Article
| Title: | Auster's Leviathan : when the "voice of conscience" calls out |
| Author: | |
| Source document: | Brno studies in English. 2020, vol. 46, iss. 2, pp. 137-157 |
| Extent: | 137-157 |
| ISSN: | 0524-6881 (print); 1805-0867 (online) |
| DOI: | 10.5817/BSE2020-2-8 |
| Type: | Article (English) |
| Stable URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/143211 |
| License: | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International |
PDF
Abstract(s):
The "voice of conscience", in Heidegger's philosophy, refers to the moment of self-realization when the existentially authentic individual as Dasein recognizes the range of possibilities in any given situation for which he/she is responsible. It is only the authentic individual who hears the call of conscience by having chosen to hear it. The call, if heard, reveals to Dasein the possibilities it has before it to take proper action based on the situation to lead a better life, not only for itself but also for others. Benjamin Sachs in Leviathan, in representing the Heideggerian Dasein, chooses to hear his conscience and cries out against the political corruption which his fellow American citizens ignore to hear. As an authentic individual, in the tradition of Heidegger's Dasein, Ben rebels against communal ignorance under political tyranny following the rise of his political conscience, an uprising which is existential in principle and radical in practice, giving Auster's novel an Existential-Marxist tone.
Keywords:
Auster; conscience; Dasein; existentialism; Heidegger; Leviathan
References:
[1] Adamic, Louis (1958) Dynamite: The Story of Class Violence in America 1931. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.
[2] Auster, Paul (2005) Collected Prose: Autobiographical Writings, True Stories, Critical Essays, Prefaces and Collaborations with Artists. New York: Picador.
[3] Auster, Paul (1992) Leviathan. New York: Viking Press.
[4] Auster, Paul (2013) Reports from the Interior. London: Faber and Faber Ltd.
[5] Auster, Paul and Inge Birgitte Siegumfeldt (2017) A Life in Words: Conversations with Paul Auster. New York: Seven Stories Press.
[6] Baym, Nina, ed. (2007) The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. B, 7th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
[7] Dreyfus, Hubert L., and Mark A. Wrathall (2005) Martin Heidegger: An introduction to his thought, work, and life. In: Dreyfus Hubert L. and Mark A. Wrathall (eds.) A Companion to Martin Heidegger. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 1–15.
[8] Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1983) The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Vol. III. Joseph Slater and Douglas Emory Wilson (eds.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
[9] Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1862) Thorau. In: Baym, Nina (ed.) The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. B, 7th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1231–1244.
[10] Ferber, Michael (1999). A Dictionary of Literary Symbols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[11] Fleck, Linda L. (2004) From metonymy to metaphor: Paul Auster's Leviathan. In: Bloom, Harold (ed.) Paul Auster. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 207–222.
[12] Ford, Mark (1999) Inventions of solitude: Thoreau and Auster. Journal of American Studies 33 (2), 201–219. | DOI 10.1017/S0021875898005969
[13] Haarr, Silje (2017) Subjectivity in three postmodern novels by Don DeLillo and Paul Auster: Mao II, Cosmopolis and Leviathan. Master's thesis, University of Stavanger.
[14] Hardy, Mireille (Janvier 1999) Les Leviathan de Paul Auster: fiction(s) et explosion(s). Revue Française d'Etudes Américaines 79, 105–118. | DOI 10.3406/rfea.1999.1761
[15] Harries, Karsten (2009) Art Matters: A Critical Commentary on Heidegger's "The Origin of the Work of Art". New York: Springer.
[16] Heidegger, Martin (2001) Being and Time. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson (trans.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
[17] Hutchisson, James M., ed. (2013) Conversations with Paul Auster. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
[18] Kushner, Harvey W. (2003) Encyclopedia of Terrorism. London: Sage Publications.
[19] Lumsden, Simon (2014) Self-Consciousness and the Critique of the Subject: Hegel, Heidegger, and the Poststructuralists. New York: Columbia University Press.
[20] Marcuse, Herbert (2005) Heideggerian Marxism. Eds. Richard Wolin and John Abromeit. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
[21] Marcuse, Herbert (1965) Repressive tolerance. In: Wolff, Robert P., Moore Barrington, and Marcuse, Herbert (eds.) A Critique of Pure Tolerance. Boston: Bacon Press, 81–117.
[22] Martin, Brendan (2008) Paul Auster's Postmodernity. New York: Routledge.
[23] Marx, Karl (1978) Theses on Feuerbach. In: Tucker, Robert C. (ed.) The Marx-Engels Reader. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 143–145.
[24] McMullin, Irene (2013) Time and the Shared World: Heidegger on Social Relations. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
[25] Mulhall, Stephen (2003) Inheritance and Originality: Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Kierkegaard. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[26] Mulhall, Stephen (2013) The Routledge Guidebook to Heidegger's Being and Time. New York: Routledge.
[27] Osteen, Mark (1994) Phantoms of liberty: the secret lives of Leviathan (analysis of novel by Paul Auster). The free library, https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Phantoms+of+liberty%3a+the+secret+lives+of+%27Leviathan.%27+(analysis+of...-a015073998. Accessed on 29 August, 2019.
[28] Saltzman, Arthur (1995) Leviathan: Post hoc harmonies. In: Barone, Dennis (ed.) Beyond the Red Notebook. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 162–170.
[29] Schalow, Frank, and Alfred Denker (2010) Historical Dictionary of Heidegger's Philosophy, 2nd ed. Toronto: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
[30] Schreiner, Christopher S. (2005) Phantom relations and the writer's Niche in Paul Auster's Leviathan. In: Tymieniecka, Anna-Teresa (ed.) Analecta Husserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research, Volume LXXXV. New York: Springer, 603–618.
[31] Thoreau, Henry D. (1993) A Year in Thoreau's Journal. New York: Viking.
[32] Thoreau, Henry D. (2007) From A plea for Captain John Brown. In: Baym, Nina (ed.) The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. B, 7th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2056–2060.
[33] Thoreau, Henry D. (1849) Resistance to civil disobedience. In: Baym, Nina (ed.) The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. B, 7th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1857–1872.
[34] Van der Vlies, Andrew E. (1996) In search of self: explorations of identity in the work of Paul Auster. Master's thesis, Rhodes University.
[35] Varvogli, Aliki (2001) The World That Is the Book: Paul Auster's Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
[36] Wajsbrot, Cécile (March 1993) Paul Auster, l'Invention de l'Ecriture. Magazine Littéraire 308, 79–81.
[37] Zuckert, Catherine H. (1996) Postmodern Platoes: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Strauss, Derrida. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
