Movement in the Motif: Semblances and Affective Criticism

Abstract

In this article, I focus on Mark Z. Danielewski’s 2000 novel, House of Leaves, in order to suggest that an appeal to Brian Massumi’s musings on the connection between potentiality and form can offer a way of opening up a way of reading that shifts emphasis away from language and towards the body—from speech to feeling. Danielewski’s novel consists of a number of intertwining paratexts that encourage the reader to navigate between the levels of the narrative — a task that is further complicated by the novel’s gradual dissolution into textual chaos — and to make decisions as to which path to follow and for how long. The reading experience thus emulates the exploration of the mysterious, shifting labyrinth that opens up within the eponymous house. I read the novel’s labyrinthine motif as an example of what Suzanne Langer calls a “semblance,” that is, a site where potential movement is suspended. Reading the novel in this way provides an entry into an examination of how the book’s construction of labyrinthine textual and narrative spaces is able to invoke and manipulate an affect that is, I argue, crucial to an interpretative engagement with the novel’s plot.