Quest For Identity In Travels In The Scriptorium From The Perspective Of Spatial Narrative

As one of the most influential writers in contemporary American literature,Paul Auster has published many works with a postmodern narrative style and profound philosophical thoughts.His explorations of language,subjectivity,otherness,urban space and existentialist philosophy deserve study.Besides,the relationship between identity and space is particularly prominent in his work Travels in the Scriptorium.As a spatial narrative novel,it demonstrates how the characters get lost in the enclosed space and try to find the connection between the isolated self and the outside world to explore the meaning of the existence and the exploration of identity through the description of labyrinthine narrative form.From the perspective of spatial narrative,the paper further explores the relationship between identity and space in Travels in the Scriptorium.This paper includes three parts: introduction,main body and conclusion.In the introduction part,it firstly introduces Paul Auster’s experience and his works.Secondly,it summarizes and sorts out the domestic and foreign literature review on Paul Auster’s view of space and the theme of his novels.Finally,the theoretical basis and text framework are introduced.The conclusion is the summary of this paper.The body of the paper consists of three parts.The first chapter discusses how Mr.Blank,who loses his memory and identity in the closed space,finds his identity through another outer space from the perspective of physical space.The second chapter interprets the author’s intention from the perspective of reader’s psychological space of different narrative levels.In the process of reading,readers confuse the boundary between the reality and the fictional world,and get lost in the labyrinth-like text space with the author and the characters.Therefore,the chapter three starts with the textual space of the novel.It demonstrates two aspects: the transformation of the textual narrative perspective and the nonlinear narrative structure.In the maze-like spatial narrative,the author,the protagonist and even the reader are all in the crisis and confusion of self-identity.It is only through continuous writing to find the connection between the inner space and the outer space,and find out how to prop up a fragmented self struggling to make sense of the world.The conclusion points out that space in literature provides a mirror for self-quest,and the meaning of self-existence can be understood by the way of spatial narrative.