ly' rather than to interpret reality by means of a strong narrative voice and a defined philosophical attitude (as seen in modernist fiction). Thus, too the emphasis upon value free or value neutral fiction in postmodernism" (Murphy 8).
Postmodernism also represents a revolt against the narrative tradition of mimesis, which Murphy describes as antimimesis. "The assertion in postmodernism was that literature is its own reality . . and that, therefore, they should operate in accord with their own aesthetic values and internal ordering patterns" (Murphy 10). The resulting "metafiction" or "surfiction" was one in which the formal cause of the creative work becomes its final cause as well. The style is one of presentational rather than representational fiction, wherein the pattern of events may be a parody rather than an imitation of action. Donald Barthelme is one practitioner of the form, which Murphy says was an important influence on Beattie, and Gordon's discussion of Barthelme's literary technique, which she says includes an implicit s
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