Picasso’s Paintings as Allusions: A Comparative Study of Abe Kōbō’s The Ruined Map and Paul Auster’s Ghosts

Kenji OBA

doi:10.22901/trans.2016.9.3.147

Most literary criticism of Ghosts (1986) by Paul Auster (1947– ) have focused on the relationship with postmodernism and American Renaissance literature. By contrast, this research compares Paul Auster’s Ghosts with The Ruined Map (1967) by Abe Kōbō (1924–1993) through the medium of allusions to paintings by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). Both Abe and Auster commonly wrote about disappearance and identity crisis in urban space. In The Ruined Map, there is a “Picasso lithograph” in the room of a client who asks a detective to find her missing husband. This lithograph, clipped out of a magazine and depicting a woman looking up and left, was quoted from Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung, 1915) by Franz Kafka (1883–1924). Metamorphosis contains a picture, which depicted a woman and lost its “aura” through being clipped out of a magazine. Being influenced by Kafka, the “Picasso lithograph” appears in The Ruined Map. This lithograph paradoxically represents existentialistic material in urban space through phenomenological reduction. In Ghosts, it is important that all female characters cry. Their tears represent the “process of mourning” that works against “ghosts” as lost possibilities. At that time, Jacque Derrida (1930–2004) also argues the theme of possibilities. Auster connected the theme of disappearance from the present life (context) with possibilities as well as Derrida. Moreover, there is another hidden “Weeping Woman.” She is Picasso’s The Weeping Woman (1937). The names of main characters of Ghosts, such as Blue or Black, indicate the colors in The Weeping Woman. Hence, Auster wrote Ghosts under the influence of Abe, Picasso, and Derrida.

Citation status

KCI Citation Counts (2)
열림/닫힘 버튼
REFERENCES (35)
열림/닫힘 버튼
* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

[journal] 安部公房 / 1999 / 安部公房全集 / 新潮社 21

[book] 安部公房 / 1970 / The Ruined Map / Tuttle Publishing

[book] 安部ねり / 2011 / 安部公房伝 / 新潮社

[book] Auster, Paul / 1990 / City of Glass / Penguin : 1~158

[book] Auster, Paul / 1990 / Ghosts / Penguin : 159~232

[book] Auster, Paul / 2003 / The Invention of Solitude. Collected Prose: Autobiographical Writings, True Stories, Critical Essays, Prefaces and Collaborations with Artists / Faber and Faber : 1~150

[book] Auster, Paul / 2013 / Conversations with Paul Auster / UP of Mississippi : 5~12

[journal] Auster, Paul / 1992 / An Interview with Paul Auster / Contemporary Literature 33(1) : 1~23

[journal] ポール・オースター / 2011 / 私はジャガイモ / モンキービジネス 13 : 4~22

[book] Benjamin, Walter / 2002 / Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings / The Belknap Press of Harvard UP : 101~133

[book] ウィリアム・カリー / 1975 / 疎外の構図–安部公房、ベケット、カフカの小説 / 新潮社

[book] Derrida, Jacques / 1988 / Signature Event Context / Northwestern UP : 1~24

[book] Derrida, Jacques / 1987 / The Truth in Painting / The U Chicago P

[book] Hawthorne, Nathaniel / 1974 / The Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne / Ohio State UP : 130~140

[book] 平野嘉彦 / 2004 / マゾッホという思想 / 青土社

[book] 変身 / 1985 / 高橋義孝 / 新潮社

[book] Kafka, Franz / 1971 / Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories / Schocken Books : 89~139

[book] 柄谷行人 / 2008 / 定本日本近代文学の起源 / 岩波書店

[book] 苅部直 / 2012 / 安部公房の都市 / 新潮社

[journal] Lewis, Barry / 1994 / The Strange Case of Paul Auster / Review of Contemporary Fiction 14(1) : 53~61

[book] 前田愛 / 1982 / 都市空間のなかの文学 / 筑摩書房

[book] Merivale, Patricia / 1999 / Detecting Texts: The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism / U of Pennsylvania P : 101~116

[book] Merivale, Patricia / 1999 / Detecting Texts: The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism, edited by Patricia Merivale and Susan Elizabeth Sweeny / U of Pennsylvania P : 1~24

[book] Russell, Alison / 2004 / Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Paul Auster / Chelsea House : 97~112

[book] 佐々木基一 / 1999 / 安部公房全集 / 新潮社 : 313~320

[journal] Schaffner, Anna Katharina / 2012 / Visions of Sadistic Women: Sade, Sacher-Masoch, Kafka / German Life and Letters 65(2) : 181~205

[journal] Shimojo, Keioko / 2006 / Solo Performance of the Private ‘eye/I’ in Paul Auster’s Ghosts / The Journal of American Literature Society of Japan 5 : 72~88

[journal] Shostak, Debra / 2009 / In the Country of Missing Persons: Paul Auster’s Narrative of Trauma / Studies in the Novel 41(1) : 66~87

[journal] Swope, Richard / 1998 / Approaching the Threshold(s) in Postmodern Detective Fiction: Hawthorne’s ‘Wakefield’ and Other Missing Persons / Critique 39(3) : 207~227

[book] Tani, Stefano / 1984 / The Doomed Detective: The Contribution of the Detective Novel to Postmodern American and Italian Fiction / Southern Illinois UP

[book] 巽孝之 / 1993 / メタフィクションの謀略 / 筑摩書房

[book] 友田義行 / 2012 / 戦後前衛映画と文学–安部公房勅使河原宏 / 人文書院

[thesis] 梅津彰人 / 2008 / 安部公房作品の比較文学的研究 —ロブ＝グリエ、カフカ、リルケ、オースターとの関係から / 大阪大学

[journal] 渡辺広士 / 1972 / 安部公房と共同体 / 国文学解釈と教材の研究 17(12) : 147~153

[book] 安井信子 / 2009 / 涙の文化学–人はなぜ泣くのか / 青簡舎 : 319~344

KJC Korea
Journal Central

Statistics

Tools

Sharing

Issue List

Citation status