The Anti-genre Narrative Of Paul Auster ’Novels

Paul Auster’s novels use fork clues pulling out of the pursuit of the mystery, he is considered one of the most innovative contemporary American writers. By studying his nine novels, my thesis proposes that Auster writing is anti-genre. Usually literary critics would puts literary works into some categories and summarize their features, which later become the standards for the division of the new literary works. Such categories could be defined as genres. And anti-genre on one hand is born from traditional literary genre, but on the other hand subvert the conventional divisions of literary forms. It often makes use of some typical elements of traditional literary genres, for example, miscellaneousness and collage, to recreate new genres. From the perspective of three genres(detective fiction, biography and picaresque novels), my thesis expounds the different choices Auster makes when he deals with text material and text narration Moreover, by putting his works into the historical and cultural context, and taking into consideration his life experiences and the changing background of era which contemporary western intellectuals live in, my thesis further analyzes the features and reasons of anti-genres. Thus, my thesis recategorizes Auster’s works and puts them into the realm of anti-genre, taking a bird’s-eye view of Auster’s whole works and his strength, avoiding the limits of studying single works and paying less attention to the correlation among his many works. My thesis therefore offers a new perspective to understand Auster’s artistic values and characteristics of the times and reinforces Auster’s position in literature world.My thesis is divided into five chapters:the first chapter is the brief introduction of Paul auster’s life experience and his works, and the academic studies of Paul Auster home and aboard. The second chapter analyzes his masterpiece The New York Trilogy by deconstructing traditional detective genre and reconstructing anti-detective genre. The third chapter focuses on "Auster" type of biographical narrative, which involves following characteristics: multi-person narrative, uncertain authenticity, hybridity and metafiction. The fourth chapter analyzes the changes in Auster’s picaresque novels from the aspects of perspective changes, spacial changes and the changes of hero’s pursuit. The fifth chapter discusses the anti-genre in the other novels of Auster and explains the reasons why anti-genre would happen in Paul Auster’s works in the perspective of social development and literature rules.