Paul Auster’s Moon Palace: An Existential Reconsideration

As one of the outstanding works written in the late twentieth century, Paul Auster’sMoon Palace is the extension of the prominent discussion existing in his works,which concerns the issue of identity formation and the characters’ involvement in the expedition toward self-acknowledgment. Looking through the life of Marco Fogg as the main character of the novel, it has been desired to outline the existential points of view laid in the novel. Unlike the previously conducted studies, this paper is diverting the central focus of its analysis from the psychosocial perspectives introduced by James Marcia to the existential outlook by providing the notions of critical existential philosophers such as Heidegger and Sartre. Accordingly, the famous theory of identity formation that Marcia established has close parallels with the concepts that Heidegger and Sartre have discussed concerning the human beings who are considered beings-in-the-world, or, as it is called, “dasein.” Throughout this procedure, the main protagonist’s various identity formation phases have been investigated through existential concepts like “thrownness,” “nothingness,” and “bad faith.” And in the end, the outcome of such an analysis is tracking down the latent sides of existential concepts existing in the novel, which have not been the center of focus in previous studies.

Keywords:

Dasein , Heidegger , Identity , Nothingness , Paul Auster