The Trauma of Existence in The New York Trilogy
All along the New York Trilogy, Auster‘s detectives bear unspoken wounds of their past. Their epistemological quest for the truth is further hampered by their uncertainty to find answers about who they truly are. Chasing a perpetrator turns into chasing a shadow, an inner self, and a sense of bel...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Casa Cărții de Știință
2017-12-01
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| Series: | Cultural Intertexts |
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| Online Access: | https://cultural-intertexts.webnode.com/_files/200000311-875f2875f4/54-66%20Besbes%20-%20The%20Trauma%20of%20Existence%20in%20The%20New%20York%20Trilogy.pdf |
| Summary: | All along the New York Trilogy, Auster‘s detectives bear unspoken wounds of their past.
Their epistemological quest for the truth is further hampered by their uncertainty to find
answers about who they truly are. Chasing a perpetrator turns into chasing a shadow, an
inner self, and a sense of belonging. Drawing on Trauma theory, this essay attempts to
examine how The New York Trilogy is an artistic materialization of an underlying trauma
leading to a confused definition of identity. This article shall primarily focus on the reading
of the novel as a traumatic event. It will examine how textual indeterminacies are
implemented to convey a problematized self-definition. Ultimately, it shall study how the
detectives‘ quest for the truth is a query for personal, social and artistic belonging. This
belonging is lost in the tides of a traumatic past that impedes the articulation of a clear
subjectivity. |
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| ISSN: | 2393-0624 2393-1078 |