American Fiction 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is a continuation of my previous study on American postmodern fiction entitled Poetika americkej postmodernej prózy: Richard Brautigan and Donald Barthelme [Poetics of American Fiction: Richard Brautigan]. Prešov: Impreso, 2001. While in my first book I dealt with various aspects of American postmodernist fiction in connection with parody and its relation to history, popular culture and fantasy as manifested in the novels by Richard Brautigan and Donald Barthelme, this book explores various aspects of American postmodernist fiction as manifested in other works by Richard Brautigan (An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), Donald Barthelme (Paradise, 1986), and especially in the works by other American postmodernist authors such as Robert Coover, E. L. Doctorow, Kurt Vonnegut and Paul Auster. The scope of this book ranges from a single work to a comparative study of different authors’ works ranging from short story