Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Detroit Mercy, 2008. / "28 April 2008". Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-87).

<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>

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.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciada en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / The urban subject has been a matter of frequent discussion among writers from different ages and origins. In the present, we cannot conceive an exploration of human subjectivity without taking into account the urban experience. The contemporary self is, in fact, an urban self. Under that vein, "the city and the urban subject" is the main object of study of the seminar that frames this thesis. The work that has been chosen for the exploration of the urban experience is Paul Auster´s novel, City of Glass written in 1985, and part of The New York Trilogy. The reason behind this choice is that the novel posits a search for identity in an urban context, specifically in New York City. This well known metropolis can be said to be an icon of the American tradition, it has inscribed their history in it, and it is, at the same time, a tissue of experiences and perceptions that continually interweave through time. Naturally, as time goes on, people change, perceptions change, and the urban environment also changes. But in spite of this obvious transformation that affects almost everything, New York included, some people prefer consistency, regularity and uniformity, like the main character of City of Glass.

Do words mirror reality? This question has been at the core of several linguistic disputes for decades. Several scholars have investigated the relationship between the signifier and the signified, and different literary theories suggest different approaches. This study is a close reading analysis of Paul Auster’s City of Glass, a novel that has been the subject of several scholarly studies relating to the role of language. This study aims to analyse the role of signification in the novel seen from a post-structuralist perspective in order to show how Auster problematizes language. Several explicit remarks on language are made from various characters in the novel, each expressing and conveying different language views. Nevertheless, a post-structural view on language wins favour as post-structural ideas and concepts are seen in the narrative language and the constructive level of the text. The analysis shows that Auster uses a post-structural view on language to illustrate the instability of signification in language. Auster problematizes the stability of language in order to illustrate the tentativeness of truth and ambiguity of reality. The language view of the narrator is used to illustrate the mimetic view that language is able to accurately record reality. The mimetic view on language is problematized by using the notebook as a symbol for the relationship between the signifier and the signified. The arbitrariness of language is illustrated through the means of the notebook in order to problematize truth. Auster uses the character of the protagonist Daniel Quinn to illustrate the belief in an essential truth within literature. This view is then problematized by using arbitrariness in the structural level of the text in order to illustrate the relativity of truth. The character of Stillman Sr is used to illustrate the belief of man being able to control language. However, the search for a divine language turns out to be a gnostic and meaningless quest since no cosmic solutions are achieved. The failure of Stillman´s quest is used to argue for the predominance of language over man. Language determines how people perceive truth. The perception of truth and reality is dependent on language. Since language is arbitrary, there is no truth which consists outside of language.

No description available.

Les romans City of Glass et Leviathan de l'auteur états-unien Paul Auster mettent en scène deux types d'espace bien distincts en perpétuelle tension. Le lieu clos de l'écriture, refuge privilégié pour les écrivains, précède l'espace ouvert urbain dans lequel les protagonistes choisissent éventuellement de se propulser, et lui fait face. À l'intérieur de ce nouvel espace comparable à un labyrinthe, les écrivains connaissent une transformation marquée et irréversible. L'objectif de ce mémoire est de révéler comment la dichotomie des espaces permet d'expliquer la mutation subie par les personnages. L'originalité du projet vient du fait qu'il s'agit probablement de la première étude à faire un lien entre la configuration spatiale des romans d'Auster et le processus de métamorphose et de dégradation traversé par les personnages. Il s'agit aussi de la première recherche à qualifier la chute et le destin funeste des protagonistes, pourtant largement abordés par les critiques, de devenir-monstre. Les notions d'une herméneutique des espaces romanesques servent de cadre théorique afin d'évaluer la construction spatiale des œuvres, élément clé de la problématique de cette analyse. Cette première partie de l'étude se voit prolongée et renforcée par la théorie de la déterritorialisation, puisque les personnages passent d'un contexte spatial à un autre, ainsi que par une observation de la crise existentielle vécue par les protagonistes pendant leur aventure. Le recours au mythe grec de Thésée en tant que référence pour saisir les motifs associés à l'imaginaire du labyrinthe permet également de poser un regard mieux orienté sur le sort qui attend les héros dans le dédale austérien. Dédoublement identitaire, perte du statut de sujet, hybridité, altération de la connaissance de soi et métamorphose en monstre sont autant de répercussions qui attendent les personnages délaissant leur pièce d'écriture pour s'engager dans l'hostile labyrinthe. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Paul Auster, espace romanesque, écrivain, labyrinthe, métamorphose, monstre, City of Glass, Leviathan.

Thesis (M.A.)--Dept. of Art and Art History. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2004. / "A thesis in art history. Typescript. Advisor: Rochelle Ziskin. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed Feb. 27, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-153). Online version of the print edition.

A metáfora do mundo como um palco está presente no imaginário humano há muitos séculos, o que se pode ver nas obras artísticas e filosóficas, de Cícero a Shakespeare: o mundo é representação. O presente estudo propõe-se a analisar interdisciplinamente os desdobramentos das metáforas do teatro e do cinema, na exploração do espaço da metrópole, tendo como corpus o romance Cidade de Vidro, de Paul Auster (1999) e a narrativa fílmica Sinédoque Nova York, de Charlie Kaufman (2008). Para tal, procuramos os teóricos da metáfora, tendo como principal deles Hans Blumenberg, fundador da Metaforologia, Paul Ricoeur e Derrida, em estudos especialmente dedicados a essa figura de linguagem. As metáforas, contudo, se realizam em um determinado espaço, o da metrópole, e para nos guiarmos em seus caminhos, elegemos os estudiosos da nova geografia cultural, dentre os quais Paul Claval, Mathias Le Bossé e Denis Cosgrove. Na correlação da cidade com o teatro, apontaremos a própria história da criação do teatro ocidental como o principal ponto de partida para as ramificações de tal mimetismo. Para o estudo específico do espaço da metrópole, contamos com Walter Benjamin e seus seguidores. Os estudos benjaminianos serão também de vital importância para a compreensão da relação entre cinema e metrópole, relação essa que também foi aclarada pelo questionamento de Nietzsche sobre a verdade. Não foi nossa intenção comparar as obras aqui analisadas em seus planos narratológicos, mas articular dois textos regidos por códigos e procedimentos artísticos parecidos, mas, ainda assim diferentes. Buscamos apontar como as relações teatrais e cinemáticas na metrópole, fragmentada como o próprio homem que nela se perde, provocam uma suspensão da fronteira entre realidade e ficção / The metaphor of the world as a stage has been present in human imagination for centuries. This can be seen in the artistic and philosophical works from Cicero to Shakespeare: the world is representation. This study aims to examine, in an interdisciplinary way, the ramifications of the metaphors of the theatre and the cinema, exploring the space of the metropolis. The corpus for the study consists of the novel City of Glass by Paul Auster (1999) and the filmic narrative Synecdoche New York by Charlie Kaufman (2008). To this end, we present theorists of the metaphor, having as the main source Hans Blumenberg, the founder of Metaphorology, Paul Ricoeur and Derrida, especially the studies that focus on this figure of speech. Metaphors, however, take place in a certain space, the metropolis, and to be guided in their ways, we elected the new cultural geography researchers, Paul Claval, Mathias Le Bossé and Denis Cosgrove among them. For the relation between the city and the theatre, we consider the creation story of the western theatre as the main starting point for the ramifications of such mimicry. To study the specific space of the metropolis, we count on Walter Benjamin and his followers. Benjaminian studies will also be of vital importance for our understanding of the relationship between the cinema and the metropolis. That relationship has also been explained in Nietzches questioning of the truth. It was not our intention to compare the works analyzed here in their narratology plans and techniques. Rather, we aimed at relating two texts governed by similar but yet different codes and artistic procedures. We seek to show how theatrical and cinematic relations in the metropolis, fragmented as the man lost in it, cause a suspension of the border between reality and fiction

A metáfora do mundo como um palco está presente no imaginário humano há muitos séculos, o que se pode ver nas obras artísticas e filosóficas, de Cícero a Shakespeare: o mundo é representação. O presente estudo propõe-se a analisar interdisciplinamente os desdobramentos das metáforas do teatro e do cinema, na exploração do espaço da metrópole, tendo como corpus o romance Cidade de Vidro, de Paul Auster (1999) e a narrativa fílmica Sinédoque Nova York, de Charlie Kaufman (2008). Para tal, procuramos os teóricos da metáfora, tendo como principal deles Hans Blumenberg, fundador da Metaforologia, Paul Ricoeur e Derrida, em estudos especialmente dedicados a essa figura de linguagem. As metáforas, contudo, se realizam em um determinado espaço, o da metrópole, e para nos guiarmos em seus caminhos, elegemos os estudiosos da nova geografia cultural, dentre os quais Paul Claval, Mathias Le Bossé e Denis Cosgrove. Na correlação da cidade com o teatro, apontaremos a própria história da criação do teatro ocidental como o principal ponto de partida para as ramificações de tal mimetismo. Para o estudo específico do espaço da metrópole, contamos com Walter Benjamin e seus seguidores. Os estudos benjaminianos serão também de vital importância para a compreensão da relação entre cinema e metrópole, relação essa que também foi aclarada pelo questionamento de Nietzsche sobre a verdade. Não foi nossa intenção comparar as obras aqui analisadas em seus planos narratológicos, mas articular dois textos regidos por códigos e procedimentos artísticos parecidos, mas, ainda assim diferentes. Buscamos apontar como as relações teatrais e cinemáticas na metrópole, fragmentada como o próprio homem que nela se perde, provocam uma suspensão da fronteira entre realidade e ficção / The metaphor of the world as a stage has been present in human imagination for centuries. This can be seen in the artistic and philosophical works from Cicero to Shakespeare: the world is representation. This study aims to examine, in an interdisciplinary way, the ramifications of the metaphors of the theatre and the cinema, exploring the space of the metropolis. The corpus for the study consists of the novel City of Glass by Paul Auster (1999) and the filmic narrative Synecdoche New York by Charlie Kaufman (2008). To this end, we present theorists of the metaphor, having as the main source Hans Blumenberg, the founder of Metaphorology, Paul Ricoeur and Derrida, especially the studies that focus on this figure of speech. Metaphors, however, take place in a certain space, the metropolis, and to be guided in their ways, we elected the new cultural geography researchers, Paul Claval, Mathias Le Bossé and Denis Cosgrove among them. For the relation between the city and the theatre, we consider the creation story of the western theatre as the main starting point for the ramifications of such mimicry. To study the specific space of the metropolis, we count on Walter Benjamin and his followers. Benjaminian studies will also be of vital importance for our understanding of the relationship between the cinema and the metropolis. That relationship has also been explained in Nietzches questioning of the truth. It was not our intention to compare the works analyzed here in their narratology plans and techniques. Rather, we aimed at relating two texts governed by similar but yet different codes and artistic procedures. We seek to show how theatrical and cinematic relations in the metropolis, fragmented as the man lost in it, cause a suspension of the border between reality and fiction