NEITHER HERE NOR THERE: MAPPING DONALD BARTHELME’S PARAGUAY
NEITHER HERE NOR THERE: MAPPING DONALD BARTHELME’S PARAGUAY

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores the manner in which Donald Barthelme’s experimental story “Paraguay” expresses the author’s critique of the neo-colonial tendencies of the United States in its relationship with Latin American countries, while at the same time pursuing his longtime agenda of restoring language its freshness. Building on the use of collage, borrowing unexpectedly from the specialized lexicons of technology, computer engineering, heraldry, manufacturing, undermining the relational and rationalist projects of modernity, Barthelme creates the image of a surreal country, which is more a representation of human consciousness than a place on the map, a heterotopia not that different from the American society itself.

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