2025 Vol. 16 №2

You, you, you: second-person narrative in the “Invisible” by Paul Auster (2010)

DOI

10.5922/2225-5346-2025-2-10

Pages

177-188

Abstract

‘Second-person narrative’ is defined by Richardson as one of the most significant narrative forms since the introduction of the stream of consciousness. And not by chance: it not only changes the reader's interaction with the narrative world, but also imposes its own re­quirements on contemporary narratology, it demands new language and a new way to describe it. ‘Second-person narrative’ problematizes the boundaries between narrator and nar­ra­tee, actual and virtual, subject and object. More than that: ‘second-person narrative’ tries to point out the changes that are taking place with contemporary narratives in a new digital context. ‘Second-person narrative’ therefore attracts the attention of researchers from diverse branches of postclassical narratology: natural and unnatural, transmedia, exploring interac­tive and digital narratives. ‘Second-person narrative becomes a transitional form between tra­ditional narratives (telling about events that have already happened) and "future narratives". In this article, ‘second-person narrative’ is researched using the example of Paul Auster's no­vel "Invisible" (2010). In its functioning, we study both the properties and functions pre­viously noted by researchers (on other, earlier literary works), and new ones are highlighted: ‘Second-person narrative’ contributes to a more active immersion of the reader into the nar­rative world, creates immersion, shifts the focus to the reader as being "responsible" for choosing and evaluating what is happening. But it also distances him, instilling uncertainty in his own status, in the reality of the events taking place, in his own agency. Auster's ‘se­cond-person narrative’ finally shows how traditional narratives are undergoing transfor­mation under the influence of a digital (interactive) environment and how such a narrative form is able, if not to redefine the narrative and its basic concepts, then to point out the need for such a redefinition.

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