De-gen(d)eration : writing thru the seriously playful

Abstract

This essay explores the experimental nature of Christine Brooke-Rose’s narrative Thru and its attempts to break down the conventions of the genre of the novel. Reflecting on the singularity of this text that refuses to obey the laws of its genre but at the same time insists on forming part of it, the article discusses how this text should be approached and how it may be read. Through a close reading of the first few pages of Thru it links the question of genre with that of gender, and demonstrates how Brooke-Rose’s text exposes and deconstructs the gender hierarchy through its play with language, narrative structures and print conventions. This play creates a multiplicity of meaning that resists any attempt to reduce the novel to one single authoritative reading. Instead, it constantly supplements the many readings it makes possible, always allowing for an ‘other’ meaning, another interpretation.