Date of Award
2009
Document Type
Thesis
Department
English
First Reader
Dr. Johnny Wink
Second Reader
Dr. Doug Sonheim
Third Reader
Dr. Hal Bass
Abstract
Ever since I learned how to read, I assumed that books must be read a certain way: open to the first page, start at the top, and read from left to right, top to bottom, page after page until the end. I thought that books have one main narrative told by one narrator, and that this narrative has a clear beginning, middle, and end. I also believed that books have clear meanings and explanations (tense). After reading Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, however, I realized that not all books are so neat and predictable.
House of Leaves is a novel unlike any other I have ever read. It attacks its readers with its enormity. This novel is about a house that is bigger on the inside than the outside, and by the end of the novel, readers realize that the novel itself is like the house. Both the novel and the house are paradoxical labyrinths that smash readers' preconceived notions of reality. Because both entities resist interpretation and make readers extremely aware of their vastness, House of Leaves deconstructs readers' understanding of how a novel should look, act, and be read by showing that language isn't as reliable as is commonly believed. It clearly reveals the deconstructive theory that "literature is as dynamic, ambiguous, and unstable as the language of which it is composed" (Tyson 258). In other words, House of Leaves is a model for deconstruction because it shows the ambiguity, instability, and constant flux of language.
Recommended Citation
Throgmorton, Molly, "House of Leaves: Navigating the Labyrinth of the Deconstructed Novel" (2009). Honors Theses. 70.
https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/70