Paul Auster Essay
“My name is Paul Auster. That is not my real name”: The search for identity in Paul Auster’s City of Glass
Jakob Pearson ENG K01 Literary Seminar Autumn 2008 English Studies The Centre for Languages and Literature Lund University Supervisor: C. Wadsö-Lecaros
Table of Contents
1
Introduction
3
Quinn embarks on a quest for identity
5
Quinn enters into an arbitrary world
7
Quinn takes an incomplete look at himself
8
Quinn plays the role
10
Quinn submits to chance
12
Quinn creates a second triad
13
Quinn meets his maker
16
Quinn falls in and out of denial
17
Quinn goes up in words
18
Conclusion
21
Works Cited
Jakob Pearson Introduction Paul Auster constructs an ambiguously defined cast of characters in his novel, City of Glass (1985). 1 Daniel Quinn, a writer of mystery novels, assumes the role of protagonist. Immediately his identity is thrown into doubt when Auster defines Quinn as a “triad of selves” (6). Living with the memories of a wife and son who are now dead, Quinn has become a man of solitude. His publications are ostensibly authored by the pseudonym William Wilson. Auster early sentences his leading man to madness, if only to a thus far limited degree, when asserting that Quinn “never went so far as to believe that he and William Wilson were the same man” (5). While Quinn himself is the instrument of actions or simply the “dummy”, Wilson is the “ventriloquist”, leaving Max Work, the macho detective in Quinn/Wilson’s stories, to complete the triad. His role is “to give purpose to the enterprise” (6). As Quinn yearns to remove himself from his past, he meanders through the endless streets of New York. He feels lost and disconnected. His goal is to escape his mind completely, to eradicate all thoughts and perhaps all memories, “to be nowhere” (4). However, these attempts at depersonalization are fleeting and Quinn, once given the chance, decides to enter into a story.
Jakob Pearson ENG K01 Literary Seminar Autumn 2008 English Studies The Centre for Languages and Literature Lund University Supervisor: C. Wadsö-Lecaros
Table of Contents
1
Introduction
3
Quinn embarks on a quest for identity
5
Quinn enters into an arbitrary world
7
Quinn takes an incomplete look at himself
8
Quinn plays the role
10
Quinn submits to chance
12
Quinn creates a second triad
13
Quinn meets his maker
16
Quinn falls in and out of denial
17
Quinn goes up in words
18
Conclusion
21
Works Cited
Jakob Pearson Introduction Paul Auster constructs an ambiguously defined cast of characters in his novel, City of Glass (1985). 1 Daniel Quinn, a writer of mystery novels, assumes the role of protagonist. Immediately his identity is thrown into doubt when Auster defines Quinn as a “triad of selves” (6). Living with the memories of a wife and son who are now dead, Quinn has become a man of solitude. His publications are ostensibly authored by the pseudonym William Wilson. Auster early sentences his leading man to madness, if only to a thus far limited degree, when asserting that Quinn “never went so far as to believe that he and William Wilson were the same man” (5). While Quinn himself is the instrument of actions or simply the “dummy”, Wilson is the “ventriloquist”, leaving Max Work, the macho detective in Quinn/Wilson’s stories, to complete the triad. His role is “to give purpose to the enterprise” (6). As Quinn yearns to remove himself from his past, he meanders through the endless streets of New York. He feels lost and disconnected. His goal is to escape his mind completely, to eradicate all thoughts and perhaps all memories, “to be nowhere” (4). However, these attempts at depersonalization are fleeting and Quinn, once given the chance, decides to enter into a story.
Cited: Primary source Auster, Paul. The New York Trilogy [City of Glass]. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1987. Secondary sources Brault, Pascale-Anne. “Translating the Impossible Debt. Paul Auster’s City of Glass.” Critique Vol. 39, No. 3. 1998. Freeman, Hadley. “American dreams.” The Guardian 26 October 2002. 12 Nov. 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/oct/26/fiction.fashion#history-byline. Hassan, Ihab. “Prometheus as Performer: Toward a Posthumanist Culture.” Georgia Review 31, 1977, pp.830-50. Herzogenrath, Bernd. An Art of Desire: Reading Paul Auster. Amsterdam - Atlanta, GA. 1999. Karlsson, Johan. “A Framework for Ideas: The Relevance of Structure in Paul Auster’s City of Glass.” Scripta Minora, Nr. 41. Institutionen för Humaniora, Växjö Universitet. 1999. McCaffery, Larry and Gregory, Sinda. “An Interview with Paul Auster.” Contemporary Literature, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Spring, 1992), pp. 1-23. University of Wisconsin Press. 23 Sept. 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1208371. Worthington, Marjorie. "Auster 's City of Glass." The Explicator. 64.3 (Spring 2006): p179. Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. Lunds Universitet. 20 Oct. 2008. http://go.galegroup.com.ludwig.lub.lu.se/ps/start.do?p=LitRG&u=lununi.