Donald Barthelme's Visual Approach in the Short Story “At the Tolstoy Museum”

Granit Zela,Jaup Zenuni

doi:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p200

Abstract

Donald Barthelme's short story “At the Tolstoy Museum” belongs to his "Picture Texts" and "Art Gallery" that pastes common objects obtained from the world in unexpected proximity on the picture plane and overturns their predictability as artistic symbols. The paper reaches the conclusion that Donald Barthelme's visual approach in the short story "At the Tolstoy Museum" is similar to René Magritte's process of "resemblance". A composition's "resemblance" to the world deceives the viewer into thinking that he can successfully categorize among and interpret his perceptual experience, while the vague relationships among the graphic and verbal fragments, varied and repeated, counter his ordering activity with disorientation. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p200

Highlights

Structures of Donald Barthelme's picture-texts illuminate rhythmic patterns common to much of his short fiction
In the short story "At the Tolstoy Museum" Barthelme collages in nonverbal elements to break up his words and yet still advance in his narrative
The objective of the analyses is to point out that Barthelme’s approach is similar to René Magritte's process of "resemblance". Such an approach is misleading creating the illusion for the viewer that he is able to interpret his perceptual experience, while the loose connections among the graphic and verbal fragments, and oppose his activity with confusion

Summary

Introduction

Structures of Donald Barthelme's picture-texts illuminate rhythmic patterns common to much of his short fiction. Composed of both verbal and graphic fragments, these collages belong to an historical gallery of "speaking pictures". The graphic configurations include images of classical structures, "photographs" of characters, illustrations from science and technical manuals, perspective drawings, and engravings of weeping heroines, from the turn of the century novels. These pictures often converse with texts in familiar formats. First published in 1970 in Donald Barthelme's third collection of fictions entitled City Life, "At the Tolstoy Museum" belongs to this "speaking pictures". In the final image on page of the text, a negative image of Leo Tolstoy's portrait is pasted directly on top of the point of infinity where the multiple lines of the perspective study meet. (Kajander K. 2009:11)

Methodology

The Text and the Images

The Story as a Surrealist Art Gallery

Conclusion