保羅•奧斯特的〈紐約三部曲〉被歸類為「反偵探小說」（anti-detective novel）。在這三個故事裡，因緣際會背負了偵探角色的主角們，試圖還原事件的真相，卻個個受挫，甚至迷失在糾纏的線索與沈重的身份認同的遊戲中。他們像是一腳踏進了令人暈眩的泥沼，非但沒法用理智脫困，還愈陷愈深，隨著迷宮裡的音樂瘋狂起舞。

鈴鈴鈴不時搖著鈴鼓迷惑他們的聲響來自一串一串的文字：當他們想藉語言探求「真實」時，才發現無論語言或是理智都從來不是靜止與透明的。此外，與偵探行為息息相關的「命名」（naming）問題，也是〈紐約三部曲〉中的一個焦點。主角們的名字彷彿細軟的藤蔓般糾結在一塊，命名的議題以有趣的方式被呈現在這部小說中。本篇論文還要探討這部小說如何處理讀者與作者的辯證關係，因為讀者一走進這本小說便參與了作者精心設計的巨大遊戲。

本篇論文將研討〈紐約三部曲〉反映的三個問題：再現的問題、命名的侷限性，以及讀者與作者耐人尋味的關係。再現的問題會放到德希達(Jacques Derrida)提出的「延異」（differance）觀念下解釋—事物的意義不可能立即被揭露，而是永遠處在一種「延異」的狀況下。小說中主角們對唯一真實的追尋因而不可能被應許，而是遭遇一而再、再而三的延遲。另一方面，〈紐約三部曲〉對命名的功能性有所保留。本論文將疊合本小說中對命名的質疑與波赫士短篇小說裡對命名的不信任，說明奧斯特對命名的解構。〈紐約三部曲〉對命名抱持矛盾的態度：命名既幫助人們架構他們的世界，卻又滑溜溜的歪曲了人們的自我認識，讓他們被自身的自主性的假象蒙蔽。此外，讀者和作者究竟是不是維繫著一種同盟關係呢？本論文試圖闡釋存在〈紐約三部曲〉中，他們之間相互依存、卻又競逐對文意的解釋權的關係。只不過，躲在文字的簾幕後偷看著的黑影，始終是作者的吧？！

〈紐約三部曲〉訴說的是一個追尋的故事。這個歷程沒有終結、沒有絕對的答案，只有故事拖長了腳步的身影。這個反偵探故事否定了許多關於理智的邏輯，但是它為書寫開闢了另一種可能：書寫與閱讀可以是無限延長的生命肌理。文字從不直接給予人們他們孜孜尋找的解答，他們只告訴你你將在文字中漂流的命運。

Labelled as an anti-detective novel, The New York Trilogy defies the traditional detective process and instead renders the experience for man to distill and to locate meaning as an agonizing one. The protagonists in The Trilogy undertake the roles of the detective, hoping to reveal a sole truth behind the entangled situation. Yet they are not only frustrated in disclosing meaning, but thrown into extreme bafflement. Their identities fall apart, wriggling in the maze built by spiral words, crossed names and the ongoing efforts to define the relations.

The protagonists find everything they used to hold as truth shudder. Language no longer stands for a limpid means to represent the real but rather shakes their beliefs. When they try to name and to draw their realm of autonomy over the flowing phenomena, they find naming a problematic strategy to define the world. Furthermore, as detective-readers who attempt to decode the text, the protagonists are desperate to comprehend their relations with the “writer” of their books, as the reader does in reading The Trilogy.

This thesis attempts to probe into three prominent issues raised in The New York Trilogy: dubious representation, problematic naming strategy, and the peculiar bond between the reader and the writer. The doubtful representation in the novel will be examined under what Derrida suggests in “Differance”: Meaning can never be fully present, but remains in a state of differance. The protagonists in the three stories cannot disclose an overriding truth, but float in such a wave of doubts, uncertainties, and changing phenomena of the world. Also, the problematic strategy of naming will be compared with Borges’suspicion towards naming. Under both cases, naming serves as an extreme yet slippery means for man to draw his territory. In addition, the relation between the reader and the writer in the novel is investigated. The detecting process in the novel embodies the pursuit of the reader out of the text. Thus reading and writing are delineated as an everlasting journey. When the detective and the criminal as well as the reader and the writer seem to be in contest for the power of explanation, the pairing relation actually forms a close tie: The detective cannot live without the criminal; the reader and the writer need the eyesight of each other to survive.

The New York Trilogy is not a journey providing answers but a whirl to disrupt the truth. Declining any definite inspiration, it nevertheless obliquely affirms the value of reading and writing. After exhausting complexities of the cases, only the reader remains. And what is heard even after one closes the pages is the voice of the reader encircling within the space. And the voice keeps telling and telling until the story belongs to him. We as readers will keep narrating the story with our little voice.

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