“Every Man is the Author of his Own Life”: An Analysis of the Combination of “selves” in Paul Auster’s Select Novels

Abstract

All authors write on their own lives to write their books; to a greater or lesser degree, every novel is autobiographical. What is interesting, however, is how the work of the imagination intersects with reality. The Present paper examines Paul Auster’s relationship with the novels and his characters and observes how the author creates characters in his novels. It argues that theories of character in the novels will be deficient to the extent that characters are not conceptualised as motivated creations of the author. The influential approach of Paul Auster effectively excluded the point of view that the author is in favour of a direct relationship between the fictional work and characters, as an instance of the particular related to the universal. Auster’s autobiographical writings appear to constitute straightforward and authentic retelling of events from his life.