Paul Auster

This book provides an extended analysis of Paul Auster's essays, poetry, fiction, films and collaborative projects. It explores his key themes of identity; language and writing; metropolitan living and community; and storytelling and illusion. By tracing how Auster's representations of New York and city life have matured from a position of urban nihilism to qualified optimism, the book shows how the variety of forms he works in influences the treatment of his central concerns. The chapters are organised around gradually extending spaces to reflect the way in which Auster's work broadens its focus, beginning with the poet's room and finishing with the global metropolis of New York: his home city and often his muse. The book uses Auster's published and unpublished literary essays to explain the shifts from the dense and introspective poems of the 1970s, through the metropolitan fictions of the 1980s and early 1990s, to the relatively optimistic and critically acclaimed films, and his return to fiction in recent years. Paul Auster provides the first extended analysis of Auster's essays, poetry, fiction, films and collaborative projects. It explores his key themes of identity; language and writing; metropolitan living and community; and storytelling and illusion. By tracing how Auster's representations of New York and city life have matured from a position of urban nihilism to qualified optimism, the book shows how the variety of forms he works in influences the treatment of his central concerns. The chapters are organised around gradually extending spaces to reflect the way in which Auster's work broadens its focus, beginning with the poet's room and finishing with the global metropolis of New York: his home city and often his muse. The book uses Auster's published and unpublished literary essays to explain the shifts from the dense and introspective poems of the 70s, through the metropolitan fictions of the 80s and early 90s, to the relatively optimistic and critically acclaimed films, and his return to fiction in recent years. Provides an analysis of Auster's essays, poetry, fiction, films and collaborative projects. This book explores his key themes of identity; language and writing; metropolitan living and community; and storytelling and illusion. It shows how the variety of forms he works in influences the treatment of his central concerns This study explores all of Auster's artistic output - both published and unpublished - for the first time, and considers, in considerable depth, his major themes of New York life, identity, community, writing and storytelling. Front matter Dedication Contents Series editors’ foreword Acknowledgements Rooms Streets Downtown Out of town No place The global metropolis Afterword Bibliography and filmography Index