This book focuses upon the literary and autobiographical writings of American novelist Paul Auster, investigating his literary postmodernity in relation to a full range of his writings. Martin addresses Auster’s evocation of a range of postmodern notions, such as the duplicitous art of self-invention, the role of chance and contingency, authorial authenticity and accountability, urban dislocation, and the predominance of duality.
Preface
Chapter One: Writing, Self-Invention, Memory: The Residual Modernism of Paul Auster’s Postmodernity
Chapter Two: "Our Lives Are No More Than the Sum of Manifold Contingencies": Paul Auster’s Ambiguous Postmodern Philosophy
Chapter Three: "Every Man is the Author of his Own Life": Postmodern Life-Writing and the Duplicity of Self-Invention
Chapter Four: Dislocation, Ambiguity, Indeterminacy: The Postmodernity of The New York Trilogy
Chapter Five: Postmodern Modes of Social Identity: Paul Auster’s Evocation of Urban Dislocation, Estranged Solitude, Collective Diversity
Chapter Six: The Authority of Authorship: The Ambiguities of Life-Writing in Leviathan
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Brendan Martin was awarded a doctorate at Queen’s University Belfast where he specialized in American literature and postmodern theory. He is an Arts Associate Lecturer with the Open University in Ireland and Librarian at St. Mary’s University College Belfast.
