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Examples Of Postlapsarian Language In City Of Glass

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Prof. Dr. Herzogenrath Diana Burdeos Matriculation No.

Take-home essay
TASK: Describe the different concepts of prelapsarian and postlapsarian language in the 'City of Glass'.

1. Introduction
1.1 Plot Summary
2. Postlapsarian Concepts in 'City of Glass'
2.1 Daniel Quin
2.2 Peter Stillman Jr.
2.3 New York
3. Prelapsarian concepts in 'City of Glass'
3.1 Stillman Sr.

1. Introduction
The significance of language is a broad theme in the 'Çity of Glass'. The detective fiction novel 'Çity of Glass' written by Paul Auster portrays different concepts of prelapsarian and postlapsarian language.
Which are revealed through characters, such as Daniel Quinn, Peter Stillman Jr., Peter Stillman Sr., but also throughout the novel's setting in New York painting a picture of the broken people living in New York and the frailty of the city itself.

1.1 Plot Summary
Daniel Quinn the novel's protagonist was …show more content…

Whenever he pretends to be Max Power's, he completely soaks into his role and forgets the insecurities of Daniel Quinn, the person he actually is. The day he meets Virginia and Peter Stillman, he pretends to be 'Paul Auster' and once he gets uncomfortable in Virginia's presence he slips into his own fictional creation Max Work and "[…] thought what Max Work would have been thinking, had he been there." (Glass 14) One can argue that Quinn is a postlapsarian character, because the connection between "signifier" and "signified" is disrupted. The more he gets involved into the case of protecting Peter Stillman, the more he becomes Max Work and forgets who he really is. He had become a "triad of selves" (Glass 9) and by adapting many personalities at once Quinn loses his sense for reality. In the end he is no one and the reader is left to decide what has happened to

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