In Memoriam: John Barth (1930–2024)

Today we mourn the passing of preeminent postmodernist John Barth, who died on March 2nd at the age of 93. In a New York Times appreciation, Dave Kim praised Barth's propensity to "[run] riot over literary rules and conventions, even as he displayed, with meticulous discipline, mastery of and respect for them." "He was styled a postmodernist, an awkwardly fitting title that only just managed to cover his essential attributes, like a swimsuit left too long in the dryer," he continues, "But it meant that much of what Barth was doing — cheekily recycling dusty forms, shining klieg lights on the artificiality of art, turning the tyranny of plot against itself — had a name, a movement."

While we do not have a proper PennSound author page for Barth, you can find recordings from recordings from his visit to UPenn  as one of 2012's class of Kelly Writers House Fellows. Our own Al Filreis offered this remembrance of that visit: "Reading *all* of John Barth's writings — and teaching a number of his books to get ready for his 3-day visit to the Writers House as a KWH Fellow — has been truly one of the highlights of my time as a teacher. Giles Goat-Boy, with its piercing critique of universities, is one of the strangest and most affecting novels (and among the longest) I've read. RIP, Jack." We join him in sharing our condolences with Barth's family, colleagues, and fans worldwide.