Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
John Barth's Sabbatical: A Romance parodies both Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and the genre of
sea fiction. Through careful attention to the sea fiction
tradition, its metaphors of sea, ship, and voyage as
microcosm, Barth examines the function of myth in life.
Parallels in form, structure, content, and theme establish
the use of contemporary anxieties as symbols for the universal
forces opposing humanity. Sabbatical illustrates the
correlated dualities of the mundane and fantastic, reality
and the imagination, and society and the individual.
Allusions to Poe, and to Pym, substantiate this re generation
of myth. Both wandering hero myths apply the fantastic, the
doppelganger, and gothic romance in elevating the artist to
immortality throu g h the narrator's act of articulation. The
voyage of the protagonists is illustrative of their passage
through life. Therefore, Barth's cyclic regeneration
attempts to explore the convergence of polarities inherent in
all literature.
sea fiction. Through careful attention to the sea fiction
tradition, its metaphors of sea, ship, and voyage as
microcosm, Barth examines the function of myth in life.
Parallels in form, structure, content, and theme establish
the use of contemporary anxieties as symbols for the universal
forces opposing humanity. Sabbatical illustrates the
correlated dualities of the mundane and fantastic, reality
and the imagination, and society and the individual.
Allusions to Poe, and to Pym, substantiate this re generation
of myth. Both wandering hero myths apply the fantastic, the
doppelganger, and gothic romance in elevating the artist to
immortality throu g h the narrator's act of articulation. The
voyage of the protagonists is illustrative of their passage
through life. Therefore, Barth's cyclic regeneration
attempts to explore the convergence of polarities inherent in
all literature.
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