Bibliographic details and abstracts are available to all. Downloads of full-text dissertations are restricted to University of Portsmouth members who must login. MPhils may be accessed by all.

Abstract

Paul Auster's vast bibliography of writing has seen him mostly set his novels within the city of New York with a number of apparent similarities between works such as protagonists who are disorientated and isolated within their surroundings. Using spatial theories from critics such as Michel de Certeau and Michel Foucault, I examine the shifting conflict between the inner conflicts of Auster's protagonists and their outer, physical surroundings. I demonstrate that this conflict is a journey in the construction of identity - from the loss of a previous one in the unstable space of New York to the reconstruction of a new one within parts of that same city. I also join a critical debate about whether Auster is a political author - arguing that his examinations of space are infused with issues of politics and history. My methodology is a thorough examination and analysis of three texts from Auster's mid-to-current career: Moon Palace [1989], Oracle Night [2004], and The Brooklyn Follies [2005]. Each chapter examines a different aspect in Auster's portrayals of space: the rebirth of identity through space and writing in chapter one; politics and history in chapter two and spaces outside of New York in chapter three.

Course: English Literature - BA (Hons) - C0995

Date Deposited: 2020-02-10

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13533.html