保羅‧奧斯特《孤獨及其所創造的》(The Invention of Solitude)一書中，書寫行為由孤獨所驅使，其試圖探討個體生活與記憶之相互影響作為一種時空實踐。當偶遇死亡揭露了平凡生活中的怪異，偶然性在書寫中變得不可或缺。作家言語之間，書寫已然開展多重世界。在這些世界裡，記憶介入而作家藉著將事件的共時性、空間的封閉性化為文字，一窺其中奧秘。由於記憶的介入，物體化為符號並透過其與文字間的相互指涉引發思考。於此，文字近似於難解的表述。迫於記憶，作家反覆思量符號來檢視生命及書寫中的死路。然而作家了解到，偶遇導向的不是作為懸置事實的無-處，便是擺盪的此-處。故寫作意味著探尋事實的過程，當中揭露的不僅是過去的歷史，也包含未來的—尚未到來的事件。因此，書不僅是奧斯特所稱的「孤獨影像」(an image of solitude)，還是作家多重人生的造影過程(imaging)。本論文試圖就奧斯特非小說及小說作品中的記憶與書寫探求此「造影」之可能性，包括《孤獨及其所創造的》、《神諭之夜》(Oracle Night)及《月宮》(Moon Palace)。德勒茲對於符號的分析可用以細觀每次偶遇事件如何迫使作家臨近平凡生活的外邊(the outside)。藉由傅柯對於語言的探討以及布朗修的文學思維，此「外邊」思維將可進一步發展。

In Paul Auster’s The Invention of Solitude, the act of writing, which is driven by solitude, deals with the interplay of individual life and memory as a spatiotemporal practice. While the encounter with death unveils the strangeness in ordinary life, contingencies become essentials of the writing. The writing unfolds multiple worlds in the writer’s utterance. In those worlds, memory intervenes and the writer peeps into it by literalizing the synchronicity of events as well as the closeness of dark and empty space. With the intervention of memory, objects turn into signs which evoke thinking by means of their mutual reference to words. Words are thus akin to hieroglyphic expression. The writer is forced by memory to ruminate over signs as a way to examine the impasse of life and writing. However, the writer realizes that the encounter actually leads to either no-where as a suspension or now-here as an oscillation of truth. The literal practice hence refers to a truth-seeking process that reveals not only the history of the past, but also the history in the future—an event yet to come. Therefore, a book is not only, as Auster claims, “an image of solitude,” but also an imaging of multiple lives for the writer. This thesis argues whether such imaging is possible in terms of memory and writing in Auster’s non-fiction and fiction works, including The Invention of Solitude, Oracle Night, and Moon Palace. Deleuze’s analysis of signs will be used for scrutinizing how each encounter with events forces a writer to approach the outside of ordinary life. The thought of (or from) the outside will be developed further with reference to Foucault’s study of language and Blanchot’s thinking of literature.

Contents


Introduction                                 1
A. Writing and Life in Auster’s Works       1
B. Literature Review                         4
1. Writing as a Postmodern Representation    4
2. Writing, Space and Difference             6
3. Metafiction                               8
C. Theoretical Framework                     10
1. Deleuze—Encounter and Signs              10
2. Foucault and the Outside                  13
3. Blanchot and the Force                    16

Chapter I: Writing, Memory and the Outside in The Invention of Solitude                                  22
A. Writing and Event—“Portrait of an Invisible Man”  24
B. Writing and Memory—“The Book of Memory”           33
C. Approaching the Outside                              40

Chapter II: Oracle Night and the Outside                47
A. Narrative and the Act of Writing                     47
B. Space and Writing                                    56
C. Oracle Night and the Outside                         68

Chapter III: Moon Palace and the Body                   81
A. The Text and the Body                                81
B. Death, the Body and Words                            91
C. Memory and Temporalized Space                       101

Conclusion                                             115

Works Cited	                                       120

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