TY - JOUR ID - 62647 TI - John Barth’s “Menelaiad” and Quantum Mechanics: The Sacrifice of Common Sense JO - Critical Literary Studies JA - CLS LA - en SN - 2676-699X AU - Emamipour, Ali AU - Pourgiv, Farideh AD - Department of English Language and Literature, Kish International Campus, University of Tehran, Iran AD - Professor of English Literature, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University, Iran Y1 - 2023 PY - 2023 VL - 5 IS - 2 SP - 103 EP - 117 KW - Gestalt approach KW - Menelaus KW - quantum mechanics KW - the Copenhagen Interpretation KW - the uncertainty principle DO - 10.34785/J014.2023.019 N2 - In the annals of the Greek myth, there has been a lacuna surrounding Menelaus and Helen’s relationship following the sack of Troy. What distinguishes Barth’s retelling of the Greek myth is filling this void through constructing a posthistory to the relationship the couple bear to each other and his giving voice to the concerns of Menelaus, a character who has always been in the recess of the canon. While a large body of research has approached Barth’s “Menelaiad” in light of literature of the absurd, this study, through adopting the stance of quantum mechanics on the nature of reality, will demonstrate that Barth’s work is anything but absurd. Establishing the framework of the article based on the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics, the present study argues how the adoption of the subatomic reality, implied in Proteus’ advice, allows Menelaus to jettison his festering obsession with the causality behind Helen’s choice and re-embrace her. UR - https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_62647.html L1 - https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_62647_8b0744ca3b26daa030107e1f7bc34bfa.pdf ER -