"Astray in Time's Funhouse": Once upon a Time. A Floating Opera Cover Image

"Astray in Time's Funhouse": Once upon a Time. A Floating Opera
"Astray in Time's Funhouse": Once upon a Time. A Floating Opera

Author(s): Raluca Nicoleta Șerban
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: EDITURA ASE
Keywords: postmodern autobiography; fictional autobiography; parody; coaxial esemplasy; mise-en-abyme

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with John Barth's most autobiographic book, Once Upon a Time. A Floating Opera. The genre is subverted, as autobiographic parts are carefully balanced by imagined situations or characters. What results, despite its author’s firm refusal to admit to inserting any autobiographic elements in it, is a "postmodern", or a "fictional autobiography", one that could be approached, at least partly, via psychoanalytic criticism, again despite the author’s irony vis-à-vis such possibility.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 231-252
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: English