Moon Palace Presentation



Moon Palace

Paul Auster; 1989

Genre mixture

- Bildungs- und Entwicklungsroman

- Autobiography

- Picaresque novel

- Western

Characters

Marco Fogg

- a “love child”: Marco struggles to understand the meaning of this term ( he is already confused about his identity at a young age

- Raised in the Jewish faith: refers to biblical imagery ( finding his “Canaan, [his] promised land”

- Influenced by the outside world: “My own story stands in the rubble of those days, and unless this fact is understood, none of it will make sense”

1. Life with Uncle Victor

- From 1958 onwards

- Victor influences Marco with his stories and eccentric ideas

- He helps him form an idea of his personal identity by interpreting his name (M.S., Phileas, Foggy, Cyrano, Fogg)

The various interpretations of his name also show Marco’s struggle to find his true identity.

Chooses to be an “intellectual outsider”, distinguished from others by his intelligence

- the tweed suit: rejection of the fashion of his time

- well-read (read all 1492 of Victor’s books)

- dreams and fantasies, extraordinary theories (example: Moon Palace sign)

2. Existential crisis

- Uncle Victor’s death

- “I walled myself up in the delirium of my project”: isolation, a personal experiment

- Nihilism: “I decided that the thing I should do was nothing: my action would consist of a militant refusal to take any action at all”, inevitably leading to a fatal end (eclipse) in his theory, and it would have in reality had Kitty and Zimmer not come to rescue him

Central Park

- Deterioration of body and mind

- Personal protest against the system

- Marco interprets his downfall in connection to the American society’s collapse into chaos

- Causality replaced by change as the only constant

3. Quest for a father

Effing & Barber: love-hate relationships

Finally accepts his identity as Effing’s grandchild and Barber’s son.

4. Marco goes West (crossing the American continent), hoping to redefine himself and to be able to start anew

( central motive: going west

Julian Barber/ Thomas Effing

The man with two identities in more senses than one:

- Frail old man in a wheelchair, supposedly blind vs. extreme will power, courage, optimism, (sexual) vitality;

- Entertaining eccentricities vs. extreme egocentrism & egotism, tyranny; extreme sarcasm expressed in a very insulting way

Human relations:

- responsibility and partnership with Byrne; long-lasting friendship with Pavel Shum (30 years) vs. neglect towards his own son Julian Barber: no sense of parental duty

- to Marco: mentor, ambiguous relationship (insulting and manipulating him vs. teaching/instructing him)

Solomon Barber (nicknamed Solly/ Sol, referring to sun/ground)

- most striking feature of outward appearance: very tall and extremely obese

o dismissal from college ( crisis ( eats “his way to the brink of oblivion”

o obesity ( protective shield, “to shut himself off from the world”

- insults due to his outward appearance ( turns to reading: books as a refuge, make him forget ( graduates top of his class, becomes a popular history professor

- takes interest in early American history: colonial times; wilderness

Uncle Victor

- 43 year-old bachelor who lacks ambition, aimless; mind always shifting from one thing to another, given to dreams; creative, has vivid imagination

- constantly on the move

- relationship to Marco: based on friendship and affection, does not try to replace a parent

Zimmer

- Marco’s “best friend”, but not an important role in the book: his main purpose is revealed by his name, “Zimmer” ( providing Marco with a room

- Contrastive person to Marco: pursues his goals with great determination, not self-centered but helpful and open to others

( a “functional” character that helps the story advance, lacking substance

Kitty Wu

- Envisages a career as a dancer,

- Very strong, independent and ambitious: decides to have an abortion

Female characters in Moon Palace are generally highly stereotyped (example: Mrs Hume)

Various minor characters: observe, comment ( give the reader an outside perspective on Marco (e.g. psychologist: concern)

Similarities between the three main, male characters Marco, Effing and Barber(at the same time some of the leitmotivs in the novel):

- striving to “go West”: pioneer/adventure spirit, courage, defining and re-defining oneself: quest for identity, self-discovery; being constantly on the move

- egocentrism, egotism

- dysfunctional or fragmented family, loss or complete lack of certain family members (especially fathers)

- many eccentricities that set them apart from society, make them stand out

- well-read, knowledgeable (cf. leitmotiv: books)

Genealogy

Old Effing

(

Wheeler ( Effing the Fogelmans

( (

Solomon ( Emily; Victor

(

Kitty Wu ( Marco Fogg

(

Aborted pregnancy

Narration & point of view

Marco’s story:

- 1st person narrator Marco Fogg ( the reader gets insight into his feelings, thoughts and the reasons/motives behind his actions

- limitations: Marco fails to grasp reality as a whole

- the effect of retrospective narration: critical distance; anticipation

- metareflection: pondering upon his narrative and the truth of ist content

- Marco’s perspective provides limited insight into the minds of other characters

Effing’s story:

- monologue, direct speech (Chapter 4), enables Effing to define what impression of himself he wants to convey

- indirect speech (Chapter 5): allows outside comments/ judgments

Barber’s story:

- ‘book within the book’ (postmodern element) ( system of Russian puppets

Style

- richness of vocabulary

- fluent sentences

- imagery, metaphorical language

Aspects of the American Dream / Nightmare in “Moon Palace”

- Going west

- Freedom/self-determination

- The frontier thesis

( pioneer spirit

( confrontation with wilderness

- New Canaan/ the promised land

Analysis of a fiction text

1. Read the text carefully; underline central passages; take notes on your ideas

2. Structure your text (outline):

a. Introduction: author, title, year of publication, genre, theme of the text (central idea/meaning/message), the author’s intention

b. Main part: analysis and interpretation

i. Thesis

ii. Description of the text: time, place, characters, a short synopsis

iii. Characterization of the main character(s)

iv. Character constellation

v. Imagery / space / time / (leit)motifs

vi. Narration

vii. Language and style

viii. Tone

ix. Historical context

NB: the aspect mentioned above have to be interpreted: what is their purpose? How do they contribute to the overall effect?

c. Conclusion: summary: highlight the most important points; does the text give food for thought?

3. Revision: proof-read your text; correct mistakes; make necessary additions; cross out what is superfluous

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download