Always a house but never a home : ‘House of Leaves’ as a postmodern novel that necessitates multimodal platforms

Abstract

This dissertation looks at how ‘House of Leaves’ ; an example of postmodern and contemporary literature, challenges the medium of the novel and the act of reading and how this can be seen as a reflection of literature today. In my first chapter I discuss the form of the novel and its status as a cult fiction. Furthermore, I shall be exploring the effects the online forum surrounding the novel has had on its popularity and the multi-modal presence of the novel as text, music, forum and game. In my second chapter I wish to look at ‘House of Leaves’ as a text-based game and how unusual or rather how common this feature is amongst novels. In this chapter I wish to also discuss the effects of e-lit and the trajectory of the novel with regards to the concern with its entertainment value. Finally, in chapter three I wish to explore to extent to which we can refer to ‘House of Leaves’ as a postmodern artwork and whether or not it can go beyond the postmodern aesthetic. Finally, I will conclude this chapter with reference to the post literary and emerging patterns within the novel today. In this dissertation I hope to explore the ways in which ‘House of Leaves’ could possibly be a marker for the trajectory of the novel in contemporary literature and how the novel today allows for the coalition of modalities resulting in hybrid mediums present in a single work of art.