Humor and the Shape of Innovative American Fiction

FAIN: FR-10206-78

Paul R. Lilly
SUNY Research Foundation, College at Oneonta (Oneonta, NY 13820-2685)

To concentrate on recent American fiction, especially innovative writing. To determine a relation between experimental shape of many American fictions—short stories and novels—and the individual writer's attitude toward humor. To study the various kinds of humor that some writers turn to in order to disrupt traditional expectations of the reader. Some of the contemporary American writers to be studied include Barth, Barthelme, Hawkes, Coover, Sukenick, Wurlitzer, Sorrentino, Vonnegut, etc., who have demonstrated that humor is a shaping force in the kind of fiction they write.