Adaptation, Collaboration, and the Critique of Originality in John Barth's The Tidewater Tales

Abstract

This article reads John Barth's novel The Tidewater Tales primarily as an adaptation, rather than a work of postmodern fiction. In making the process of retelling so central to the novel, Barth creates a self-conscious assessment of the “unnecessity,” and even impossibility, of originality. By appropriating legendary literary characters, Barth implicitly critiques the idea of genius that permeates both Romantic and modernist fiction. In contrast to previous critics, I argue that Barth's critique of the modernist aesthetic stems from a dissatisfaction with the movement's retention of the idea of the “single-author genius,” which stands in stark contrast to the cooperative relationship that exists between the storyteller and the audience.