Date of Award
4-1982
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
Abstract
John Barth's experimentation with narrative viewpoint in Lost in the Funhouse and Chimera has much to tell us, not only about developments in the form of the contemporary novel, but also about the ways in which our own conceptions of ourselves and our place in the world are changing. Barth's use of multiple narrators, of the frame-tale device, and of narrative techniques which involve the reader in the narrative act ultimately conflate the distinctions between storytellers, stories, and those to whom stories are told. The muddling of these distinctions puts into question conventional notions of absolute authorial control and of unified, consistent identity. It also places supreme emphasis on the act of storytelling itself, and especially upon its nature, ideally speaking, as a playful process. The playful process is one in which the teller allows the story to "play him" as much as he "plays it," one in which shifts of narrative viewpoint and thus of interpretation and behavior are seen as necessary and valuable for the opportunities they afford for greater understanding of ourselves and our world.
Recommended Citation
Poling, Mary Laura, "Playful Perspectives: Narrative Viewpoint in John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse and Chimera" (1982). Honors Theses. 1001.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/honorstheses/1001
Rights Statement
All rights reserved. This copy is provided to the Kenyon Community solely for individual academic use. For any other use, please contact the copyright holder for permission.