Do not use this site as a study guide. The
incomplete nature of this Web site might result in misunderstanding the
profiled individuals. The pages are sometimes posted unedited or appear
in outline form. These documents contain excerpts from the works of others. Read
their books.
Citations are not in MLA or APA format to prevent “borrowing” from
this site. Included passages are in the format Work, Author, Page,
with full citations at the end of Web pages.
NOTE
This page was added December 2004, to indicate my future
plans for the Existential Primer. Please know that this page may be delayed
at least until 2006 while I address the primary pages of the primer.
I consider it important to complete pages on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche,
Sartre, and Camus before expanding further.
Introduction
It would seem difficult to be taken seriously when
your works include a novel about “Goat-Boy” — a name conjuring images
of Saturday Night Live skits. John Simmons Barth utilizes unconventional
techniques to communicate philosophical and moral dilemas. Barth was
noticeably influenced by Albert Camus in both
morality and style.
Biography
Education: Attended Juilliard School of
Music
From 1960 through 1980, many of Barth’s works contained
internal critiques of themselves, making the novels difficult for many
readers to decipher. In 1967, Barth explained his literary approach in
“The Literature of Exhaustion,” an essay for the Atlantic Monthly magazine.
Barth argued that literature was a confrontation between
the writer and all past literary techniques.
One reason Barth was readily accepted in America, while
other experimental writers were not, is Barth’s link to academia. As
an English and Literature professor at Pennsylvania State University,
State University of New York at Buffalo, and John Hopkins University,
Barth was embraced by his American peers before the French existentialists
who influenced his work. Barth received the National Book Award for fiction
in 1973. This marked a pinnacle in his career as a writer and educator.
Chronology
| 1930 May 27 |
Born in Cambridge, Maryland, to John Jacob and Georgia Barth. |
| 1950 January 11 |
Marries Harriette Anne Strickland. |
| 1952 |
M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, only a
year after receiving an A.B. |
| 1953–1956 |
English instructor at Pennsylvania State University. |
| 1956 |
Nominated for National Book Award for The Floating Opera. |
| 1957–1960 |
Assistant professor of English at Penn State. |
| 1960–1965 |
Associate professor of English at Penn State. |
| 1965–1973 |
Professor of English at State University of New York at Buffalo. |
| 1968 |
Second National Book Award Nomination, this time for Lost
in the Funhouse: Fiction for Print, Tape, Live Voice. |
| 1969 |
Divorces Anne Strickland. |
| 1970 December 27 |
Marries Shelly Rosenberg, a teacher. |
| 1973 |
Returns to Johns Hopkins, as professor of English. |
| 1973 |
Receives U.S. National Book Award for Chimera. |
| 1990 |
Retires as professor emeritus from Johns Hopkins. |
| 1997 |
F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for outstanding achievement in American
literature. |
| 1998 |
Receives the PEN/Malamud Award. |
Works
- The Floating Opera, Novel: 1956
- The End of the Road, Novel: 1958 and Film: 1970
- The Sot-Weed Factor, Novel: 1960
- Giles Goat-Boy, Novel: 1966
- Lost in the Funhouse, Collection: 1968
- Chimera, Three Novellas: 1972
- Letters, Novel: 1979
- Sabbatical, Novel: 1982
- The Tidewater Tales, Novel: 1987
- The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, Novel: 1991
Commentaries
I admit that I find Barth amusing and sometimes funny,
but I am not sure what to make of his writings. He approaches literature
in a manner parallel to absurdist theatre: he tears down the “fourth
wall” between writer and reader, invading the fiction with asides on
writing.
Since my own scripts have done this, with the cast
of characters including the director of the play, I find it difficult
to declare a good technique for theatre and a terrible sin in fiction.
But, I also find myself wanting fiction to follow the rule I understand
as a reader. I sympathize with theatre audiences, though I am careful
to use some techniques only to mock theatre snobs.
Bibliography
Fogel, Stanley, Understanding John Barth, University of South Carolina
Press (Columbia, SC), 1990.
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volumes 2 and
227: American Novelists since World War II, 1978, sixth series, 2000.
Philosophy
Mailing List I established a loosely moderated mailing list
in 1996. The community is very active and its members tend to
know much more than I do. Collectively we are a better resource
than an individual. |
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