Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Universiẗat, Diss., 1995.

Le désastre est l’événement singulier, paradoxal dans sa définition même, qui rompt l’espace et le temps, fussent-ils ceux de la narration, de l’histoire ou de l’Histoire. S’il est central dans l’œuvre d’Auster, c’est très rarement comme thème sur lequel Auster écrirait ou comme grands événements historiques dont il rendrait compte, mais plutôt comme une stratégie narrative déployée dans son écriture, comme un noyau autour duquel se construit l’univers thématique de ses romans et les questionnements philosophiques qui les accompagnent, et comme impulsion rythmique qui démarre l’écriture et lui sert de pouls. Le temps Austerien est marqué par l’effacement ou l’étirement du présent face à un futur manaçant, le contraste entre routinier et improbable, la récurrence et la compulsion – tous traces du désastre. Le désastre s’imprime dans l’espace – de la chambre, du livre, du corps, points focaux des romans d’Auster – mais peut aussi anéantir l’espace lui-même, transformant la narration en expérience du vide, du rien et du nulle-part. Les expériences philosophiques auxquelles sont confrontés les personnages Austeriens, se perdre, se dissocier et se recomposer, se remémorer, témoigner sont autant de réactions au désastre, esthétisant l’expérience-limite. C’est dans cette richesse qu’Auster se distingue de ses contemporains postmodernistes : plutôt que de rendre compte d’un monde et d’une expérience du monde fragmentés, et plutôt que de laisser transparaître la fragmentation dans son écriture, Auster relie, reconstruit, recoud via le plus solide des fils narratifs. Auster n’écrit pas le désastre, mais à travers, ou en dépit, du désastre. / Paradoxical in its very definition, disaster is the singular event which ruptures time and space – of narration, of the story, or of history. While disaster is central to Paul Auster’s work, it rarely appears as a theme for writing, or as historical events to recount, to represent. Instead, disaster is central as a narrative strategy deployed in Auster’s texts – as the core notion which underlies all philosophical questioning and tropes present in his writing, as the rhythmic impulse which provokes his writing and maintains its fluidity. The Austerian time is characterized by the disappearance or the stretching of the present in the face of a threatening future, by the contrast between the ordinary and the unlikely, and by recurrence and compulsion – all of which are signs of the disaster. Disaster is etched in space – of the room, of the book, of the body, which are the focal points of Auster’s novels – but may also destroy the very fabric of space, yielding in its wake, narratives of emptiness, nothingness and nowhere. The philosophical experiences of Auster’s characters – losing, dissociating and recomposing themselves, remembering or witnessing – are those of the disaster, and wind up aestheticizing limit-experience. It is through this narratological fertility of disaster that Auster sets himself apart from other American postmodernist writers: instead of merely recounting disaster, of letting it fragment his discourse, he is actively engaged in reconstructing and restitching with the strongest of narrative threads. Auster does not simply write (about) the disaster – he writes through, or in spite of, disaster.

This thesis deals with six texts by two of the best-known contemporary American novelists, namely Paul Auster and Thomas Pynchon. The thesis analyzes three most recent novels by each writer: Invisible, Sunset Park and 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster and Against the Day, Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon. All six novels explore various modes of authenticity - a notion which in each author's work adopts specific mechanisms of establishing ways of existing within the world that are directed towards a critique of the forms of society that try to limit individuals, confine them to prescribed objective categories. Chapters I to IV establish one by one the primary approaches to understanding how authenticity works within individual novels. First two chapters explore Paul Auster's works, and emphasize their portrayal of change as an organizing leitmotif. Chapters III and IV deal with selected works by Thomas Pynchon and analyze their use of entropy and information overload within individual narratives. The final chapter then combines all these notions and provides a comparative analysis and a critical interpretation of all six works against a theoretical and critical framework. The thesis explores the differences between Auster's and Pynchon's approach to authenticity, notions of the subjective or the...

<p>The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the relation between the spatial and individual structures in Paul Austers City of Glass. The interpretative discussion is focused on the novels metafictive aspects. The analyses consists that Quinn, the main character, is linked to the city environment because of his function as detective, flânuer and author. According to Baudelaire, Benjamin and Berman the two last positions are fundamental in the literary citystructure, as well as in the formation of individuality and modernity.</p>

My novel, Away, is mainly the story of a woman travelling alone, leaving all friends and relatives behind. She seeks out remote, beautiful and difficult places where, firstly, she has travelled to before and, then, different locations that she hasn’t known in the past. We discover that, through trauma, she has lost her sense of identity – she is in the midst of a psychological crisis that becomes clear only after the journey has been underway for some time, when circumstances force her to accept help from others. With the protagonist my aim was to portray a permanent and continuous possibility of ending, stretching endlessly. This idea is irretrievable from the notion of space, as conceived here. In Part I, I explore how not only this main character, but also, Fred embody space. Here, I examine the conception of space, taking in various perspectives raging from philosophy, geography, culture and literature studies, where we find an interdisciplinary approach to space. My contention, drawing on mainly Lefebvre’s and Massey’s investigations, is that space is produced and is simultaneously a product embodied by the characters. In addition, I analyse how a particular territory – the desert – enacts the nature of space, as defined before, in selected works by T. E. Lawrence, Wilfred Thesiger and Paul Bowles. Also, I argue that this conception of space is explored in some narratives of Paul Auster - CG, MC and CLT - in part II. Further, I examine other features of space. I contend that Auster’s writing explores space as a realm upon which Auster’s characters engage in a process of construction and disintegration both of space and their identity. Therefore, here, space is considered as a sphere constituted by a process of an ever-opened, changing and ongoing interrelation with the characters and the text. Finally, although space is presented in this essay as the major tool for investigation through composition and critical analysis, other tools, intrinsically, and I argue inseparable in fact, I proceed to an investigation, in part III, of notions of time, identity, writing and narrator in my creative work. Beside these, I investigate particularly the relationships between characters. The thesis concludes by demonstrating that writing as space evolves in more subtle, more transient and labyrinthian ways through the reference to other writers whose writing has significantly influenced my creative work.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa

This thesis is a testimony of thoughts and ideas that have been circulating in my studio for the past few years, in their current form. It is also an experiment in writing an autobiographical piece of prose. It was written parallel to, and after, making the film Double Take with Perrin Turner. The film is an exploration of a number of relationships, related and sometimes haunted by one another. I wish for this text to operate not only as an after-the-fact recollection of thoughts, but also in relation to what will follow it – similarly to the way a trailer operates in relation to a movie. This is an extract and a prologue rather than conclusion or resolution.

Magisterarbeit--Institut für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft--Mainz--Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, 2005. / Bibliogr. p. 137-150.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the relation between the spatial and individual structures in Paul Austers City of Glass. The interpretative discussion is focused on the novels metafictive aspects. The analyses consists that Quinn, the main character, is linked to the city environment because of his function as detective, flânuer and author. According to Baudelaire, Benjamin and Berman the two last positions are fundamental in the literary citystructure, as well as in the formation of individuality and modernity.

La première partie de ce mémoire est une oeuvre de création qui joue avec les notions de focalisation et de voix tel que les représente Gérard Genette. Ce récit a principalement comme thèmes centraux le mensonge et les personnalités multiples qui peuvent habiter la psyché d'un homme. Il est suivi d'un essai qui a pour but d'analyser le lien de confiance que le lecteur et le narrataire peuvent avoir envers le narrateur dans Cité de verre de Paul Auster. Une analyse de la narration, de la focalisation et du discours intérieur dans ce roman constituera principalement cet essai. À la toute fin, nous pouvons conclure qu'aucun lien de confiance ne peut être établi entre les deux parties.