C.J. Hribal: Serious Whimsy (January 1998)

C.J. Hribal considers how whimsy, “an oft-disparaged term,” can be used “to get at truths that mere mimesis cannot reach.” Through close readings of “The Swimmer” by John Cheever” and “The Metamorphosis” by Kafka, Hribal explores how the whims of a character or of the author permit revelations and consequences that would not otherwise have been possible; at the same time, he shows how in each case the whimsical is tied to what is ordinary in the story, so it seems almost a natural extension of it.