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This analysis explores Barthelme's narrative techniques using frame, motion, and closure in comparison to Faulkner's work.
Donald Barthelme’s short stories challenge classification and interpretation, standing as alien artefacts for readers, even decades after publication. Critics came to terms with his experimentations by associating them with the postmodern collage or pastiche, leaving out much of his writing techniques for exploration. In this article, I situate the postmodern readings of Barthelme’s work within the domain of short fiction theory. After identifying the elements of frame, motion and closure, I interrogate their transformations by comparing a modern sample, William Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’, with a selection of Barthelme’s stories. Through analyzing visual/spatial motifs, I propose that a Barthelme story has a type of motion that unfastens the frame and pulls the closure from the end to various static terminals in the text.
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Alsahira Alkhayer (2026) studied this question.
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