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The Invention of Solitude – Paul Auster

Mind map of Life Writing Conventions and The Invention of Solitude
Context: America and Europe,1970s to 1980s
Text
Character of Auster
Other Characters
Structure
Additional notes on technique
Conventions and The Invention of Solitude
Analysis of Text and Language
When responding to the prescribed texts
The Invention of Solitude – Relationships Mindmap
The Invention of Solitude
Bibliography

Mind map of Life Writing Conventions and The Invention of Solitude

Context: America and Europe,1970s to 1980s

The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster, published in 1982 is informed by the family’s past as Jewish refugees and his own upbringing in Middle America during the sixties and seventies. He shares the generational concern with the consequences of imperialism, the horrors of the Holocaust and the Vietnam War. Knowledge and understanding of the past, however fleeting and fragmented, are central to a sense of identity especially in connection with others. Auster’s European heritage influences his view of family not as a source of identity in the manner of the Americans but as source of loss. To him identity can be taken away or lost and therefore small things, memories and details assume importance in creating or re-creating an identity.

Therefore Auster’s relies on change and coincidence seen in his repeated use of ‘brushing up’ between co incidences such as the brief moments when his father’s photo album, watch, sweater and car, allow him to discover his father even if it is only to have him ‘become invisible again’. (Dow. W. 2004)

The focus of Auster’s text and choice of genre; part memoir, part autobiography, reflects his literary context and the influence of postmodernism as well as his concerns. He sees himself as exploring common questions through his life much as does Robert Lowell.

Text

The Invisible Man the first part of Auster’s narrative is written in the first person after the sudden death of his father and reflects on their relationship. The Book of Memory is the second part and written in the third person where Auster explores the ramification of his separation from his own son and reflects on the relationship between the process of writing as a source of self-discovery and memory. His choice of non-linear narrative, repeated intrusions and intertextual references belongs to the pluralism of postmodern techniques and facilitates re-evaluation and rediscovery of memories. The texts do not issue from a pre-existing sense of self but rather construct that self through ‘negotiation, complicity and collusion’. (Dow. p272)

Auster’s use of postmodern paradigms and signs within signifying systems reconstruct the past through fragments and glimmers, texts and facts to which he and the responder grant meaning.

Auster extends the postmodern topos for autobiographical texts through his emphasis on the ‘power of contingency’

…ambiguity and coincidence. In a world made of glimmers and sudden intuitions, Invention moves through the postmodern domains of decreation, disappearance and other forms of “making” to demonstrate how the novel form can interpret and criticize itself. However, in opposition to the postmodern paradigm Auster’s exploration and reflections on the human condition emphasize humanist values and the need for an ethical and moral position. Therefore, Auster rejects a unified world view and values the fragmented and plural represented by the photographs to reconstruct his elusive father from the glimmers, glimpses and proximities. Similarly by retelling his father’s account of his life in Africa and his response to Auster’s childhood baseball game, Auster creates Sam Auster’s portrait through deferral and accretion of linguistic and epistemological interpretations. (Dow pp272-274)

The explanation of Auster’s use of genre (or anti-genre) is that he seeks to maintain this connection and commitment to morality, he focuses on the power of memory, which is also a key to a stable self paradoxically represented by the continuance of the fragmented, accretion of anecdotes, glimpses and deferrals. ‘It was. It will never be again. Remember’’. (172). To Auster a writer is an interpreter whose authority and authenticity rises from ‘individual perception’. (Dow p279)

Character of Auster

The Portrait of Invisible Man is first person narrative told from the perspective of Auster the son, struggling to understand his past and the character of his detached and enigmatic father. While Auster builds the character of his recently dead father within the context of a past that includes the Holocaust and family tragedy. Auster’s character emerges here as that of a child desperate for recognition and love from his father. It is only through withholding information at first and gradually using an accretion of fragmented facts and memories that the picture of his father is created and partially explained. The text is dominated by Auster’s commitment to and love for his son.

The Book of Memory is written in the third person, where the protagonist A, describes his fear of losing his connection with his own son and his struggle to negotiate and create a sense of identity in solitude and through the accretion of fragments and glimmers of memory. The creative and reflective process of writing enables him to come to an understanding, however fractured, of his past, his relationships and himself. The third person narrative is a means of gaining distance and perspective, achieving a less subjective view of his life. What the reader gains is a picture of a man with a strong sense of moral responsibility and a commitment to connections between individuals and communities within a continuum of past, present and future. A product of his American, European and Jewish heritages, Auster does not identify with the cultural elite as do Blixen and Lowell but shares the common concerns with loss, belonging, alienation and isolation of the twentieth century urban living.

Other Characters

The Invisible Man

Sam Auster (father)
An absent person whose character is revealed as a man too afraid or too damaged to be able commit to the present. Auster’s memories and accretion of details gleaned from possessions discovered after his death and research into letters, newspapers and Court transcripts uncover Sam’s childhood trauma. Harry Auster, whose father was murdered by his mentally unstable mother belongs to a young family who endure extremes of poverty and are held together by desperate loyalty. Sam is shown through a series of anecdotes and reflections to have been unable to form any intimate relationship and failed as a husband and father; divorced without ever being really married and always too withdrawn to respond appropriately to his son. However, Auster softens this with memories of his father as a compassionate landlord, active member of the local Jewish community and generous uncle, even a loving if misguided father to his young daughter.

Daniel Auster (son)
Beloved young son, whose character is further developed in The Book of Memory.

Mother
A lightly sketched character, divorced from Auster’s father after enduring isolation in a loveless marriage.

Sister (victim of mental illness)
An Ophelia character, a fragile victim of mental illness her character develops Sam Auster’s refusal to face reality, his capacity for suffering and inability to express his emotions.

Anna Auster (grandmother)
A formidable matriarch, resourceful and determined, perhaps a victim of mental illness she is obsessive and violently jealous. Used in the narrative to contextualise Sam Auster’s eccentricity.

Harry Auster (grandfather)
A lightly sketched character he is murdered by his estranged wife for alleged infidelity.

Sam Auster (grand uncle, brother of Harry)
Possibly a foil to Harry, Auster’s research reveals he was loyal and loving, attempting to murder Anna Auster after she was released and failing in a subsequent attempted suicide.

Cousin (father’s favourite)
Auster sees him as more of a son to his father than he ever was, Sam’s favourite, a grateful and loving nephew.

The Book of Memory

Daniel
Auster’s anecdote of the child’s illness and near death is part of a common experience, and contributes to the motif of father-child relationships. He is lively and intelligent with a love of stories and language.

Friend S (Paris, father figure)
An eccentric and benign, the real father-figure in Auster’s life with whom he shares common values and contributes to Auster’s commitment to moral and ethical responsibility. S is distinguished by a commitment to and love of life when he accepts gifts of food and wine.

Grandfather (maternal)
An eccentric, magician, story-teller and bon vivant, he is another father-figure. His characterisation is built up with a series of anecdotes including accounts of Auster’s visits to him in hospital.

Ex wife
Separated from Auster due to undisclosed problems, she is an undeveloped character.

Structure

The structure is diaristic and anecdotal not synthesized. Auster focuses on retrospection and the pattern created by his father’s absences, gestures, language including his use of cliché to reflect many selves but no consistent centre. He draws from previously established characterizations of himself and his father established appositionally. This leads to ‘anchoring his narrative in a double-voiced discourse of tragic-optimism ….leaving the narrators in both parts of Invention free to defer and accrete meaning’. (Dow. p276) In an unknowable world fragmented or partial knowledge becomes important.

This accretion of knowledge is evident too in Auster’s use of intertextual references and other father son relationships including the resemblance between Mallarme’s son, Anatole and his own son Daniel. Auster’s text is dominated by references to parent child relationships ‘what parents pass on to their children, by what is visited on them’. Auster’s father, Sam’s ‘invisibility’ is the result of the trauma suffered when witnessed his own father’s murder and Auster himself struggles not to be similarly disconnected from his own son. (Baxter, pp 3-6)

Auster’s inner journey of self-discovery in the thirteen books of ‘The Book of Memory’ is permeated by the tragic – optimism and informs the invisibility that is a dominant motif. Here it is represented by a blank sheet of paper instead of the empty photograph album that he attempts to people in ‘The Invisible Man’ - ‘This is Our Lives, the Austers’. Here the role of writing and solitude in his discovery of self is expressed through greater reliance on coincidence and a range of postmodern techniques: ‘defamiliarization, self- reflexiveness, irony, metalinguistic play’ (Dow p277)

Additional notes on technique

Place

The search for sovereignty and a connection with himself and others through solitude informs Auster’s use of place – his own room in Varick Street, Anne Frank’s room in Amsterdam, S’s room in Paris, Van Gogh’s painting The Yellow Room. Dow (p278) quotes Auster, ‘The more intensely you are alone, the more deeply you plunge into the state of solitude the more deeply you feel the connection’. (Art 309)
Auster’s search for self and belief in the importance of personal and collective responsibility is reflected in his in his references to historical events, the family’s past, including the trial of his grandmother, biblical references such as the Book of Jonah, allusions to father son relationships in allegorical stories - Geppetto and Pinocchio, art - Rembrandt and Titus, Abraham and Isaac, literature - Mallarme and Anatole, Tolstoy and philosophy - Freud.
By simultaneously adopting and deconstructing the ‘postmodernist aesthetic of expression’ (Dow. 278) Auster insists on commitment to individual and collective morality, ‘...And not just his son, but any son, any daughter, any child of any man or woman.’ (156) Further proof consists of his accounts of nurturing his friend S, nursing his dying grandfather and critically ill baby son. Similarly, his condemnation of America’s failure to accept responsibility for the ravages of the Cambodian war are represented by the PR visit to a refugee camp by the First Lady Rosalyn Carter and the monstrous refusal of her entourage to donate desperately needed blood.

Motifs

Authors such as Mallarme and Holderlin whose relationships with their sons resonate with Auster’s own fear of losing his son.
Jonah and the whale & Pinocchio, allegories for father son relationships.
Vincent van Gogh & Anne Frank – Auster identifies with them. Their characters further his reflections on the importance of solitude and place in creating a sense of self.
Scheherazade & Friend D – the power of language and storytelling in creating meaning and connections.

Conventions and The Invention of Solitude:

Place & context – historical, political and cultural
privileged ideas and perspectives & voice – construction of a sense of identity
allusions to religion, art and literature
memory & relationships – insight into past, present, future
writing and reflection to understand connections between past, present and future
a concern for ‘truth telling’ and concealment.

Analysis of Text and Language

In you analysis of The Invention of Solitude comment on:

solitude, writing and reflection as means of self understanding.
the transitory, fragmented and co incidental as a source of meaning and identity
isolation and alienation a contemporary condition
the arts and religion informing values – biblical allusions, extended quotes from other authors
use of postmodern topos
evocative use of detail, motifs, adjectives and verbs
the historical past contextualising the present
use of a variety of text types, story, allegory, references to biographical data.

When responding to the prescribed texts

Refer to the Syllabus requirements, Prescription rubric and HSC Markers’ comments. Life writing over the years has been subject to contextual influences.

Integrate the ‘how’ of the language in your comments on narrative structure, characterisation, setting, mood, themes, pace and tension. HSC Markers regularly remark on the ability of better students to critically consider the concepts and evaluate how the texts represent their concerns. The more sophisticated, informed and fluent student responses demonstrate control of language, a detailed knowledge of the set texts and related material that are integrated and interpreted in keeping with the requirements of each question.

The creative writing component of the HSC exam too should reflect an extensive knowledge of the genre, the set texts and independent research reflected in the original imaginative response to the question. Prepared answers rarely have the sophistication or relevancy required for Extension 1.

Student activities:

Use The Invention of Solitude, Life Studies and one other prescribed text to analyse and evaluate the relationship between the contexts, texts and conventions. What insight has your study provided into the genre of Life Writing, the narrators and the worlds they represent?Use detailed reference to the texts and quotes in a sustained response.
How and why might The Invention of Solitude conform to a linear narrative structure and the postmodern topos?
What are the similarities and differences between The Invisible Man and The Book of Memory? Make sure to comment on Auster’s use of divergences, extended quotes or extracts from other texts including biblical resonances and contemporary political events.
How and why does Auster focus on solitude and the power of language in creating a sense of self? Use specific examples and quotes in a sustained response.
Write an interview with an Australian author of an autobiographical text for the Arts page of a leading newspaper with the focus on his /her choice of voice, structure, style and intended readership. The interview should reveal a thorough knowledge of the genre of Life Writing the prescribed texts and ideas for your original text.
Assume the persona of Daniel Auster, now a young adult and write a reflection on The Invention of Solitude and his relationship with his father. Include detailed textual references.
Write a first person account of a significant event, relationship or situation. Include inter textual references and remember fiction and fact can contribute significantly to the narrative.

The Invention of Solitude – Relationships Mindmap

he Invention of Solitude - Relationships Mindmap

The Invention of Solitude

Technique/Conventions	Examples	References
Place	Auster’s journey of discovery after his father’s death into his father’s past Sam Auster’s house in as evidence of his absence.	7-11; 32,
	Auster’s flat in6 Varick Street, New York.	80-81
	Anne Frank’ room a motif through which solitude and self knowledge is explored.	86-87
	The room belonging to S in Place Pinel in Paris. Symbolic of the power of friendship and moral responsibility.	94-100
	Van Gogh’s room as a reflection of the solitude of the creative artist and of mental illness.
	Holderlin’s room, reflections on love, loss and madness.
	Amsterdam he place in which he discovers the value of solitude to a writer.	104-106
Motifs.	The Holocaust – memory of collective suffering and incitement of a failure to identify with and care about humanity
*Historical events*	The Vietnam War and America’s role	166-168
*Philosophy*	Freud – writings and father son relationships	176
*Biblical references*	Book of Jonah/Pinnochio and the whale	132-135,139-143,169-171,174-177
*Art*	Van Gogh – the Yellow Room , reflections on solitude and isolation	152
*Literature*	Mallarme’s writings about his love for and loss of his son used to develop Auster’s central concern with father-son relationships	116-121
*Objects*	Empty Photograph Album & blank sheet of paper	37-61 185
*Objects*	Letter from Nadezhda Mandelstam	184-185
*Stories/anecdotes*	Auster’s story of Anna Auster and her children’s struggle to remain anonymous and survive after the trial	161-165
	Story of Shehrzad
	Maternal grandfather’s role as magician, storyteller etc and the visit from his geriatric girlfriend	108-112, 127-129
	Visit to a football game, the baseball played by Auster as a child and his father’s failure to respond	22
	Father’s response to Auster’s new born son	24
	Stories from Sam Auster’s past	25, 51-69
	Extract form Jewish Encyclopaedia – Daniel Auster	89-
Newspaper articles/ Transcripts	The contemporary archival reports of the murder and attempted murder trials of Anna and Sam and their failed suicide attempts	37-61
Accretion of details	Facts/fragments of memories relating to his father. Empty photograph album and scattered family photographs	10, 14-15,30-31,33-35

Bibliography

Barone, D.’ Auster's memory’. Review of Contemporary Fiction, Spring94, Vol. 14 Issue 1
Baxter, C, Bloom, H. ‘The Bureau of Missing Persons: Notes on Paul Auster's Fiction’. Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Paul Auster, 2004.
Bruckner, Pascal; Bloom, Harold. ‘Paul Auster, or The Heir Intestate’. Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Paul Auster, 2004.
Caws, Mary Ann. ‘Review of Contemporary Fiction, Spring94, Vol. 14 Issue 1.
Dow, William; Bloom, Harold. ‘Paul Auster's "The Invention of Solitude:" Glimmers in a Reach to Authenticity’. Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Paul Auster, 2004. American University of Paris.
Salmela, M. ‘The Bliss of Being Lost: Revisiting Paul Auster's Nowhere’.
Critique, Winter2008, Vol. 49 Issue 2.
Patteson, R. F. ’The Teller's Tale: Text and Paratext in Paul Auster's Oracle Night’. Critique, Winter 2008, Vol. 49 Issue 2.