Lost in space, lost in himself: Paul Auster’s Ghosts and the postmodern city

Abstract

Ghosts, the second part of Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy, is generically classified as anti-detective fiction. The dominant setting of the novel, the urban space of New York and the observatory apartment located in it, is endowed with postmodern qualities, which leads to the transformation of the specificity of the investigation and its departure from one that is traditional. Whereas, traditionally, in detective fiction the dominant space, be it a locked room or a city, to mention a few, offers the sleuth clues necessary for solving the case, in the postmodern story of detection these clues are disorienting or meaningless. Hence, the primary aim of this article is to examine the interrelation between the dominating chronotope in the novel and the investigation led by the protagonist, Blue. I intend to prove how the surroundings contribute to the replacement of rational and objective judgment of the case with personal engagement. The article also aims at providing an overview of the transformations of urban space in detective fiction, which functions as the introduction to a further discussion.