Résumé:
My dissertation will examine how discourse in Paul Auster’s novel City of
Glass (1985) engages with Carl Jung’s theory of Archetypes and
Individuation. I argue that archetypal features are essentially implicated in
the dialogical interactions in City of Glass; wherein a variety of discourse
strategies are employed to personify different Jungian archetypes through
the novel’s characters. I further argue that the psychological journey of the
protagonist Daniel Quinn is an implicit representation of Auster’s process
of psychic individuation displayed through the novel’s narrative structure. I
will implement Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as a
framework for analysis of discourse in City of Glass; thereby revealing the
archetypal nature of the different characters, and the individuation function
as realized in the plot structure. The first chapter will set out the theoretical
background and the review of literature for the research. I will provide a
clear account of the Jungian theory of Archetypes and Individuation, and a
concise description of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The second chapter
will be an employment of the Hallidayan’s constructs of Register to
introduce Auster’s City of Glass within a defined context. Chapter Three
will be a systemic discourse analysis of the novel with regard to Jungian
psychology. I will identify the semantic and the lexico-grammatical features
pertaining to the realization of specific archetypes and individuation process
in the narrative. Finally, I will conclude with a mapping of the patterns:
character/archetype and plot structure/individuation in City of Glass
