HENK0386FU English - Free topic 8: Becoming Human: Writers in Paul Auster’s American Novels (exam form A + B)

Paul Auster has been classified as an American writer concerned with the experience and moral health of his country, as a cult writer, and as an eminent storyteller. Auster's narratives are inhabited by writers in various guises: the writer as detective, the writer as anarchist, as orphan, as son and father; the writer, ultimately, as someone striving to become human. We will discuss their pursuits of meaning and purpose and trace the strange interconnection between hunger andfulfilment that obsesses many of them.

Central issues: National and Personal (Hi)Stories, The Private ŒEye/I¹, Belatedness, Flanerie, the Adamic Principle, the myth of Babel, the Fall of Man, among others. Texts: four or five of Auster¹s novels (most certainly The New York Trilogy, Leviathan and Sunset Park), a selection of his essays, film scripts and poems, the relevant theory and criticism.