Abstract
This essay analyzes the use of postmodernist literary techniques in Robert Coover’s novella Briar Rose. Metafiction, destabilization of diegesis, and conscious intertextuality are ways of engaging with literary traditions. As a metafictional narrative, Briar Rose reveals and flaunts the mechanisms of fictional creation of meaning. The result is a demystification of the fairy tale, retracing its history and questioning its standard interpretations. Coover’s text stresses the sexual implications of the Sleeping Beauty tale and explores the workings of desire as a driving force of the story and its narration.
Recommended Citation
Redies, Sunje. "Return with New Complexities: Robert Coover’s Briar Rose." Marvels & Tales 18.1 (2004). Web. <https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/marvels/vol18/iss1/1>.
