«If I Never Saw the Moon, Then the Moon Was Never There»: la influencia de Film, de Alan Schneider y Samuel Beckett, en The Book of Illusions, de Paul Auster

Abstract

En este artículo analizo la relación intertextual entre The Book of Illusions (2002), de Paul Auster, y Film (1965), de Alan Schneider y Samuel Beckett. Deteniéndome en las diferentes formas en las que el autor norteamericano alude a este cortometraje, propongo que, en The Book of Illusions, Auster reinterpreta Film a partir de algunas de las fijaciones recurrentes en su obra, como las duplicidades de la identidad o las vidas dedicadas a la escritura; en concreto, apunto a que la máxima de Berkeley, esse est percipi (‘ser es ser percibido’), la base de la que parte Film, se convierte en uno de los ejes temáticos de la novela.

In this paper, I analyse the intertextual relationship between Paul Auster’s The Book of Illusions (2002) and Alan Schneider and Samuel Beckett’s Film (1965). By examining the different ways in which the American author alludes to this short film, I propose that, with The Book of Illusions, Auster reinterprets Film based on some of the recurring fixations in his work, such as the duplicity of identity or a life devoted to writing. Specifically, I suggest that Berkeley’s maxim, esse est percipi (‘to be is to be perceived’), the basis of Schneider and Beckett’s short film, becomes one of the novel’s thematic axes.