Donald Barthelme’s The King: The Manifold Guises of (an) American(’s) Memory
Since The King (1990) transposes the Arthurian myth into World War II, this article first aims at analyzing the posthumous novel by Donald Barthelme (1931-1989) as an allohistory staging the meeting of history and memory, two somehow antithetical notions. It also argues that despite the extensive cu...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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UMR 5136- France, Amériques, Espagne – Sociétés, Pouvoirs, Acteurs (FRAMESPA)
2017-04-01
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| Series: | Les Cahiers de Framespa |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/framespa/4340 |
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| Summary: | Since The King (1990) transposes the Arthurian myth into World War II, this article first aims at analyzing the posthumous novel by Donald Barthelme (1931-1989) as an allohistory staging the meeting of history and memory, two somehow antithetical notions. It also argues that despite the extensive cultural library that goes into the book’s making and the prominence of the English protagonist and setting, Barthelme fashions an American novel from the myth of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by featuring emblematic American texts: a metafictional illustration of Pierre Nora’s argument that memory is both collective and individual. |
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| ISSN: | 1760-4761 |