1778-1842 1795-1881 1926-2005 20thcentury american americanfiction brentano carlyle clemens criticismandinterpretationbarthelme criticismandinterpretationcoover criticismandinterpretationgass donald englishfiction experimentalfiction fiction fowles gass germaninfluences historyandcriticism ironyinliterature john philosophyinliterature postmodernism(literature) robert romanticism self-consciousness(awareness)inliterature technique thomas williamh