Donald Barthelme: An Exhibition

by Jerome Klinkowitz

Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) is regarded as one of the most imitated and influential American fiction writers since the early 1960s. In Donald An Exhibition, Jerome Klinkowitz presents both an appreciation and a comprehensive examination of the life work of this pathbreaking contemporary writer. A blend of close reading, biography, and theory, this retrospective—informed by Klinkowitz’s expert command of postmodern American fiction—contributes significantly to a new understanding of Barthelme’s work.
Klinkowitz argues that the central piece in the Barthelme canon, and the key to his artistic method, is his widely acknowledged masterpiece, The Dead Father. In turning to this pivotal work, as well as to Barthelme’s short stories and other novels, Klinkowitz explores the way in which Barthelme reinvented the tools of narration, characterization, and thematics at a time when fictive techniques were largely believed to be exhausted.
Klinkowitz, who was one of the first scholars to study Barthelme’s work and became its definitive bibliographer, situates Barthelme’s life and work within a broad spectrum of influences and affinities. A consideration of developments in painting and sculpture, for example, as well as those of contemporaneous fiction, contribute to Klinkowitz’s analysis. This astute reading will provide great insight for readers, writers, and critics of contemporary American fiction seeking explanations and justifications of Barthelme’s critical importance in the literature of our times.

Genres: Nonfiction

158 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 5 out of 5]

perhaps one of the best books on Don B., very readable and light, without any so called poststructuralist waste. but unfortunately Jerome K. is possessed by The Dead Father, so far all B.`s texts are either a preparation for DF or useless and lame recklings. that`s why he doesn`t analyze The King at all.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably not a bad place to start for Barthelme crit. Klinkowitz falls hard for the theory that "The Dead Father" is Don B.'s key work, but is able to mostly guard his excitement while he walks through all the work that lead to that point. Barthelme was trying his damndest to get to whatever the next new thing is, and Klinkowitz characterizes him as more confident and at peace having had his characters bury the symbolic corpse of modernism and his own father. Klinkowitz also does a tidy explanation of how Barthelme's formal experiments are trying to get at a kind of narrative cubism -- something that teaches readers to surrender plot and character for fragments that re-empower the language that makes up their imagination.