The Short Stories of Donald Barthelme (Identities and Issues in Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Donald Barthelme
- First Published: 1964
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Emotions, Accidents, Death or dying, Fantasy, Visions, epiphanies, or revelations, Fairy tales, Fables, Sympathy, Irony
The Work
Donald Barthelme is best known for his short fiction. Unlike traditional stories that concentrate on creating characters in a fictive world with which the reader can readily identify, Barthelme creates language objects that are self-conscious of themselves as language. Barthelme’s stories are full of parody, irony, and an infectious playfulness. The critic Wayne Stengel groups Barthelme’s stories into four major categories: identity stories, such as “Me and Miss Mandible,” communication stories, such as “On the Steps of the Conservatory,” society stories,...
[The entire page is 506 words long]
