An Analysis of Metaphysics of Postmodernism in the Novels of Paul Auster

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The contemporary American writer, Paul Auster is one of the most significant writers of the postmodern era. His City of Glass that belongs to the genre of Metaphysical detective fiction is a true representative of the contemporary ideology. It manifests the contemporary man being trapped in a labyrinthine social, cultural and political space characterized with fragmentation, meaninglessness and uncertainty. On the other hand, he has no transcendental points of reference through which to legitimize his life. These two characteristics make the novel an appropriate option to be taken into account from the point of view of metaphysics of postmodernism as theorized by John Francois Lyotard. He characterizes the postmodern condition as the age of incredulity towards master narratives and their replacement with little narratives. In his opinion, due to the existence of a wide variety of little narratives or language games each with their own local rules versus the universal rules of master narratives, the postmodern philosophy is filled with fragmentation and disagreement. This ideology is reflected in the world of City of Glass as a manifestation of contemporary social life in New York City. From the very beginning, Quinn the protagonist goes through a quest for meaning and identity that leads to his total destruction in the end of the novel. This idea of loss and destruction is also manifested in his descriptions of the city streets and the people inhabiting the city. The novel is taken into consideration from the perspective of art, truth, identity, language, and history as master narratives that are incredible in the contemporary world. As a whole, the contemporary subject separated from his universal points of reference, is lost in a maze out of which he can find no way, and the more he struggles, the more he goes into the depth of loss and deterioration. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the only probable solution to the postmodern crisis is recreating the traditional ideologies and frameworks and constructing a new life on the foundation of those frameworks

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