John Barth’s Construction Of The Heterocosm As Aritstry In LETTERS

It has been a vogue to fictionalize alternative textual space in the postmodernistnovels. John Barth in LETTERS creates a heterocosm with his unique narrativetechniques. The construction of the heterocosm is, in effect, how he writes the novelby means of his special narrative techniques and the exploration of which used inLETTERS is to understand the way of how the writer constructs such a textual world.This thesis, from the postmodern narrative and reading theory, and by way of thediscussion of the mise en abyme, history, culture and imaginary landscape, etc.,analyzes the heterocosm as well as its various writing approaches of LETTERS in anattempt to reveal the artistry of the work.Firstly, the heterocosmic quality lies in the mise en abyme created by Barth’sexperiments of different kinds. The material used to construct the mise en abyme isthe letters, which are in essence fictionalized by the writer, written by differentcharacters. Barth has developed the epistolary novel to its extremity to conveyvarious kinds of “work within the work” and to make a complicated postmodernlabyrinth out of it.Then, the heterocosmic quality is similarly revealed through the writers concernof culture and history. The fragments of history, the replay of the writer’s experienceof creative writing, the allusion of literary history as well as his appropriation ofancient mythologies show the quality of such an alternative universe. Such a textualworld symbolizes the writer’s artistic innovation and it is a wonderful imaginarylandscape whereas such a space is antirealistic if we judge it from its techniques andit is realistic if we consider the history motif therein contained.Lastly, the reason why LETTERS pertains to heterocosm is that the fantasticimagination is transplanted to the text and it is full of spatiality. It is an ideologicaltextual world or universe. The intention of the writer is to construct an alternativetextual universe for the purpose of advocating the postmodern writing principles that he is constantly pursuing. And it is the same reason that leads to the imagination andthe imaginative landscape in the reader’s mind.Briefly speaking, the construction of the heterocosm, for Barth, conspicuouslyunveils the strong artistry of postmodernism.