Postmodern Theories and Texts
Image from John Barth site
John Barth
 

• John Barth main page
• The Literature of Exhaustion: quotes and the critics' comments;  a summary (remote site);
• The Literature of Replenishment: outline by Jerry Liang
• John Barth's "Frametale" htmlified, by Brian Green, who also has an extensive collection of links on Barth.

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Relevant Links:

• John Barth, by Brian Green, too.
• Virtuality

"In the case of Electronic Virtual Reality versus literature, the difference is so enormous as to be a matter not of apples and oranges but rather of lotuses and rhinoceri, or perhaps hawks and handsaws. More precisely, it is the difference between virtual reality, which deals in real virtualities, and the purely virtual virtuality of literary texts. The sights and sounds and feels of EVR are literal physical sensations generated by artificial stimuli. The printed page, on the other hand--except for illustrated texts and scratch-and-sniff kiddy books--is strictly anesthetic, however incidentally appealing to the eye and hand its typeface, paper stock, and binding. Even in the greatest, most spirit-stirring novels there are no literal sights/sounds/feels/tastes/smells: only their names, artfully invoked in silent language. The virtual worlds of literature are unencumbered by literality. It is both their great limitation and their indispensable virtue that their virtuality is virtual; that they exist not in our nerve-endings but in the pure hyperspace of our imaginations."

The following sites are taken from those recommended by Green:

• A summary of "The Literature of Exhaustion." Note: the first sentence of this text incorrectly states that Barth's essay "proposed that the conventional modes of literary representation had been 'used up'..." though this is a quibble; the text as a whole is a fair summary, in my opinion, of Barth's argument.
• "Study notes" and questions for Lost in the Funhouse, among others.
• This looks interesting: The John Barth Lecture Hall, where you can post "contemplations, musings, and queries" about John Barth, or visit the John Barth Live Recitation chatroom.
• Postmodernism and the Postmodern Novel at The Electronic Labyrinth.