Noah's Ark and Julian Barnes' Worm-Eaten Version. From the Flood to the Holocaust in A History of the World in 10½ Chapters

Abstract

[eng] The aim of this paper is to analyse the techniques used to subvert the myth of the Flood in “The Stowaway”, the first chapter in A History of the World in 10½ Chapters (1989), by Julian Barnes. Lyotard’s theory about the crisis of the Grand Narratives is used to show how biblical discourse is questioned and subverted by Barnes, who places a woodworm to delegitimise the canonical discourses. From its peripheral position, this narrator not only criticises the biblical version but also gives an account of its own by filling the blanks of the biblical account and it even adds some extra material, including a humoristic tone that the original text lacks. Thus, the margins enrich the centre and even include references to more modern events, namely the Holocaust. Finally, there is a proposal of a basic model to study the different levels of signification involved in the creation of a myth. This distinction between the different levels and the subversion of the myth is based on the key concept of legitimacy.