Paul Auster and the Influence of Maurice Blanchot

by María Laura Arce

Overview

Poet, writer and filmmaker Paul Auster is one of the great contributors to American postmodern literature. Influenced by authors like Poe and the hardboiled detective stories of the 1950s, Auster's novels represented a new genre of "anti-detective fiction," in which the case itself loses direction and is overshadowed by existential questions. Analyzing three of his novels--Ghosts (1986), The Music of Chance (1990) and Mr. Vertigo (1994)--this critical study explores the intertextual relationship between Auster's work and the oeuvre of French writer and critic Maurice Blanchot. The author explores Auster's work as a fictionalization of Blanchot's concept of inspiration and the construction of imaginary space.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476624907
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

María Laura Arce teaches English and North American literature at Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. She is the author of numerous academic articles on Paul Auster’s fiction.
Maria Laura Arce teaches English and North American literature at Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. She is the author of numerous academic articles on Paul Auster's fiction.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viii
Introduction
1. Paul Auster and Maurice Blanchot: An Intertextual Relation
2. The Gaze of Orpheus: A Theory of Inspiration
3. Ghosts: The Writing Inspiration of the Other
4. The Music of Chance: Inspiration for the Construction of a New Universe
5. Mr. Vertigo: The Inspiration of the Created Object
Afterword
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index