Abstract :
Paul Auster's 'The Invention of Solitude' makes memory a key aspect of self-definition. Self-definition can come only from interrelationships with others and this is possible only through memory. A being without memory is a decentered being and the father in part one of 'The Portrait of an invisible Man' represents such a person. Postmodernism sees memory as a construct and therefore writers such as Linda Hutcheon see it more as a system of signs than as authentic recollection. Auster's use of the third person when the self is exploring personal memory can be read as a way of handling the problem of constructed memory.