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Updated Up To 05/01/2010
Volume 4, Number 2 (June 2006) : 59--77
Acting, Thinking, and Telling
Anna Blume Dilemma in Paul Auster's In the Country of Last Things
Matti Hyvaerinen
Rubric A: Narrative as a Way of Thinking

Abstract
“Because you cannot act, you find yourself unable to think,” says Anna Blume in Paul Auster’s In the Country of Last Things. This idea is discussed in connection with thinkers who connect action and narrative, such as Arendt, Ricoueur and Fludernik. If narrative indeed is a way to perceive and interpret action, a world reduced to hazard and behavior seems to leave neither space nor frameworks for thinking.  Looking from this perspective, the narrative way of thinking is a prerequisite for other modes of thinking as well. The discussion of the extreme situation of no narrative and no thinking is related to Dominick LaCapra’s work on trauma and narration.
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