scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question

Postmodern Narrative Strategies in Paul Auster's Novels Man in the Darkand Invisible

01 May 2011-
TL;DR: In this article, the two novels that are the central topic of this paper, "Man in the Dark" and "Invisible", belong to the category of his recent novels, and, observed both as separate units and as a whole, present an excellent example for the identification and analysis of such strategies.
Abstract: In many of his novels Paul Auster uses characteristic postmodern narrative strategies in order to tell their stories, introduce the characters and depict the atmosphere. The two novels that are the central topic of this paper, "Man in the Dark" and "Invisible", belong to the category of his recent novels, and, observed both as separate units and as a whole, present an excellent example for the identification and analysis of such strategies. After a brief general introduction about postmodern narrative strategies in literature, the strategies used in the named novels will be identified and analyzed, with respect to various narrative theories that exist in present time, and that will bring to some general conclusions at the final part of the paper.
Citations
More filters
Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the characteristics of EFL classroom discourse in Shokouh English Language Institute in Astara, Iran and concluded that the students generally play a passive role in classroom discourse, especially in teacher-student interaction.
Abstract: The main aim of the present study is to get a deeper understanding of EFL classroom discourse. The author then tries to reveal the current state of the process of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom discourse in Shokouh English Language Institute in Astara, Iran. In order to achieve this goal, the paper describes and analyzes the data from the aspects of the amount of teacher talk (TT), the structure of classroom discourse, and the type of questions employed by teachers. It is found that the teacher talk exceeds students talk; IRF (initiation, response, and feedback) discourse structure is frequently used though more complex structures such as the IR [I 1 R 1 … I n R n ] F structure and the IR 1 F 1 R 2 F 2 … R n F n structure are sometimes used, too; and display questions outnumbered referential ones. It is, therefore, concluded that the students generally play a passive role in EFL classroom discourse, especially in teacher-student interaction, while it is essential to increase students’ contribution in classroom discourse and interaction. On the basis of data analysis, the author offers some tentative suggestions such as minimizing the quantity of teacher talk, replacing IRF structure with more complex structures, and using more referential questions in order to provide students with more opportunities to participate in classroom activities to improve their classroom interactional communicative skills.

19 citations

References
More filters
Book
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an excellent introduction for courses focused on narrative but also an invaluable resource for students and scholars across a wide range of fields, including literature and drama, film and media, society and politics, journalism, autobiography, history, and still others throughout the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Abstract: What is narrative? How does it work and how does it shape our lives? H. Porter Abbott emphasizes that narrative is found not just in literature, film, and theatre, but everywhere in the ordinary course of people's lives. This widely used introduction, now revised and expanded in its third edition, is informed throughout by recent developments in the field and includes one new chapter. The glossary and bibliography have been expanded, and new sections explore unnatural narrative, retrograde narrative, reader-resistant narratives, intermedial narrative, narrativity, and multiple interpretation. With its lucid exposition of concepts, and suggestions for further reading, this book is not only an excellent introduction for courses focused on narrative but also an invaluable resource for students and scholars across a wide range of fields, including literature and drama, film and media, society and politics, journalism, autobiography, history, and still others throughout the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

1,236 citations

Book
27 Aug 2007
TL;DR: In this article, Auster's "Our Lives are No More than the Sum of Manifold Contingencies" is paraphrased as follows: "Every Man is the Author of his Own Life": Postmodern Life-Writing and the Duplicity of Self-Invention Chapter Four: Dislocation, Ambiguity, Indeterminacy: The Postmodernity of The New York Trilogy Chapter Five: Postmodern Modes of Social Identity: Paul Auster's Evocation of Urban Dislocations, Estranged Solitude, Collective Diversity Chapter Six: The
Abstract: Preface Chapter One: Writing, Self-Invention, Memory: The Residual Modernism of Paul Auster's Postmodernity Chapter Two: "Our Lives Are No More Than the Sum of Manifold Contingencies": Paul Auster's Ambiguous Postmodern Philosophy Chapter Three: "Every Man is the Author of his Own Life": Postmodern Life-Writing and the Duplicity of Self-Invention Chapter Four: Dislocation, Ambiguity, Indeterminacy: The Postmodernity of The New York Trilogy Chapter Five: Postmodern Modes of Social Identity: Paul Auster's Evocation of Urban Dislocation, Estranged Solitude, Collective Diversity Chapter Six: The Authority of Authorship: The Ambiguities of Life-Writing in Leviathan Notes Bibliography Index

29 citations


"Postmodern Narrative Strategies in ..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…actual historical events or figures or simulate new ones, what is based on the fact that both historians and novelists use the same linguistic and rhetorical structures to present their ―realities‖, so that the past is always constructed ideologically and discursively (LeńiĤ 2008: 420)....

    [...]

  • ...Postmodernists do not possess ―modernistic nostalgia for an earlier age where the belief in some eternal values of life was still possible‖ (LeńiĤ 2008: 416) but are aware of all the changes that happened after World War II and support the progress in technology and communications, being aware of…...

    [...]

  • ...In such way, metafiction occurs, as one of the main phenomena in postmodern literature, stating that ―the job of a writer is not to present the world anymore, but to make it out of words‖ (LeńiĤ 2008: 422)....

    [...]

  • ...‖(LeńiĤ 2008:421)....

    [...]

  • ...A postmodern novelist is aware that there are various systems of representing the reality, and is ready to check the usability of every of them and to change the narrative discourse within one text‖ (LeńiĤ 2008: 422)....

    [...]

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the characteristics of EFL classroom discourse in Shokouh English Language Institute in Astara, Iran and concluded that the students generally play a passive role in classroom discourse, especially in teacher-student interaction.
Abstract: The main aim of the present study is to get a deeper understanding of EFL classroom discourse. The author then tries to reveal the current state of the process of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom discourse in Shokouh English Language Institute in Astara, Iran. In order to achieve this goal, the paper describes and analyzes the data from the aspects of the amount of teacher talk (TT), the structure of classroom discourse, and the type of questions employed by teachers. It is found that the teacher talk exceeds students talk; IRF (initiation, response, and feedback) discourse structure is frequently used though more complex structures such as the IR [I 1 R 1 … I n R n ] F structure and the IR 1 F 1 R 2 F 2 … R n F n structure are sometimes used, too; and display questions outnumbered referential ones. It is, therefore, concluded that the students generally play a passive role in EFL classroom discourse, especially in teacher-student interaction, while it is essential to increase students’ contribution in classroom discourse and interaction. On the basis of data analysis, the author offers some tentative suggestions such as minimizing the quantity of teacher talk, replacing IRF structure with more complex structures, and using more referential questions in order to provide students with more opportunities to participate in classroom activities to improve their classroom interactional communicative skills.

19 citations