Dialogue between texts in John Barth’s “The last voyage of somebody the sailor”

The article examines the influence of “The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade” by E.A. Poe on “The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor” by John Barth. The connection between the novel and the Arabian tales about Sindbad the Sailor, proclaimed by the mere title, has been widely discussed in science, whilst the tight bound between Poe’s story and that of Barth is still underestimated in Russian literary studies. The article reveals thematic, plot and compositional connections between Poe’s story and Barth’s novel. Special attention is paid to the interaction between the Eastern and the Western precursors of the book. Both the tale and the novel are based on the alleged “true” story of the famous Scheherazade’s death and tend to rethink the traditional plot. At the same time they are focused on Sindbad’s last voyages and connect them to cultural and natural sights of America, contemporary to Poe and Barth, accordingly. These stories, though generally true from the factual point of view, are perceived as fantastic, unrealistic and untrustworthy by naratees of the two works of art in question. The article proves that the problem of realistic and fictional, which is essential for the novel, turns out to be implemented in a similar way in both Poe’s story and Barth’s novel, as well as resonating with the Eastern pre text. The article hereby shows how reading Barth's novel through the optics of its precursors helps to reveal additional nuances of meaning and better understand the nature of the realistic and fantastic in Barth’s novel.