John Barth (Routledge Revivals)

Ziegler, Heide

doi:10.4324/9781315737553

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“…51) Despite his familiarity with many frame tale narratives, Barth specifically praise Scheherazade for her art of storytelling as he indicates "Most of those spellbinding liars I have forgotten, but never Scheherazade. Though the tales she tells aren't my favorites, she remains my favorite teller" (51) indeed one can hardly understand John Barth's writings without recognizing his obsession with Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights. He mentions her name in his essays, lectures, stories, novellas and novels.…”

Section: Barth Under the Spellmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He regards her as an emblem of his "figurative aspiration": When I think of my condition and my hope, musewise, in the time between now and when I shall run out of ink or otherwise expire, it is Scheherazade who comes to mind, for many reasons --not least of which is a technical interest in the ancient device of the framing-story, used more beautifully in the Nights than anywhere else I know. (51)(52) Barth considers Scheherazade's story as a metaphor for the condition of the storytellers or "narrative artists" in general. The artist is always threatened by the audience's lack of interest or criticism.…”

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The Enchanted Storyteller: John Barth and the Magic of Scheherazade

Majd

Elahipanah

2015

ILSHS

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ABSTRACT. During the fifties he was considered to be an existentialist, and absurdist and later a Black Humorist, yet, John Barth proved that he would never subscribe to any specific theory and would make his own world of/about fiction by himself. A traditional postmodernist as some of the critics calls him; he was obsessed with Scheherazade the narrator of the Thousand and one Nights and her art of storytelling. This essay aims to depict Barth's employment of the frame narrative and embedding structure which are the main devices of Scheherazade's mystifying narratives. Revealing the architectonic structure of his writing, we would demonstrate how traditional technique can bridge postmodernist aesthetics to recreate and replenish the exhausted materials in writings.

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Section: Barth Under the Spellmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%