John Barth is an American Novelist and short story writer who employs

postmodernist techniques such as metafiction into his texts. In general, he

believes that literature has become dull or tiresome because there is no fresh
creativity taking place. The Literature of Exhaustion is an influential 1967 essay
by the American novelist John Barth sometimes considered to be the manifesto
of postmodernism. Barth's essay has been vilified as an over hasty death notice
for literature, one that seemed hypocritical from a man who is, after all, a
novelist, but this is to miss its point.
The essay was highly influential and for some controversial.It depicted literary
realism as a "used up" tradition; Barth's description of his own work, which many
thought nailed a core trait of postmodernism, is "novels which imitate the form of
a novel, by an author who imitates the role of Author".
Therefore, when exploring The literature of exhaustion Barth (1967) believes
that the concept of originality is a key component to metafiction. For example,
he states By exhaustion I dont mean anything so tired as the subject of
physical, moral, intellectual decadence, only the used upness of certain forms
(p.162). In my opinion, this statement overtly demonstrates Barths attitude
toward the tedious state of literature. In other words, used upness signifies how
traditional literature such as, linear plot structure or character centred novels are
the convection of tediously mundane or out-dated narration (Pinsker 1991).
Correspondingly, Barthes (1968) essay 'The death of the author' propounds We
know that a text is not a line of words releasing a single theological meaning but
a muti-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original,
blend and clash(p.293). This suggests that previous narratives are not original
because it contains sections from other works. In other words, previous
narratives had a cut and paste element to them. Similarly, this foregrounds
Barths (1967) argument and suggests that literature can relinquish itself by
reviving previous characteristics and transforming them into works of art. In
addition, Barth (1967) acknowledges and privileges writers that fulfil this task
such as, Borge and Beckett. This implies that writers such as Borge and Beckett
are able to create new pieces of literature whilst employing metafictional
concepts.

Moving forward, Barthe (1968) states A texts unity lies not in its origin but in its
destination. Yet this destination cannot any longer be personal(p.294). In
other words, if a piece of literature is constructed in relation to the input of the
reader, then there will be room for personal opinions. This implies that the reader
will not attain unnecessary information with regards to the provided material.
Congruently, Dipple (1995) suggests We succumb to being dominated (p.221).
This implies that the reader will unconsciously be dominated through a text
under the control of the author. However, Barth (1968) disagrees with this
conception as he suggests The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the
death of the author (p.294). In other words, the control of the author should be
removed. Therefore, the reader will have total control in terms of how they

interpret a text. In comparison, Barth (1967) identifies that one of Borges

cardinal themes is When the characters in a work of fiction become readers or
authors of the fiction that are in (p.169). This suggests that it is possible for an
author to be created in a text. However, the author will not realise that they are
in a narrative. In other words, the fictional author will rely on the audience for its
existence.
In relation to John Barths (1967) essay, The Literature of exhaustion, a later
critic, Currie (1995) establishes that the novel was an artful exposition of
intelligence that demonstrated narrative authority. Furthermore, Currie (1995)
acknowledges that the novel is a form of storytelling. Therefore, it can be
documented as a part of history. In addition, Currie (1995) denotes The selfconscious novel had the power to explore not only its conditions of its own
production, but the implications of narrative explanations (p.14). In other
words, as the 1980's approached there became a new relevance of theory to the
novel. Therefore, questions such as, representation and originality emerged