A Parable about Space: Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves

Yıl 2019, Sayı: 50, 91 - 117, 01.04.2019

Gülşen Aslan Uslu

Öz

This article examines Mark Z. Danielewski’s debut novel House of Leaves by looking at the ideas of space and spatiality that are presented through the novel’s content, form, and shape. Employing postmodern narrative devices extensively such as metafiction, multiplicity of narratives, intertextuality, and genre-blurring, House of Leaves makes use of the spatial form and extends it with the use of hypertext. The novel’s narrative space also focuses on a spatial construct, the Navidson house, which is a vast labyrinthine space. Danielewski uses the Navidson house as an inspiration for the spatial design of his novel. He does this by incorporating the visual and material devices and reorganizing the page with topographical and typographical experiments. The novel makes use of spatiality on different levels and as a result of the interplay between these spatial practices, it produces a dynamic fictional and material space. House of Leaves reconsiders the novel’s shape and materiality in the late age of print and redefines it as a material art object through the use of postmodernist elements, hypertext, and materiality

Anahtar Kelimeler

Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves, spatiality, hypertextuality, materiality

Bir Mekân Hikâyesi: Mark Z. Danielewski’nin Yapraklar Evi Romanı

Öz

Bu makale, Mark Z. Danielewski’nin ilk romanı olan Yapraklar Evi’ni, romanın içeriği ve biçemi aracılığıyla sunulan mekân ve mekânsallık kavramları çerçevesinde incelemektedir. Yapraklar Evi, üst kurgu, çoklu anlatılar, metinlerarasılık ve türlerin karışımı gibi postmodern anlatı öğelerinden faydalanarak mekânsal biçemi kullanır ve bunu hipermetin sayesinde genişletir. Romanın kurgusal mekânı da yine bir mekânsal ve mimari oluşum olan, Navidson’ların geniş bir labirent şeklindeki evine odaklanır. Danielewski, Navidson’ların bu labirent evini romanın mekânsal tasarımı için de bir ilham kaynağı olarak kullanır. Bunu da metnin görselliğini ve maddeselliğini alışılmışın dışında bir şekilde kullanarak, sayfanın alanını topografik ve tipografik deneysel araçlarla yeniden tasarlayarak yapar. Roman, mekânsallığı, çeşitli biçimlerde öne çıkarır ve bunlar arasındaki karşılıklı ilişki sonucunda hareketli bir kurgusal ve maddesel mekân yaratır. Yapraklar Evi, roman türünün şeklini ve maddeselliğini, yeniden mercek altına alaraktürünü, postmodern özellikler, hipermetin ve maddeselliği kullanarak yeniden tanımlar

Anahtar Kelimeler

Mark Z. Danielewski, Yapraklar Evi, mekân, hipermetinsellik, maddesellik

Kaynakça

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