An Intertextual Interpretation Of Paul Auster’s The Book Of Illusions

Paul Benjamin Auster(1947-), an American novelist, poet, playwright, translator and director, is regarded as one of the most daring contemporary innovator on writing. The Book of Illusions is Paul Auster’s tenth novel, first published in 2002. It tells a story of a professor’s quest for the meaning of life. As for the researches of the novel, most researchers abroad mainly discuss the silent films in the novel and the achievement of Auster as a director. While in China, researchers mainly focus on its narrative structure and indeterminacy. This thesis attempts to give a comprehensive interpretation in light of the theory of intertextuality.This thesis consists of three parts: an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion.Introduction gives a brief summary of Paul Auster and his literary achievement, the plot of The Book of Illusions, literature review, theoretical framework and the significance of the study.Chapter One mainly examines the intertextual relationship between the novel and other literary texts and traditional literary genres by analyzing his intertextual strategies such as quotation, allusion, pastiche, and parody. Auster quotes from Chateaubriand’s Memoirs of a Dead Man and also uses allusions to construct the plot of the novel; he inherits Kafka’s artistic concerns and imitates Poe’s writing techniques; he challenges the established traditional norm by adoption of the style of anti-detective fiction and reminds the reader “The Birthmark” from Hawthorne. Through the practice of intertextuality, Auster skillfully employs traditional literature in constructing this novel.Chapter Two discusses the intertextual relations between The Book of Illusions and Auster’s other novels. On one hand, Auster always adopts multi-layer narration, makes writer as his main character and reviles the process of writing. On the other hand, Auster always uses similar themes. The themes of death and pursuit occur many times in his different novels. In this unique way, Auster reexamines his former works, stresses the destiny of human destiny repeatedly and attracts the attention of the reader.Chapter Three focuses on the intertextual relations between the novel and silent films. Firstly, Auster shows the intertextual characteristics between the content of the novel and those of the films. Secondly, Auster also shows the intertextual relations between the visual language and the written films. Auster successfully blends the films into the novel, thus expanding the scope of literature; he also attempts to introduce the third-dimension into the films, enriching the performance of films. Through these intertextual relations, Auster breaks the boundary between media and literature.Chapter Four illustrates the intertextual relations between the novel and history. Taking the end of the silent era as the main social background, Paul Auster not only comments on the disappearing of the silent film, but also reveals the influences of the disappearing silent films on the artistic area and audience. Besides, Auster successfully intersperses the historical events into the story: Antisemitism movement, The Great Depression and The French Revolution. Paul Auster leads the reader to focus on the unknown history and psychological experience of common people, and shows the diversity of history.The conclusion indicates that the theory of intertextuality is of great value to interpret The Book of Illusions. Intertextuality is one of the main writing strategies of Auster and becomes the most significant characteristic of The Book of Illusions. Through the theory of intertextuality, readers’ critical thinking is aroused to get a better understanding of the novel as well as Auster’s artistic concern. This thesis proves that the theory of intertextuality can be applied to get a comprehensive analysis of the novel as well as provide diversified perspectives for the area of literary criticism and research.