Bernard Malamud's treatment of the artist figure in his later fiction

This thesis is a study of Bernard Malamud's fictional presentation of the artistic experience in Pictures of Fidelman; An Exhibition (1969), The Tenants (1971), and Rembrandt's Hat (1973). It demonstrates the criteria by which Malamud's artists must abide and the manner in which they either become regenerated and produce viable art, or remain isolated and create nothing of value. Although the treatment of the artist figure in Rembrandt's Hat differs from that in the two earlier works, the stories remain of importance in demonstrating Malamud's total removal from a direct presentation of artistic experience to a position in which he expresses a sense of disillusionment with even the most fundamental forms of artistic communication.English, Department o