THE DIFFÉRENED IN PAUL AUSTER’S CITY OF GLASS: A LYOTARDIAN APPROACH

Nasser Maleki, Mohammad-Javad Haj’jari

DOI Number
-
First page
1
Last page
10

Abstract


Postulating on Quinn and the Stillmans’ state of dissipation at theend of Auster’s City of Glass, one can align it with what Lyotard dubs as astate of différend. Lyotard defines différend as a state of clash between twoparties over the distribution of justice which is conventionally made through metanarratives.Since the concept of justice, in Lyotard’s view, has always been in such a waythat there is always justice to one party and injustice to the other one,Lyotard holds that there can be no true justice. Hence Lyotard claims that the appropriatestate of justice in such a condition is the différend, a state of the sublime,of simultaneous pleasure and pain, in which there is no resolution for eitherparty and the clash is always on the run. Extrapolating on this issue, thispaper argues that Quinn and the Stillmans are left in such a state at the endof Auster’s City of Glass, and it is in accordance with the inability oflanguage to signify or to convey meaning effectively as presented by Auster.Quinn develops madness, a consequence of his pain over his identity crisis,while merging as a “Private eye” in the urban world of his pleasure; StillmanSr, suffering the corrupt state of language, finds pleasure and relief in committingsuicide; and Virginia and Peter just vanish, their pleasure or pain being unrepresented,since there is no medium of articulation for their rights. The findings pointto the incommensurability of justice among and specific to these characters alongwith the inability of language to convey any meaning which highlights the stateof the différend that Auster presents. The case remains open as neither party achievesan appropriate justice. Their final disappearance hints to their unpresentablepresences or final painful pleasures.

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