Investigating hyper-reality:
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Date
2022
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Publisher
UMT Lahore
Abstract
This study explores the four layers of hyper-reality in Paul Auster’s Travels in the
Scriptorium. This qualitative and exploratory study assesses the ways the protagonist of the
narrative gets entrapped in the hyper-real world thus failing to segregate the truth from hyper
real truth. The selected novel deals with technology-oriented world based on virtual reality as
well as virtual representation of life alongside social and historical simulation of truth. The four
layers of hyper-reality, simulation, simulacrum, perversion of reality and reflection of reality,
have been explored in the selected novel contrary to the earlier notions of critics who merely
analyzed the quandaries of identity and postmodern urban life with reference to hyper-reality.
Blank, the protagonist of the novel, gets confused and forgetful in prison where everything
speaks through symbols and convey more than necessary information in terms of hyper-reality.
Moreover, he faces social hyper-reality embedded in urban life style where everything represents
the truth which is more than truth creating elusiveness in identity leading to ironical loss of
contact with reality and insanity. This study critically evaluates the role of hyper-reality in
furthering the plot and the development of characters in Travels in the Scriptorium.