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1Litera
Reference:
Novikau A.V. Genealogy, discourse and the "death of the author" as figures of poetics in the novel by Mark Z. Danilevsky's "House ofLeaves". // Litera. 2024. № 3. DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2024.3.40536 EDN: HQPNLY URL: https ://en.nbpublish.com'library_read_article.php?id=40536
Genealogy, discourse and the "death of the author" as figures of poetics in the novel by Mark Z. Danilevsky's "House of Leaves".
Novikau Artur Viktorovich
Postgraduate student, Department of Foreign Literature, Gorky Literary Institute.
123104, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Tverskaya, 25 str.1
El art14ek@tut.by
Article was published in rubric "Literary criticism"
DOI:
10.25136/2409-8698.2024.3.40536
EDN:
HQPNLY
Received:
20-04-2023
Abstract: The object of research of this article is a novel by Mark Z. Danilevsky's "House of Leaves" in the context of postmodernism. The subject of the research is some concepts of the theory of poststructuralism - discourse, genealogy, "death of the author" -implemented in the work "House of Leaves" through reductive, metaphorical or allusive implantation into the fabric of the novel. A general analysis is given and the problem of the correlation between the theories of poststructuralism and postmodernism is outlined. The selection and analysis of theoretical works on a given problem has been carried out, and working concepts have been formulated, used as tools for analyzing forms, figures of poetics, as well as for interpreting the novel "House of Leaves".As a consequence, the article presents a detailed description of one of the sides of the artistic method of Mark Z. Danilevsky (the use of poststructuralism theories as a figure of novel poetics), which allows us to judge the techniques and means of artistic expression that determined the form of the novel. In this regard, the article discusses the so-called "form effects", for example: synchrony, the capture of a real figure by a simulacrum, the creation of genealogical-
artistic images, the establishment of a special time mode - "simultaneity", etc. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that we have considered the interpretation of the work from the point of view of poststructuralism theories, as a result of which new formal techniques and mechanisms of their use in the creation of a work of art have been revealed.
Keywords:
house of leaves, postmodernism, poststructuralism, discourse, genealogy, death of the
author, crisis of the subject, poetics, novel, theory of poststructuralism
References
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The reviewed article focuses on deciphering the problem of the genealogy of the "death of the author" as a figure in the poetics of the novel by Mark Z. Danilevsky's "House of Leaves". The angle presented for consideration is quite relevant and interesting. The author draws attention to the main qualification of the novel "House of Leaves", while vector analysis expands the research field. Most of the judgments are legitimate and objective: for example, "however, postmodern theorists often turn to and use the terminology and categories of poststructuralism and the associated period of thought production to describe postmodernism and, more broadly, postmodernism. For example, in Jamison: the end of history (one of Jamison's themes), deanthropologization, discourse (Jamison's working tool), simulacrum (one of Jamison's themes), collage (Jamison's more complex term "pastiche"), schizophrenia (crisis of the subject) (one of Jamison's themes), deconstruction (one of the themes Jamieson), intertextuality (Jamieson's instrument and category), the crisis of the metaphysics of presence (one of Jamieson's themes), time shift (following Lacan, one of Jamieson's themes), syntagma, surface, signifier/signified, trace, irony, consumer society, desire, etc., etc. (all these terminological particulars and Jamison's concepts are present)", or "Danilevsky superimposes Zapruder's film cards on the frames of the "Nevidson Film", that is, he superimposes the real famous shots of the Kennedy assassination - which are certainly in the reader's visual memory - on the image of the murder of Jed Leader (the character of the House of Leaves) becoming - forming in the reader's imagination. In this way, enhancing the "picture" in the reader's imagination. And at the same time, referring to the historical memory of the reader, causing the effect of feeling the reality of the murder and the distant presence of the historical background. Here is another example of capturing a real human figure by a simulacrum: Jed the Leader, a character, captures and turns into an "interactive image" a real figure - John F. Kennedy, or rather the famous 26 seconds that captured the death of the latter," etc. The work is competently written, the text combines both practical and theoretical levels. The purpose of
the study has been achieved, the topic has been fully disclosed. In the finale, it is noted that "the above-mentioned time mode of the novel introduced by Danilevsky just reflects Barth's statement that "the scriptwriter is born simultaneously with the text." Such a time mode is another "form effect" of the novel: "simultaneity". Johnny Truent writes (literally writes down thoughts reflected on Zampano's discourse) in front of the reader's eyes a book (the reader is always in the present moment of Truent's life: the latter speaks from the present moment, looking into the past from time to time), which he has already written (as it becomes clear to us from the episode where Truent reads an already published a version of the "House of Leaves"), and inside of which he is the author and hero of this book. Therefore, both Truent, the author, and Truent, the reader, do not exist before the book itself appears in the book itself. For the book has already "realized" itself, without the knowledge of Truent, the author (he is amazed by the existence of the finished book that he holds in his hands), it is present, exists before his eyes at the moment of writing and reading itself, which he, Truent, alone carries out. Therefore, this book does not need an author, namely, it does not need a Truent author or a Truent reader to "be". Therefore, Truent's presence in the text, his "inscribability" in the text, is, roughly speaking, the result of the work of the "will" of the Letter. And Truent, the author, fully corresponds to the concept of Barth's "scriptwriter": the author "has no existence before and outside of writing." Truent, strictly speaking, exists only as an act of writing. Therefore, time is one thing for him: the immanent timelessness of writing. The eternal universal - tomorrow never comes, because Truent's present already includes both the future and the past. This is the unenviable lot of Truent the scriptwriter." Thus, the material can be used in the course of studying the history of foreign literature, literary theory, and the work of Mark Z. Danilevsky. I recommend the article "Genealogy, discourse and the "death of the author" as figures of poetics in the novel by Mark Z. Danilevsky's "House of Leaves" for open publication in the magazine "Litera".
