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.