Word and language act as essential criteria for human self-awareness and self-identification. The word as the main character is a feature of postmodern prose; it not only reflects reality but also creates it, causing it to be discursive practices. This feature also applies fully to the work of the famous modern writer Paul Auster. In his novels, the word acquires the characteristics of an independent phenomenon that determines the fate of his heroes, the nature of social and cultural events.
Auster’s book is characterized by multilevel text construction, in which one text is embedded in another, becoming its comment. Multi-layered text with each new approach reveals new and new possibilities for interpretation, which testifies to an incredibly thought-out idea. While reading this work, great attention should be paid to the symbolism of language, the search for meaning. The correct understanding and use of the word is the way to understand and transform reality.
Among the many mysteries hidden in the text of The New York Trilogy, the most intractable question seems to be whether it is a single narrative voice or its multiplicity. The trilogy novels address the problem of self-identity, which moves into the issue of meaning structure and questions ontologically different categories of author, narrative, and reader. In this work, the character’s personality becomes a textual generation driven by the laws of language.
In the novel, the writer emphasizes the reality of the word, its ability to influence the course of things. Moreover, the leading problem of The New York Trilogy – the question of self-identity – affects not only the essence of the characters, but also covers the structure of the work. The form of detective investigation is perceived as a metaphor for the character’s self-knowledge. The narrative voice is multiplied, duplicated, and thus encourages the reader to engage actively in the process of creating and deciphering the work.