John Barth and the Anxiety of Continuance Penn Studies in Contemporary American Fiction A Series Edited by Emoiy Elliott, University of California at Riverside A complete listing of the books in this series appears at the back of this volume John Barth and the Anxiety of Continuance Patricia Tobin UM UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS Philadelphia Copyright © 1992 by the University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America I wish to thank Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, for the released time and the Rutgers University Research Council for the financial support that contributed to the timely completion of this book; Nancy Miller for her patient retypings; and Mindy Brown for her assiduous care to the editing. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Harold Bloom and Oxford University Press for permission to quote from The Anxiety of Influence, Agon: Towards a Theory of Revisionimi, and A Map of Misreading, and to Henry R. Schwab Publishers for permission to quote from Bloom, Poetics of Influence. Grateful acknowledgment is made to John Barth for permission to quote from Lost in the Funhouse, Giles Goat-Boy, The End of the Road, the Sot- Weed Factor, The Floating Opera, and Chimera; to The Putnam Publishing Group for permission to quote from Barth, Sabbatical, A Romance, The Friday Book, and LETTERS; and to Little, Brown and Company for permission to quote from Barth, The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tobin, Patricia Drechsel, 1935- John Barth and the anxiety of continuance / Patricia Tobin. p. cm. — (Penn studies in contemporary American fiction) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8122-3093-0 1. Barth, John—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series. PS3552.A75Z92 1992 813'.54—dc20 91-26900 CIP For my daughters, SHANNONand CAYLYN, who grew so beautifully out from under the influence during the course of this book's writing. .