Subversion of myths: high and low cultures in Donald Barthelme’s Snow White and Robert Coover’s Briar Rose

This paper analyses Donald Barthelme’s and Robert Coover’s postmodern novels Snow White and Briar Rose and the way both authors, especially through the use of parody and irony, undermine traditional genres of popular literature and, at the same time, give both an intramural critique of traditional n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of American culture 2004-04, Vol.23 (1), p.31-49
Main Author: Kusnír, Jaroslav
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
fairy tales
International economics
mass society
myths
parody
Political structure & processes
popular culture
postmodernism
World history
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Summary:This paper analyses Donald Barthelme’s and Robert Coover’s postmodern novels Snow White and Briar Rose and the way both authors, especially through the use of parody and irony, undermine traditional genres of popular literature and, at the same time, give both an intramural critique of traditional narrative techniques (and the vision of the world they produce) and the extramural critique of consumerism and popular culture. In addition to this, with the analysis of Coover’s novel the emphasis is on the imagery of dreams and dreaming understood as the manifestation of undermining of some aspects of Freudian theories.
ISSN:1466-0407
1758-9118
DOI:10.1386/ejac.23.1.31/0