There is Nothing There: The Twentieth Century Notion of Supplementation within Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/9c67wn266

Abstract

Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves sheds light on many topics that were commonly explored in the twentieth century including supplementation, language, photography, film and authenticity. However, using a unique fictional style, House of Leaves expands, alters, critiques or overturns these theories in a day and age where digital technology has drastically changed the way we interact with media. Using devices such as reinterpretation, excessive footnotes, allusion and appendixes, House of Leaves becomes the embodiment of the supplemented object, making it apparent that supplementation can alter the original, shift intention and resist definition. At first glance, House of Leaves may seem like an overproduced, flashy work of fiction, but upon further inspection it is clear that the novel has been meticulously put together in a deliberate fashion that comments on authenticity within communication and the impact of digital technology on the image in the twenty-first century.

Creator