The essay depicts John Barth´s sophisticated dealing with the fiction of forms. By referring to short stories from his 1968 collection Lost in the Funhouse, and especially to “Life-Story”, Barth´s approach of creating metafiction as response to supposedly exhausted literary topics is highlighted. Fiction, consisting of forms as equivalent of existence in being, and consisting of thoughts as equivalent of essence in being, cannot basically change until essence in being itself will change. As forms will only repeat again and again, Barth challenges the reader by having him witness the demanding process of creating a work of art. Varying the kuenstlerroman, he anticipates identity issues of subsequent decades as well as issues of being and art.
| Published in | International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 2, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11 |
| Page(s) | 1-5 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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John Barth, Metafiction, Fiction of Forms, Essence, Existence, Short Story
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| [2] | loc. cit. |
| [3] | Kostelanetz R (1972). Notes on the American Short Story today. In: Bungert H (ed.). Die amerikanische Short Story. Theorie und Entwicklung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, p. 355. |
| [4] | Kostelanetz, p. 359. |
| [5] | Kostelanetz, p. 362. |
| [6] | loc. cit. |
| [7] | Scholes R (1979). Fabulation and Metafiction. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, p. 106. |
| [8] | loc. cit. |
| [9] | Scholes, p. 108. |
| [10] | loc. cit. |
| [11] | Scholes, p. 109. |
| [12] | Barth J (1968/1989). "Life-Story" In: The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. 2. Ed. by Nina Baym, Ronald Gottesman, Laurence B. Holland, David Kalstone, Francis Murphy, Hershel Parker, William H. Pritchard, Patricia B. Wallace. New York: Norton, pp. 2144-2152. |
| [13] | Barth, p. 2146. |
| [14] | Barth, p. 2145. |
| [15] | Ziegler H (1987). John Barth. London/New York: Methuen, p. 16. |
| [16] | Barth, p. 2145. |
| [17] | Arlart U (1984). "Exhaustion" und "Replenishment": Die Fiktion in der Fiktion bei John Barth. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 26. |
| [18] | Barth, p. 2148. |
| [19] | Robbe-Grillet A (1963). Pour un nouveau roman. Paris: Edition de minuit, p. 15-23. Cp. Arlart, p. 26. |
| [20] | Cp. Schaefer T. (2009). Positionen literarischer Dekonstruktion. Paul deMan und Jacques Derrida. Marburg: Tectum. |
| [21] | Ricardou J (1967). Problèmes du nouveau roman. Paris: Editions du seuil, p. 61, p. 184. Cp. Arlart, p. 26. |
| [22] | Cp. Egloff G (2010). Bret Easton Ellis: Die Krise des Virtuellen – das Virtuelle der Krise. Literarischer Abgesang auf den Konsumkapitalismus der Jahrtausendwende. In: Nielsen B, Kurth W, Reiss HJ, Egloff G (eds.). Psychohistorie der Krise. Heidelberg: Mattes, pp. 151-170; cp. Egloff G (2001). Der einsame Beobachter bei Fitzgerald, Salinger und Ellis. Individuum und Gesellschaft im US-amerikanischen Roman des 20. Jahrhunderts. Marburg: Tectum. |
| [23] | Barth, p. 2147. |
| [24] | loc. cit. |
| [25] | loc. cit. |
| [26] | loc. cit. |
| [27] | loc. cit. |
| [28] | loc. cit. |
| [29] | loc. cit. |
| [30] | Ziegler, p. 49. |
| [31] | loc. cit. |
| [32] | Barth, p. 2150. |
| [33] | loc. cit. |
| [34] | loc. cit. |
| [35] | loc. cit. |
| [36] | Barth J (1968/1988). "Title" In: Lost in the Funhouse. Fiction for print, tape, live voice. Garden City/New York: Anchor/Doubleday, pp. 105-113. |
| [37] | Barth, p. 111. |
| [38] | loc. cit. |
| [39] | Arlart, p. 47. |
| [40] | Barth, p. 113. |
| [41] | Cp. Arlart, 47. |
| [42] | Barth J (1968/1988). "Lost in the Funhouse" In: Lost in the Funhouse. Fiction for print, tape, live voice. Garden City/New York: Anchor/Doubleday, pp. 72-97. |
| [43] | Barth, p. 72. |
| [44] | Barth J (1968/1988). "Water-Message" In: Lost in the Funhouse. Fiction for print, tape, live voice. Garden City/New York: Anchor/Doubleday, pp. 40-57. |
| [45] | Barth, p. 56. |
| [46] | Barth J (1968/1988). "Menelaiad" In: Lost in the Funhouse. Fiction for print, tape, live voice. Garden City/New York: Anchor/Doubleday, pp. 130-167. |
| [47] | Barth, p. 94. |
| [48] | Scholes, p. 107. |
| [49] | Schaefer T. (2009). Positionen literarischer Dekonstruktion. Paul deMan und Jacques Derrida. Marburg: Tectum, p. 87. |
APA Style
Goetz Egloff. (2014). Treating the Fiction of Forms: Metafiction in John Barth. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 2(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11
ACS Style
Goetz Egloff. Treating the Fiction of Forms: Metafiction in John Barth. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2014, 2(1), 1-5. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11
AMA Style
Goetz Egloff. Treating the Fiction of Forms: Metafiction in John Barth. Int J Lit Arts. 2014;2(1):1-5. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11,
author = {Goetz Egloff},
title = {Treating the Fiction of Forms: Metafiction in John Barth},
journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
volume = {2},
number = {1},
pages = {1-5},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20140201.11},
abstract = {The essay depicts John Barth´s sophisticated dealing with the fiction of forms. By referring to short stories from his 1968 collection Lost in the Funhouse, and especially to “Life-Story”, Barth´s approach of creating metafiction as response to supposedly exhausted literary topics is highlighted. Fiction, consisting of forms as equivalent of existence in being, and consisting of thoughts as equivalent of essence in being, cannot basically change until essence in being itself will change. As forms will only repeat again and again, Barth challenges the reader by having him witness the demanding process of creating a work of art. Varying the kuenstlerroman, he anticipates identity issues of subsequent decades as well as issues of being and art.},
year = {2014}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Treating the Fiction of Forms: Metafiction in John Barth AU - Goetz Egloff Y1 - 2014/01/10 PY - 2014 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11 T2 - International Journal of Literature and Arts JF - International Journal of Literature and Arts JO - International Journal of Literature and Arts SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2331-057X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.11 AB - The essay depicts John Barth´s sophisticated dealing with the fiction of forms. By referring to short stories from his 1968 collection Lost in the Funhouse, and especially to “Life-Story”, Barth´s approach of creating metafiction as response to supposedly exhausted literary topics is highlighted. Fiction, consisting of forms as equivalent of existence in being, and consisting of thoughts as equivalent of essence in being, cannot basically change until essence in being itself will change. As forms will only repeat again and again, Barth challenges the reader by having him witness the demanding process of creating a work of art. Varying the kuenstlerroman, he anticipates identity issues of subsequent decades as well as issues of being and art. VL - 2 IS - 1 ER -
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