John Barth and David Foster Wallace: An Abortive Patricide
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Heide Ziegler
Abstract
David Foster Wallace initially saw himself as a late postmodernist; indeed, he literally wrote a text in the margins of his copy of John Barth’s Lost in the Funhouse. Later on, probably under the influence of Harold Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence, he wanted to become one of those “strong poets” who need to commit a literary patricide so as to clear imaginative space for themselves. What has been more or less overlooked so far (or perhaps simply taken for granted, given the widespread recognition and influence of Creative Writing Seminars in the U. S.) is that Wallace used the model of teacher and student to create his own relationship between Author and Reader, turning the story into a battleground between them. This essay attempts to show that Wallace’s “homicidal” as well as “fawning” attitude towards Barth actually raises the status of the author he means to succeed.
Works Cited
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Victorian Mages: Robert Browning’s “Pietro of Abano” as a Critical Corollary to Alfred Tennyson’s Merlin
- Of ‘Household Gods’ and Devils: Fetishism in The Old Curiosity Shop
- More than an Artist in the Making: Samuel Beckett’s “Assumption” Revisited
- John Barth and David Foster Wallace: An Abortive Patricide
- False Generosity of the State: Parasitic Subjectivity in J. M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K
- Reviews
- Matti Peikola, Aleksi Mäkilähde, Hanna Salmi, Mari-Liisa Varila and Janne Skaffari (eds.). 2017. Verbal and Visual Communication in Early English Texts. Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 37. Turnhout: Brepols, xii+280 pp., 30 illustr., 11 graphs, 9 tables, € 80.00.
- Brandon W. Hawk. 2018. Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England. Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series 30. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, xvii + 271 pp., 7 figures, $ 65.00.
- Thorlac Turville-Petre. 2018. Description and Narrative in Middle English Alliterative Poetry. Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, viii + 222 pp., £ 85.00.
- Susanna Fein (ed.). 2016. The Auchinleck Manuscript: New Perspectives. Manuscript Culture in the British Isles. York: York Medieval Press/Woodbridge: Boydell, xi + 253 pp., 6 figures, £ 60.00 (hb)/£ 25.00 (pb).
- Omar Khalaf (ed.). 2017. Alexander and Dindimus. Edited from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264. Middle English Texts 55. Heidelberg: Winter, liv + 80 pp., 8 plates, 2 tables, € 44.00.
- Traugott Lawler. 2018. The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman. Volume 4: C Passūs 15–19; B Passūs 13–17. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, xv + 499 pp., $ 89.95/£ 69.00.
- Martina Bross. 2017. Versions of Hamlet: Poetic Economy on Page and Stage. Beiträge zur Englischen und Amerikanischen Literatur 35. Paderborn: Schöningh, 354 pp., € 59.00.
- Kathrin Tordasi. 2018. Women by the Waterfront: Modernist (Re)Visions of Gender, Self and Littoral Space. Epistemata: Würzburger Wissenschaftliche Studien – Reihe Literaturwissenschaft 890. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 348 pp., 7 illustr., € 48.00.
- John Kinsella and Russell West-Pavlov. 2018. Temporariness: On the Imperatives of Place. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 372 pp., 37 illustr., € 69.90.
- Colin Wells. 2018. Poetry Wars: Verse and Politics in the American Revolution and Early Republic. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 342 pp, $ 55.00/£ 44.00.
- Christoph Lanzen. 2018. Physicians of Culture: Healing Catharsis in the Fiction of Toni Morrison and the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Heidelberg: Winter, 172 pp., € 35.00.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Victorian Mages: Robert Browning’s “Pietro of Abano” as a Critical Corollary to Alfred Tennyson’s Merlin
- Of ‘Household Gods’ and Devils: Fetishism in The Old Curiosity Shop
- More than an Artist in the Making: Samuel Beckett’s “Assumption” Revisited
- John Barth and David Foster Wallace: An Abortive Patricide
- False Generosity of the State: Parasitic Subjectivity in J. M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K
- Reviews
- Matti Peikola, Aleksi Mäkilähde, Hanna Salmi, Mari-Liisa Varila and Janne Skaffari (eds.). 2017. Verbal and Visual Communication in Early English Texts. Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 37. Turnhout: Brepols, xii+280 pp., 30 illustr., 11 graphs, 9 tables, € 80.00.
- Brandon W. Hawk. 2018. Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England. Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series 30. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, xvii + 271 pp., 7 figures, $ 65.00.
- Thorlac Turville-Petre. 2018. Description and Narrative in Middle English Alliterative Poetry. Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, viii + 222 pp., £ 85.00.
- Susanna Fein (ed.). 2016. The Auchinleck Manuscript: New Perspectives. Manuscript Culture in the British Isles. York: York Medieval Press/Woodbridge: Boydell, xi + 253 pp., 6 figures, £ 60.00 (hb)/£ 25.00 (pb).
- Omar Khalaf (ed.). 2017. Alexander and Dindimus. Edited from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264. Middle English Texts 55. Heidelberg: Winter, liv + 80 pp., 8 plates, 2 tables, € 44.00.
- Traugott Lawler. 2018. The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman. Volume 4: C Passūs 15–19; B Passūs 13–17. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, xv + 499 pp., $ 89.95/£ 69.00.
- Martina Bross. 2017. Versions of Hamlet: Poetic Economy on Page and Stage. Beiträge zur Englischen und Amerikanischen Literatur 35. Paderborn: Schöningh, 354 pp., € 59.00.
- Kathrin Tordasi. 2018. Women by the Waterfront: Modernist (Re)Visions of Gender, Self and Littoral Space. Epistemata: Würzburger Wissenschaftliche Studien – Reihe Literaturwissenschaft 890. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 348 pp., 7 illustr., € 48.00.
- John Kinsella and Russell West-Pavlov. 2018. Temporariness: On the Imperatives of Place. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 372 pp., 37 illustr., € 69.90.
- Colin Wells. 2018. Poetry Wars: Verse and Politics in the American Revolution and Early Republic. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 342 pp, $ 55.00/£ 44.00.
- Christoph Lanzen. 2018. Physicians of Culture: Healing Catharsis in the Fiction of Toni Morrison and the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Heidelberg: Winter, 172 pp., € 35.00.
