Abstract
In her article "Echoes of Sophocles's Antigone in Auster's Invisible" Kathleen Waller discusses Paul Auster's Invisible, a novel that explores Deleuze's and Guattari's ontological idea of becoming in a virtual world versus merely living in the actual, physical world. Sexual and immortal desires in the protagonist's virtual world show a near achieved nothingness, or "a space which is unlimited" and filled with the being's energy, and a being who is becoming, a "univocal being" as a "free spirit" of energy. However, because these desires are only realized through a repression, Auster asks us not to go as far as Deleuze's and Guatarri's "Anti-Oedipus" argument that negates a being dependent on experience: instead of merely dealing with the actual world to reach a state of "nomadic … distribution" of the energy particles that create a "univocal … Being," we should become only as participating members of families and relationships in which love is truly realized in both the virtual and actual. The novel is in essence a retelling of Antigone, which exposes the desires for immortality and incest as a connection to a preservation of the family or its uniqueness. Auster retells the story through a more explicit ontological approach that asks us to consider not only the definition of being but also the impact of bio-political acts on society.
Recommended Citation
Waller, Kathleen.
"Echoes of Sophocles's Antigone in Auster's Invisible."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
13.1
(2011):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1713>
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