizing the Avant-Garde: Modernism, Expressionism and the Problem of Postmodernity)
