Existential Being and Non-being in Paul Auster’s “Disappearances”

With the emergence of the school of existentialism, many writers began to write about the existence of human beings in the world, including the famous existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who played a crucial role in advancing existential goals. Existentialist themes have since appeared in novels, prose, and poetry. Although Paul Auster’s “Disappearances” (۱۹۷۵) has been studied from different views, it has not been studied from the Sartrean existentialism. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the mentioned poem’s existence crisis through Sartre’s description of being and non-being. It claims that Auster represents the matter of being and non-being through the poem by referring to the description of a man whowants to highlight his being. Auster highlights the being in which is negated in the core of being. Also, he describes the life in which the man needs to find his true self for describing his existence. In order to find and describe the self, man must be responsible for the choices he has in his life

Keywords:

Paul Auster , Being , Non-being , Disappearances , Existentialism , Jean-Paul Sartre