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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Bibliografiska uppgifter
I publikationen:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/framespa,
Huvudupphovsman: Delevallée, Aurélie
Materialtyp: Article ou chapitre numérique
Språk:Anglais
Publicerad: Les Cahiers de Framespa 2017
Ämnen:
Länkar:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Beskrivning
Sammanfattning: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.