The Fabulators  

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The Fabulators (1967) is a book by Robert Scholes. The book launched and popularized the literary term fabulation to describe the large and growing class of mostly 20th century novels that are in a style similar to magic realism, and do not fit into the traditional categories of realism or (novelistic) romance. It is a study of a tendency in contemporary writers to eschew realism in fiction.

Scholes considered the work of Lawrence Durrell, Kurt Vonnegut, Terry Southern, John Hawkes, Iris Murdoch, and John Barth.

Murdoch

The Fabulalators devotes a chapter on The Unicorn (1963) by Iris Murdoch. The variety of fabulation he attributes to the novel is allegory. He argues that while using "the conventions of English soft-boiled mystery fiction", Murdoch actually "toys with conventions". In his view, Marian and Effingham allegorically represent modern ideas and attitudes, while the Gaze household represents medieval Christianity and the Riders household headed by Max Lejour represents Platonic philosophy.

Barth

The central exhibit in the chapter on Barth is Giles Goat-Boy (1966).



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