Postmodern Mythology in John Barth's Chimera: Paul de Man's Deconstruction at Work

John Barth's Chimera re-mythologizes mythology and re-orients it into the subversive discourse of postmodernism. The subversion of mythology and language are read in this book according to Paul de Man's deconstruction. The deconstruction of Jacques Derrida has been widely practiced in academic circles, particularly through dissertations. But it seems that de Manian deconstruction has not yet been delved into as a reading practice. The major aim of this book is to divulge the practicality of Paul de Man's deconstructive reading or what he calls “rhetorical reading” in the texts of literature. Deconstruction of Chimera is accomplished via a two-step de Manian reading strategy; first, the detection of figures of speech or tropological language and the aberration of each trope, second, the exemplification of allegory of reading in each novella. As de Man proclaims, all the languages are figural,constituted of denominative and conceptual spheres. The conflict between the two is never resolved within a text and culminates int an aberrant aporia. This aporia is what causes the impossibility of reading in any text.