Abstract
In Paul Auster’s In The Country of Last Things, a young woman named Anna Blume struggles to survive in a city with borders closed from within: no one is let out of the city, no goods are imported, and all material production has ceased. At first glance, the “last things” mentioned in the novel’s title seem to be salvaged, repurposed objects that have new power and control over humans, who struggle due to material decline and separation from the rest of the world. However, amidst this deterioration, humanity reaches new levels of innovation as a means of coping, and in a letter to a childhood friend, Anna poses the question of what is left when objects vanish and people are closed off. Ultimately, I argue that the “last thing” is the lasting thing: the desire for human connection and creation persists despite bordered separation, despite material loss, and even in spite of the disappearance of the language needed to express these losses.
Presenters
Lori NewcombProfessor of English, Language and Literature, Wayne State College, Nebraska, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Language, Borders, Materiality, Social Identity, Social Interaction, Loss, Paul Auster
