Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 1.02 Literature
Presentation #1 Title
Narrative Disruption: Metafiction in Fred Chappell's I Am One of You Forever
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Narrative Disruption: Metafiction in Fred Chappell's I Am One of You Forever Fred Chappell's I Am One of You Forever is largely a novel about storytelling. There are three characters who especially figure into this theme: Jess Kirkman (the narrator), Joe Robert (his father) and Uncle Zeno (from his mother’s side), all of whom tell many tales. As a result of these disparate storytellers, there is also a strong current of metafiction running within this novel. In this essay I examine how metafiction, storytelling—especially in regards to Uncle Zeno—address and more importantly, dispel, stereotypes about Appalchian stories and Appalachia as a whole: in short, I contend that Chappell uses metafiction to re-write commonly accepted narratives about Appalachia. Many of these stereotypes were a product of the Local Color fiction tradition of the late 19th and early 20th century, and Chappell's inclusion of Zeno into the novel serves as a way of getting rid of stereotypes, and as a model for how Appalachian stories should instead be told.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Jacob Rogers is a junior undergraduate student at UNC-Asheville and is currently double majoring in Literature and Spanish.
Narrative Disruption: Metafiction in Fred Chappell's I Am One of You Forever
Narrative Disruption: Metafiction in Fred Chappell's I Am One of You Forever Fred Chappell's I Am One of You Forever is largely a novel about storytelling. There are three characters who especially figure into this theme: Jess Kirkman (the narrator), Joe Robert (his father) and Uncle Zeno (from his mother’s side), all of whom tell many tales. As a result of these disparate storytellers, there is also a strong current of metafiction running within this novel. In this essay I examine how metafiction, storytelling—especially in regards to Uncle Zeno—address and more importantly, dispel, stereotypes about Appalchian stories and Appalachia as a whole: in short, I contend that Chappell uses metafiction to re-write commonly accepted narratives about Appalachia. Many of these stereotypes were a product of the Local Color fiction tradition of the late 19th and early 20th century, and Chappell's inclusion of Zeno into the novel serves as a way of getting rid of stereotypes, and as a model for how Appalachian stories should instead be told.
