John Barth The Comic Sublimity of Paradox

John Barth is an amazingly versatile novelist who has attempted every imaginable fictional genre from word games to a tale told by a computer. Jac Tharpe’s brilliant analysis is the first and only comprehensive study to date to attempt to chart Barth’s philosophical, comic, and stylistic development. Ranging through the entire corpus of Barth’s work--The Floating Opera, The End of the Road, The Sot-Weed Factor, Giles Goat-Boy, Lost in the Funhouse, and Chimera--Tharpe assesses Barth’s achievement as a completely intellectual yet marvelously carnal comic writer. Especially valuable is his investigation of Barth’s language and artistic technique.