Self-reflexive Elements in stories of Clark Blaise

Abstract

Although narrators in Clark Blaise’s short stories are sometimes seen as detached and passive observers of the events they describe, they are actually deeply involved in the narrative implications of their tales and committed to the self-reflexive impulse which prompts them to create stories about creating stories. This impulse is examined in relation to three of Blaise’s works of short fiction : A North American Education (1973), Tribal Justice (1974), and Resident Alien (1986).