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영어

The aim of this paper is to analyze “City of Glass,” a novella written by Paul Auster, in terms of the problems of identity and search for possibility. While traditional detective novels have a “conservative ideological form,” as Bennet and Royle suggest, no such form or structure is emphasized in Paul Auster’s “City of Glass.” The traditional detective novel’s predominant quest-motif about the offender’s identity shifts towards the question about the fake detective’s identity in this novella. Therefore, it is interwoven with the issues of identity; fragmented selves, split personalities, multiple, confused, and mistaken identities. The protagonist named Daniel Quinn loses his identity and cannot decide whether he is real or fictitious. It is noticeable that Auster’s life experience constitutes his personal identity which is quite often projected onto his protagonist. His identity crisis, caused by many struggles as a beginning writer, losing his wife and son due to divorce, or the hostile environment of New York is reflected in the novella. Daniel Quinn fails in his search for identity and, as a result, his search for identity is portrayed as confused, uncertain, and unfinished.