The World as a Stage: Acting and Storytelling in The Sot-Weed Factor

Résumé (en anglais)

The concept of an artificially-constructed human identity, as a sum of masks, is one of the most important issues to be discussed in relation to Barth's novel The Sot-Weed Factor. Virtually all his characters seem to create versions of, "stories" about, themselves and/or versions of history. The number of the stories told by them throughout the novel is impressive and sometimes comes in the way of understanding, of grasping the bigger picture. Speaking – asserting, which means interpreting, creating one's own version/story about the world – is the only way to survive in it, as it also happens in The End of the Road. Hence, words such as "mask", "masquerade" or "carnival" can be used to describe this fictional universe.