Anti-detective Fiction And Postmodern Narration:Understanding The New York Trilogy’s Allegorical Writing

Paul Auster is regarded as one of America’s most original novelists,whose famous work The New York Trilogy was published in 1986,which contains three novels: City of Glass,Ghosts and The Locked Room.Different from the traditional detective novels,Auster’s The New York Trilogy constructs an irrational and broken post-war world in ruins based on the combination of using anti-detection fiction mode and postmodern narration.Based on Benjamin’s allegorical theory,this thesis takes The New York Trilogy as the research object.The thesis centres on the relationship between the anti-detection fiction model and the postmodern narration to explore the historical allegory in The New York Trilogy.According to Benjamin,the allegory is a concept that transcends the scope of the linguistics and is no longer confined to the rhetoric field as well.Instead,it enters the aesthetic scope with specific social and historical connotations,which emphasizing the social effect of art.In Benjamin’s view,the mission of modern art is to find the message of aesthetic redemption contained in the ruins of history.The Chinese scholars’ studies of The New York Trilogy,though started only recently and focused on the interpretation of single works,are also beginning to attract attention.This thesis intends to be one of the many voices in this critical chorus.It takes as its object of study the allegorical writing in The New York Trilogy in a centralized,systematic and in-depth manner,and concerns itself chiefly with some illumination ideas in the novel.This thesis seeks to provide a detailed analysis of the allegorical writing in The New York Trilogy from the following aspects:Chapter one gives the introduction of Paul Auster and his work The New York Trilogy.Subsequently it analyzes the research status of Auster’s works at home and abroad,discussing the relationship between Auster and history.After World War II,New York became the financial and cultural center of the world.The New Yorkers’ lifestyle has also become a new focus.The lives of the detectives and the New Yorkers seem to be glorious.But actually life is hard and dangerous beneath the surface.This has drawn Auster’s attention and explored it in an allegorical way.Chapter two focuses on the relationship between anti-detective fiction and the allegorical writing in The New York Trilogy.Through the analysis of different political,economic and cultural backgrounds between the detective novel and the anti-detective novel,this chapter then discusses the reasons for the formation of two kinds of detective novels in different periods,and their respective characteristics.Focusing on the relationship between the novel and the allegory,the author discusses the conditions in which The New York Trilogy was written and the characteristics of the post-war allegory.For Auster,the model of anti-detective fiction has become the best way to tell history and reflect on history.Chapter three examines the relationship between the postmodern narrative art and the allegorical writing in The New York Trilogy.The classical anti-detective novels contain many different features.Narrative collage,labyrinthic structure and open ending,three of the most important features,are used in this novel.Collage narrative technique reflects the confusion of the detective who cannot solve the puzzles rationally in the modern city.The intertextualiy of the three novels,which is especially remarkable,refers the readers to a maze world.The openness of the ending demonstrates the fictionality and playability of the novel,providing a variety of possibilities for interpretation,reflecting the disappearance of completeness.All of these are precisely a true portrayal of the allegory.Chapter four analyzes the relationship between historical criticism and allegorical writing in The New York Trilogy.This chapter aims to elaborate on the essence of the post-war allegory in Auster’s writing from three dimensions of history and salvation,salvation and allegory,allegory and return.Chapter five concludes with a review of the thesis and comments on the writing of Auster’s allegory,which reveals the criticism and reflection of The New York Trilogy on contemporary society.Last but not least,this thesis also probes into the literary value and practical significance in Auster’s allegorical writing.