Gothic entrapment within textuality in Auster’s travels in the scriptorium

Abstract

“Gothic-postmodernism” builds upon the shared ontological inquiry into the nature of reality inherent in both the Gothic and postmodernism. By adapting most of the thematic and narrative elements of the Gothic to postmodernist fiction, this genre enables new interpretations of self-reflective literature, where the Gothic sublime manifests itself through textual erasure as Gothic-postmodernist horror. This article argues that Travels in the Scriptorium is Auster’s significant contribution to Gothic-postmodernism, given its self-reflexivity as postmodernist metafiction and its Gothic aspirations in merging Gothic conventions with postmodern techniques. In Auster’s exhaustive metafiction, postmodernism plays a pivotal role in the text’s sublimity and the resultant horror of textuality, which creates a profound sense of awe and fear. This is achieved through the text’s exploration of reality’s fragmented nature, the manipulation of narrative form, and the meta-awareness of its own fictionality. These elements collectively create a sense of awe and terror, challenging the representation of fictional truth through the very medium of language.

Keywords

• Gothic-Postmodernism
• Textuality
• Sublime
• Travels in the Scriptorium
• Uncanny