Mohammad-Javad Haj’jari - Assistant Professor of English Literature, the Department of English Language and Department, Razi University,Kermanshah, Iran

An existential investigation into the problem of human existence in Paul Auster’s writings reveals that his existentialism can be traced back to Heidegger and Sartre. In effect,Auster’s own philosophical viewpoints, extracted from his interviews as well as non-fiction and fiction, can be given a new interpretation by highlighting what he shares with, or draws from, Heidegger and Sartre. In this light, the common grounds in Heidegger’s and Sartre’s ideas about human existence can be observed in Auster’s fiction, overtly or covertly, and his oeuvre can be studied in light of existentialism as developed by both of these two philosophers, in a way that the key terms in their systems of thought can be separately highlighted in Auster’s works in all the political, social, cultural, and philosophical subjects. This study, thus, argues that for Auster, human existence follows the rules of chance and contingency in a way that random events make sense in retrospect and, as such, meaningfully affect people’s lives in the different periods of their being. Hence, Auster is to be analyzed regarding his concerns with such existential concepts as freedom, authenticity, the openness of possibilities, and the contingency of death since these notions help readers with his characterization.

Auster, existentialism, Heidegger, Sartre