A Reconstruction Of Self---The Book Of Illusions As A Trauma Narrative

Paul Auster is regarded to discuss the loss of self, the exploration of subjectivity, the quest for paradoxes and dilemmas, the relationships between self and other, the uncertainty of identity, and the contingency of life. Most critics have focused on his novels from the perspectives of identity, subjectivity, existentialism, meta-fiction, anti-detective mode, and psychological analysis. However, few of them have talked about his works in relation to trauma themes in his novels.Based on the contributions of trauma theorists: Cathy Caruth, Dominic Lacapra, Judith Lewis Herman and Felman, the thesis analyzes The Book of Illusions, Auster’s tenth novel which is accepted as his most mature novel. The thesis plans to explore the symptoms of the traumatized characters in the novel, analyze the way they go through trauma, and discuss Paul Auster’s trauma narrative writing.Lacapra divides trauma into historical trauma and constitutive trauma. Usually the historical trauma refers to some specific historical traumatic events. Instead, the constitutive trauma doesn’t rely on the influence of any historical events, but the possibility of feeling anxious, which is existential and trans-historical.In the novel, both professor Zimmer and Hector Mann are traumatized by experiencing family’s or friends’ accidental deaths. Their original traumas refer to the historical trauma, which is the loss of their relatives. Trapped deeply in historical trauma, they constitute the trauma experiences to be existential, and couldn’t stop repeatedly being traumatized in psyche. As a result, the historical trauma transfers to be a constitutive trauma, which is trans-historical. In order to work through trauma, the traumatized persons have to accept the historical loss and the contingency of experiences. They have to directly face the historical trauma, and stop constituting the sense of absence. In the process, they abreact their traumas through writing, translating, keeping journals and making films.Paul Auster also experiences various trauma events in his life, and The Book of Illusions is exactly one of his trauma writing. Auster has experienced the absence of his father in his growth, 9/11 attack, and the Jewish intergenerational trauma. With the triple traumas, Auster chooses to abreact trauma by writing. The Book of Illusions alludes his triple traumas. The death of Zimmer’s families in the airplane crash alludes 9/11 trauma. The denial of Hector’s Jewish identity alludes Auster’s Jewish intergenerational trauma, and the sense of absence in his characters comes from Auster’s absence of his father. So the creation of The Book of Illusions is exactly Paul Auster’s trauma narrative writing.The trauma narrative mode is also reflected in Auster’s other works. For instance, in In the Country of Last Things, Auster alludes Jewish holocausts in the history. In Man in the Dark, he describes the trauma of 9/11. He deals with trauma in an aesthetic way in his works with the characters’ denial, reenactment and confrontation of their traumas. The creation plays a great role in his healing of traumas.The thesis consists of five parts. Chapter one gives the introduction of Paul Auster, The Book of Illusions, domestic and international studies about this work, and trauma theory. Chapter two discusses the character professor Zimmer’s trauma experiences, and the processes of integrating self. Similarly, Chapter three discusses another character, Hector Mann’s trauma experiences. Based on the exploration of the two characters’ traumas, Chapter four focuses on Paul Auster’s trauma, and points out that the creation of The Book of Illusions is a kind of trauma narrative of Paul Auster. Chapter five gives a conclusion for the whole thesis.