Donald Barthelme Summary

Donald Barthelme has achieved his present eminence as one of the leading popular innovators in American fiction through the pages of the New Yorker magazine, where he began publishing in 1963. But, al... Read more

Critical Essay by Alfred Kazin [Barthelme] is one of the few authentic examples of the "antinovelist"—that is, he operates by countermeasures only, and the system that is his own ... Read more

Critical Essay by Denis Donaghue Donald Barthelme is more attracted to the indisputable charm of brevity than to the disputable charm of narration. If he has a design upon us, it is that we will be re... Read more

Critical Essay by Alan Wilde [The] obstinate triviality of life increasingly impinges on the literary consciousness…. The modernist sensibility, haunted by a vision of pervasive grayness and (a... Read more

Critical Essay by Betty Catherine Dobson Farmer [The human-god-mechanical Dead Father character of Barthelme's Dead Father] offers a multi-faceted study in ambiguity. The Dead Father is "... Read more

Critical Essay by Diane Johnson ["Great Days"] is bare Barthelme at his best, quite inimitable, with a new kind of calm confidence, a new depth of subject, and no pictures. And, one hope... Read more

Critical Essay by Joe David Bellamy When we look back on this period, will the work of Donald Barthelme seem the forerunner of a whole new variety of consciousness or merely a particularly skilled and... Read more

Critical Essay by Maclin Bocock [What some] critics fail to notice is that Barthelme does not confine himself to the recording of public insanities. He has, in fact, been more concerned with private t... Read more

Critical Essay by Carey Horwitz [Sixty Stories] begins with five from Come Back, Dr. Caligari (1964) and continues through nine recent, uncollected pieces. It's a good time for this collection,... Read more

Critical Essay by Charles Newman Donald Barthelme is our most imitated writer today, fully as much as J. D. Salinger was twenty years ago—which is only to say that one index of genius is the ex... Read more

Critical Essay by Lois Gordon Any discussion of Donald Barthelme's comedy necessitates the backdrop of contemporary thought, because Barthelme's characters, and their world, are among th... Read more

In the following essay, Zeitlin studies the role of psychoanalysis and Freudian theory in Barthelme's works. Here is another absurd dream about a dead father.     &... Read more

The following is a negative assessment of Not-Knowing: The Essays and Interviews of Donald Barthelme. What Thomas Pynchon called "Barthelmismo" is somewhat lacking in [Not-Knowing: The E... Read more

In the following interview, Barthelme discusses his life, his literary influences, his views on language and literature, and his works. [McCaffery:] You've published two novels, but most of you... Read more

In the following essay, Morace analyzes Snow White as a work of experimental fiction. Delight in formal experimentation is one characteristic of much of our contemporary American fiction. Another, eit... Read more

In the following essay, O'Donnell illustrates how Barthelme comments on various aspects of contemporary life and society in Paradise.       Shall our b... Read more

In the following essay, originally published in 1977, Dickstein regards Barthelme's City Life as the apotheosis of fictional experimentation and ingenuity and compares it to other innovative fi... Read more

In the following essay, Campbell considers the connection between Barthelme's “The Sandman,” E. T. A. Hoffmann's tale “The Sandman,” and Sigmund Freud'... Read more

In the following essay, McHale and Ron describe the difficulties of collaborating on a close reading of “The Indian Uprising.” The writer is a man who, embarking upon a task, does not kn... Read more

In the following excerpt, Roe surveys Barthelme's later fiction and reflects on his legacy as a short fiction author. Mortal Visions “visitors” In 1981, when Barthelme turned 50, ... Read more

In the following essay, Bruss explores the suspension of self and the roles of narrative style and irony in Barthelme's short fiction. One of Barthelme's early short stories contains thi... Read more

In the following review, Brown views Sixty Stories as a welcome overview of Barthelme's work and “gives ample evidence that contemporary writing and stories of this kind defy capsule des... Read more

In the following excerpt, McCaffery focuses on the “metafictional interests” of Barthelme's short fiction. The final possibility is to turn ultimacy, exhaustion, paralyzing self-c... Read more

In the following essay, Stengel discusses Barthelme's twelve art stories, which evaluate the role of art and of the artist in contemporary life. [This essay] examines Barthelme stories that des... Read more

In the following essay, Halden looks at Donald Barthelme's Snow White both as a traditional fairy tale and as an inversion of established fairy-tale symbolism. A close examination of Donald Bar... Read more