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UNIVERSITY

OF HULL

Labyrinths: Navigating Daedalus'Legacy The Role ofLabyrinths in Selected Contemporary Fiction

Being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of PhD In the University of Hull

By

Katharine May Cox M. A., B. A. Hons

Submitted 12 September2005

th

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledgethe kind support of everyone who has taken the time to listen to my ideas,challengemy assumptions and develop my critical thinking. The journey hasbeenmadethe richer for your presence.

Special mention must be extended to the English department, for their patience and
for debates her Dr. Martin Dr. Ann Kaegi Arnold; to and insight, especially enlivening

to Dr. CatherineWynne for her selflessgiving of time and energy. I would also like to thank the valuable advice of Dr. Anna Fitzer, Dr. Charles Mundye and Dr. Graham Sadler. My supervisor, Dr. Matthew Pateman,has been an ever-constantguide and
source of motivation, so my gracious thanks to him.

On a personal note, I wish to acknowledgethe invaluable input from my family and friends who have cared for the body as well as the mind. To my family: Sybil,

Elizabeth, Pamela, David, Helen, Margaret, Thomas, Jack and Zameze, and friends:
Roger and Joanne, Voyin and Lynda, Leo and Leila; Catherine, Elaine, Jill, Beth, Sarah, Heidi, Shirley, and Tracy.

I would like to dedicatethis work to Pamela- who was there in the beginning.

degree PhD for Thesis Summary of submitted by Katharine Cox

on Labyrinths: Navigating Daedalus' Legac-*

This study initially engages in an historical survey of the varying key realisations of labi-lnths and The beginnings from the twentieth the through to shifting century. of their applications antiquity I literature historical documents its deployment labynnth the alike and in and cultural significance of labyrinth: distinctive focuses the In the two of manifestations on particular, it is also evaluated. Egyptian and the Cretan. The examination of these ancient artefacts affords an analysis of the intersection of archaeology, mythology and cultural productions.

At the core of this study is the analysis of the fecundity of labyrinths in late twentieth-century fiction, focallsed through four salient texts: Umberto Eco's The Nanie of the Rose (1980), Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor (1985), Jeanette Winterson's The Passion (1987) and Mark Z.

Damelewski's Hotise of Leaivs (2000). These novels target specific usages of the trope, whereby the physical event of the labyrinth and its navigation, coupled with the labyrinthine text, intensifies late I that twentieth-century engagement with thematic aii cxploration of a issues. will argue for complcxity and ideas of selfhood coupled with a propensity self-reflective narratology recalls the F,, Yptlan and the Cretan labyrinths and so privileges these models.

The labyrinth is considered as an appropnate medium to deschbe narrative construction and consumption in a manner that deconstructs the text as artifice and prioritises the reader's and the atitlior's i-elationslup to it. Specifically, the adoption of the lab yri rinth addresses the interplay

bet\\ cen space and history in the textual arena and so encourages the individual to be envisaged as a trams1iistoricalwandering figure. These textual usages foreground the apposite deployment of the IiIIINTInthas,this ancient meta-signifier is an entirely apposite vehicle for the interrogation of the late twentieth-century postniodem condition.

Contents

Introduction 1.1 Why Labyrinths? 1.2 Unearthing Mythologies: Fayoum, Knossos and the Name of the Labyrinth 1.3 1.4 1.5 The Story of the Labyrinth Emblems of the Contemporary Labyrinth Endnotes

Pages I 1-4 5-11

12-17 0 18-31 1-35 -33

The Name of the Rose 2 Umberto Eco's Use of the Labyrinth 2.1 Building Textual Labyrinths: Encountering Mazes in Eco's other Writings 2.2 Constructing Bridges: Translation, Anachronisms Question of 2.3 National Identity and the

36-37 38-46 47-55

The Case of the Hesitant Scribe: Naming Detectives, Fragments Intertexts and

56-73 74- 86 87-95 96 97- 101

2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7

Spatial Cartographies: Mapping the Library and Abbey A Discarded Bundle of Narratives: Uncovering the Apocalypse Coda Endnotes

Hawksmoor 3 Pattern and History in the Textual City: Labyrinths in the Work Ackroyd Peter of I The Forest and the City: Labyrinths in Ackroyd's Fiction Location English Imagination the and of an 3. -2 3 ). 3.4 Tile Stones of London: A History of Fire and Lost Direction Continuity and Manipulation: Names and the City Nlemories of Ancient Death: The Egyptian Labyrinth in the

102-103

104-117

118-129 130-141 142-150

c1tv
3.5 Poor Tom: Tramps, Beggars and the Children of the City Coda Endnotes 151-162 163 164-167

The Passion 4. 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Winterson's Encounter with the Labyrinth Maze or Labyrinth? Unravelling Winterson's Terminology Venice: Winterson's Invention of the City Sex in the City: Difference, Exchange and Gender Finding a Path: The Intriguing Cartography of the Maze Recalling Home: A Labyrinthine Re-construction of Time Coda Endnotes 168- 169 170- 181 182- 190 191-200 201- 210 211- 221 I _) ') 223- 226

House of Leaves 5. Gathering Scattered Leaves: Mark Z. Danielewski's Overwhelming Textual Labyrinths 5.1 Get out of the House: The Role of the Uncanny and the Threat of the Vold 5.2 5.3 5.4 Listening for Echo: Myth, Repetition and Narrative Difference Everything Falls Apart : The De(con)struction of Memory Encountering the Textual Labyrinth: Truth, Unreliability Missing Narrators 5.5 5.6 5.7 "Strange colored words": The Alienating Effect of Madness Coda Endnotes 270-283 284 285-287 and 240-246 247-258 259-269 229-239 227-228

Conclusion 6.1 6.2 A Node on the Journey Transforming the Labynnth 288-292 292-293

Bibliography

294-327

Introduction Whv labNTrinths? The labyrinth is a key motif in modernist and postmodemist fiction. I will argue

that this modemist and postmodemist usage is enlivened by archaeological late that the nineteenth and early twentietli retraced mythology in investigations

centuries. The appearanceof the trope (OED Rhet. 1) in late twetitieth-centUry

fiction is of particular note, as these labyrinths mediate textual and ontological articulations of subjectivity, sexuality, history, space and time. In these

image, labyrinth deployed the occurrences as contemporary is variously an symbol, trope or a narratological technique, and these usagesdemand that the encounter xvith the labyrinthine is complex.

The aim of this thesis is to scrutinise the labyrinth and the labyrinthine in Umberto Eco's The Nanic of the Rose (1980), Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor (1985), Jeanette Winterson's The Passion (1987) and Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Lcavcs
(2000). These fictions intensify and play with the labyrinth, both adopting and

labyrinth's heritage. factor A textual the adapting critical in the selection of these history labyrinth. In the case of textual their the the novels is engagement with of Winterson this is an elaboration of the rare representations of a watery maze whilst Eco, Ackroyd and Danielewski make reference to the ancient forms of the labyriinth achieved through a remembering of the archaeological investigations in Egypt and

Crctc.

These historical fictions use the labyrinth to disrupt time and space, and so instigate

between dialectical the past and the present. The temporal settings conversation a Rosc. Hawksmoor. Yanic The Thc Passion and House of Leaves xvill the qf of

In historical labyrinth these through sites. enable analysis of the process of the doing so, there is highlighted a lineagethat details the transmutationof the labyrinth into the contemporary, thereby identifying the labyrinth not solely as a generic literary Fittingly, but the and cultural of earlier writings. symbol as a reworking is is itself in history journey labyrinths literature that and a exploration of labyrinthine.

These texts overtly incorporate the labyrinth as an event, either as a building or city to be navigated through or lost within. Chosen for their highly specific inclusion of labyrinths, these novels express the labyrinth both as a physical device and as a

for between the metaphor nexus reader, writer and text. Though Wendy B. Faris fiction labyrinthine discourse that the argues modem and postmodem. adopts as a dominant narrative mode, she ignores the extent to which the labyrinth has
1 functioned in (Labyrinths 9-14). The portrayal this manner repeatedly ofLanguage is by labyrinthine text thought of or no means a contemporary processes as in is (Odyssey), Homer the work of phenomenon and extensively articulated

Boethius (Consolation of Philosophy) and Chaucer (House of Fame) amongst labyrinths This textual to the of examination contemporary others. study widens but isolated them consider occurrence as an apex of articulations about the not as an labyrinth.

Labyrinths are historically

bound by notions of

repetition, return and

transformation; a thematic grouping that is clearly evident in the mythology incorporate Cretan depictions labyrinth, Books that the of a model. surrounding fragments from literature. a wealth of consciously or unwittingly, resonate with love, horror, confusion, quest, Such representations necessarilyarticulate stories of

is it labyrinth the fabrication and death. To appreciate the altering nature of An labyrinths these to the two of examination antiquity. of necessary scrutinise in Egypt the two the through and sites excavations of ancient models a review of Crete will provide a meansby which to view the literary labyrinths conceived by labyrinths, distillation literary From these the and of a contemporaryauthors. early is journey itself be drawn: labyrinthine and that philosophical may a passage regressive,and which evokesthe memory of theseancientoccurrences.

This introduction will consider the discovery of the palace at Knossos, Crete, as a interest for in labyrinth during the the early twentieth century. The catalyst renewed

its Cretan direct influence the through excavation, significance of upon modemist texts and in a wider cultural context, led to the intensification of the fonn in
literature. postmodern This is predominately because key modernists and early

fascinated it by labyrinth, both the the postmodernists were conceptof as provided a for basis their textual experiments. Such metaphorical and a narratological mode include (A Artist 1916; James Joyce Portrait Young Man, the of as a writers
Ulysses, 1922), Jorge Luis Borges ("Two Kings and Two Labyrinths", 1944; "The House of Asterion", 1944) and Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities, 1972). Postmodem

literature's propensity towards textual reflectivity leads to a cycle of reflection and labyrinth is in This Danielewski's the evident exploration of which appropriation. in (Rose) his Burgos Jorge Eco's Borges textual character of as recasts use of Zampano' who ultimately is a characterisation of the writer Borges himself. Positioning Danielewski's text last is appropriateas it is a novel keen to reverberate for hence forms labyrinth the the a site of and narrative with previous engagements labyrinthine issuesvoiced in the other novels.

By scrutinising the labyrinths of antiquity, this study identifies a passage from into fiction. transformation through to physical artefact mythology and a Appropriately, the route of the labyrinth tends towards circularity and, in these contemporary renditions, the narrative again returns to its roots and delves into archaeologicalsites that are overlaid with stories.

1.2

Unearthing Mythologies: Fayoum, Knossos and the Name of the

Labyrinth

2 Depictions of the labyrinth have been found engravedon ancient tombs, on Cretan 3 Cretan labyrinth floor Roman the the even coins, on mosaics; and mythology of inspired Roman graffiti.
4

In addition to thesereligious and domestic instances,the

labyrinth's narrative of power, shame,love and betrayal has continued to captivate is impress labyrinth both These that the a representations emphatically writers. fictional device and an archaeologicalfact. Though examples of labyrinths have 5 been found globally, the labyrinth as an architectural feat has two significant
Cretan Egyptian the constructions. predecessors: and Both magnificent and

inspire labyrinths deliberate devices these to complex, ancient were conceived as in dread the walker. or awe

The word 'labyrinth' was also applied in relation to a massive and elaborate
building that stood at Fayoum, Egypt (W. H. Matthews, Mazes and Labyrinths: Their History and Development 6), although this name may have been assumed in in late labyrinth Egyptian The the the nineteenth century retrospect. rediscovery of

ignited interest in the possibility of the existence of the Cretan labyrinth. Excavationsat Fayoum gave new impetusto the desireto view ancient narrativesas topographically and historically basedin reality. If Herodotus was accuratein his descriptions of the Egyptian structure,could the fabled Cretan labyrinth also exist? Archaeological researchconductedby Flinders Petrie at Fayoum in 1888 and based first C. Strabo, fourth B. E.; (Herodotus, century century on early chroniclers' reports B.C.E; Pliny the Elder, first century C.E.) validated the location of the Egyptian labyrinth and stressedthe size and complexity of the building. Although interest in

discuss Egyptology to Ackroyd be Egyptian labyrinth the uses tends to specialised, in Egyptian in the Hawksmoor. He structure ritual also adapts writings about labyrinth his interrelationship to the of pyramid and particular consider (Hawksmoor; cf Herodotus, Histories 11.148). Danielewski also explores this lesser-knownbuilding to completehis history of the labyrinth.

Though the Egyptian labyrinth is relatively obscure, its connection to the Cretan

labyrinth identified by Greek and Romanwriters ensurethat the trace of this ancient
is lost. structure not completely Likewise, Ackroyd's Danielewski's and

Cretan labyrinth this the of of earliest structure signifies an unsettling remembrance

as principal antecedent. Amenemhet III, The artifice was supposedly built as a palace for 6 C. 1850 B. E. Herodot-us' vision of a

in approximately

multipurpose edifice has been affirmed by later chroniclerS7who reiterate his detenninations that the pharaoh's house served as his seat of goveniment, his 1). This conflation of temple and, ultimately, his mausoleum(Histories 11.149-15 is important in labyrinth"s the also elusiveness and possible usages maintains theorising the Cretan space. It is believed that the structure was massive and intricate with a further underground storey (Herodotus, Histories 11.149; Strabo, Geography XVIIA. 37; Matthews, Mazes 15 fig. 3). Such a description of a multilayered labyrinth is in contradiction to the majority of labyrinths that exist today devices leisure be turf the tend to earlier or nineteenth-century of variations which descent Danielewski to the Ackroyd Eco, physical make reference and mazes. into descent journey labyrinth the the of or nekuia recalls which possible within a descent illness Winterson as a metaphorical examines mental underworld whilst (Mircea Eliade, The Encyclopaedia of Religion vol. 8,413). Literary affiliations

between the labyrinth and death are realised in the Egyptian model. As a visitor to

the building, Herodotus was denied accessto the lower reachescontaining sacred remains: a restriction that contributes to the sharedmystification of the two ancient labyrinths.

As with fictional accounts of the Cretan building, Petrie described a complex demonstrably highlights the role of the structure which was man-madeand as such
creator. The size and dominance of the Egyptian and Cretan buildings are

by laud both labyrinth the the confirmed ancientwriters who works and principle of building. Pliny the Elder's generic praise of labyrinths identifies the aesthetic

8 their existenceas supremacyof the Egyptian and the Cretan examples and stresses
[ ] fictitious" "by that physical monuments are no means ... XXXVI. (Natural History

xix. 84-85). Using the structure of the Egyptian type as a guide, Pliny 85-86) Sicily (Library History Diodorus and of xix. of

(Natural History XXXVI.

1.61, first century B. C.E) are in agreement that Daedalus used the Egyptian

inferior in Cretan his building, that the to copy was concluding prototype construct
9 infarny. despite its size, Therefore Daedalus' labyrinth, the inventor's most

building be derivative. By to mimicking a whose enduring project, was considered innovation and design was said to surpasseven the pyramids (Herodotus,Histories IL 149), Daedalus was forced to alter the scope of the project. The adaptation its involuted itself distort thereby to accentuated and within causedthe structure habit. This manner of artistic debt is apposite for postmodern authors as it

labyrinth further the appropriation. route of complicates

Of thesetwo celebratedlabyrinths of antiquity, it is the Cretan that is predominant, Daedalus' the creation. surrounding mythology a of as result unquestionably Reports of this labyrinth were disseminatedby Pausanias(Description of Greece,

C. E. ), first Metamorphoses, C. Ovid ("The Labyrinth" E. ), century second century Plutarch (The Life of Theseus,second century C.E.), Apollodorus (Bibliotheca, secondcentury C.E.) and Catullus (poem 64, first century B.C.E.), amongst others. Sadly, only fragments of Euripides' version of the myth remain, but his in is interesting for Phaedra the the unrelenting punishmentof continuation of story 10 Minos' line.

Though the labyrinth was not forgotten by Western cultures, the interest in and Cretan labyrinth by the the publications of Arthur was re-mobilised influence of Evans (cf Evans Lansing Smith, The Myth of the Descent into the Underworld in
Postmodern Fiction 109). A journalist turned archaeologist, Evans' quest for

12 identified Theseus" led him to Knossos in Crete he the site as the where 13 labyrinth. desire had been The to mythological previously unearth what in be because here, the early twentieth considered myth cannot underestimated,
labyrinth intersection legend, the the mythical century, at of archaeology and became a physical fact.
14

The imperative to confirm the legitimacy of the Cretan dig, in vindication of his long quest, caused Evans to support a convoluted etymology for the term j or and residual confusion in the praxis 'labyrinth'. This rash action has causedma have is 'labyrinth' The labyrinth thought to term the commonly ever since. of derived from Mopq (labrys), a Carian word used to describea double-headed axe, 15 labyrinth. Although the the to of ambivalence recall whose symmetry is said Evans' researchwas initially challengedby W.H. D. Rouse, his views become the has his is it that of writings a reassessment traditional orthodoxy and only recently 16 Evans' Latterly, debate. ferocious the arbitrary nature of archaeologyand elicited

his into have been methodologies and prequestion work practices cited, calling 17 investigation Evans' This Minoan the of civilisation. eminence as a scholar of scholasticism emphasisesthe extent to which the discoveries at Knossos and subsequent labyrinth research are grounded on the projection of one man's imagination.

The instability of the etymological root of 'labyrinth' makes problematic its contemporaryusageand prompts critical engagement with etymology, naming and
reliability. Evans' determination of labrys as the pre-Hellenic etymological root of

the labyrinth relies on a complicated trail, predicated on his belief that Zeus was
by Knossos worshipped at means of the double-axe (Evans, The Palace qfMinos: A 18 Comparative Account 447; cf OED 'labrys'). This research was instrumental in

Evans' decision to name the palace: "House of the Double-HeadedAxe" (Evans,

"The Tomb of the Double Axes at Knossos" and Palace). The commonality of an

in impact find his belief his Knossos the crystallised of and the axe-like symbol at
centrality of the axe as a ritualistic and sacrificial weapon. Unfortunately, such a

determined process is flawed and was attacked by his contemporary Rouse who
between axe ardently refuted such a correlation 19 deduced Rouse that the and god.

Canan statueof "Zeus Labrandeus",critical to Evans' argumentand any cult it may

have inspired, was post-Minoan ("Double Axe" 272).

Though this definition of the labyrinth is pervasive, it is not the sole theory Ronald Mazes 175-176). (cf. Matthews, labyrinth the the etymology of regarding A Bur-rows links the word to a derivation of a mistranslation of Amenernhet's MacGillivray, Minotaur (qtd. J. Alexander dismissed is this widely name, though 213-14; cf. also Matthews, Mazes 175). Of these other hypotheses, Hennann

Kern's literal translation "house of stone" is of particular note (Through 10). It findings, Giintert's from likely Herman designation Kem's that which seems stems 20 little Kern labyrinth Though "place time to that resolved gives of stone". means this definition it is appropriate as the novels studied incorporate constructions of in library, home the stone a partitions of and the city space.

An additional variation is PenelopeReedDoob's discussionof a medieval sourceof labyrinth as a pun on the Latin "labor intus", meaning 'house
of toil,. 21

This

is in keeping with the term 'maze' which denotes confusion (see medieval gloss ChapterFour for an in-depth discussionof 'maze') and so combinesthe labyrinthine its structurewith effect. In general,turf mazesand ritual dancesassociated with the labyrinth have led to an understandingof labyrinth beyond this concept of the house. Despite this extensionand broadeningof the concept, eachnovel returns to
an early understanding of the term as viewed through the Egyptian and Cretan

labyrinths. The attention of this study is the exwnination of labyrinths as buildings, building (Kern, '-inth'. that the of or suffix meaning place representations reflect Through 25).

There are many genres of labyrinth, ranging from simplistic single track Matthews intricate types. to through refers to multi-branched representations labyrinths in two groups, as either unicursal or multicursal, depending upon how labyrinths Discussions impose decision the they of vary walker. upon points many from definition the term; the to the strong classification as a unicursal of according form with no decision nodes (Kern, Through) which differentiates between maze Party 8 This Shields, Larry'S 1). (Carol labyrinth unicursal to any complex path and Cretan labyrinths. Each Egyptian discussion the and ancient of position excludes

10

in difficult labyrinth an often novelist presents the and complex model, as a deliberate engagementwith the early labyrinths, and so refutes a narrowing of the 'labyrinth' to only unicursal constructions.

Though the etymology of 'maze' emphasises the emotion of the walker, (Doob, The itself, Labyrinth 98-99) labyrinth to the the the whilst refers structure Idea of distinctions betweenthe maze and the labyrinth are blurred in popular usage(OED lists them as synonymous). Writings aboutthe labyrinth either apply a separationof
the two terms, tending to privilege the labyrinth as unicursal (Kern, Through; Faris, Labyrinths), or stress their similarity (Matthews, Mazes; Nigel Pennick, Mazes and
T-I -

Labyrinths). The use of classical and medieval renditions of the labyrinth in art to is flawed; the track promote supremacyof a unicursal rather the unicursal artistry denotesa complex idea and structure (Doob, Idea 39-63). The appearance of the labyrinth in literature is commonly that of the difficult multicursal type of labyrinth,
though there are apparent exceptions like the flowing repetition of Alain Robbe-

Grillet's In the Labyrinth (1967) and Shields' Larry'S Party (1997). Whenever labyrinth distinctions the these the to try maze and and separate are used rigid long heritage invariably the and common of underminedas a result of argumentsare the two terms. The Egyptian and Cretan labyrinths lie uneasily betweenthe notions distinct labyrinth to attempts establish and so undermine rigorous of maze and definitions. While I support the principle that the terms may be used

22 interchangeably, it becomesnecessaryin the analysesof The Passion to consider Winterson's persistent use of the word 'maze'. Nuanced differences between the full Chapter (The Passion), in Four labyrinth a the where are explored maze and fonn Christian is the 'maze' are mutations of given, whilst significant exploration of Rose). Name (The Chapter Two the of a central considerationof

1.3

The Story of the Labyrinth

The proliferation of the legend of Theseusand the Minotaur makes the basic story well 23 known. The myth may be read as a transfiguration of the Minoan dynastic power rite Minos (worshipped by bull) labyrinthine the thought to to as cavesto as or was retreat Theseus, duel decide his The to the of sort of outcome of reign. arrival perform some the strong custodian of Athens, perhaps demonstratesthe exchange of power from
native Minoan rule to Athenian supremacy.

Rather than recounting the entire story it is pertinent instead to outline some of the

lesser-knownparts of the myth. As a spacesteepedin ritual, the Cretan labyrinth served for impetus for its Athenian the the as a sacrificial arena slaughter of youth and yet
24 in failure king's lay King Minos' The to to adhere ceremonial practice. construct

desire to possessthe white bull sent by Poseidonled to him hiding it away, insteadof his beast decreed. In Zeus to the the made wife Pasiphad offering gods, as retribution, fall in love with the bull and, in a contraption of Daedalus' devising, she conceivedthe 25 housed her bastard his Minos In Minotaur. shame, child, recognition of monstrous 26 Asterion, in the labyrinth, using the beast to dispose of the Athenian youth sent in this strangechild tribute every nine years. The nomenclature'Minotaur' dehumanises 'Taurus', 'Minos' is formed the and and which translates words and of a conflation of 27 literally as "Minos's bull" (Matthews,Mazes35).

The king's non-compliancewith the god's wishes led to a distortion of the initial ritual labyrinth, in the the of which also construction of monumentalproportions and resulted functioned as an enclosure to sacrifice the Athenian homage in a highly ritualised 28 fashion. There are ambiguities and contradictions about the building that remain,

12

hide it the to its location a structure was mostly concerning and purpose; namely, hybrid in body flaunting the the of abhorrent of the god's edict, visually realised Minotaur? Or did the labyrinth refer solely to the palace that Daedalus was

labyrinth Both to the commissioned construct? as a structure questions emphasise devised for dwelling. If we consider the former, repeatedly evinced in mythology and literature, the labyrinth certainly would have createda poor spectaclefor the populace. More likely, the edifice was intended for concealment,as the labyrinth masks the body Minotaur his disguises building's fimction. the the of and action, and so

Subsequent has ftu-ther labyrinth the the analysis of myth obscured still with major critics such as Kem (Through 10) and Eco (Semiotics and the Philosophy of
Language 80) erroneously portraying the Cretan labyrinth as a straightforward 29 system that, after the defeat of the Minotaur, affords no difficulty to the interloper.

Though classical and medieval depictions would tend to support this argument, Doob has evidenced that there exists a disparity between visual depictions of the labyrinth and the complex historical and textual labyrinths they denote(Idea 39-63). 30 Ariadne's 'clue', the thread given to Theseusto enablehis escapefrom the maze, laying Cretan The the the of the thread structure. complexity of stresses demonstratesthe maze itself, as a manner of revealing its difficult passageways. The presenceof the clue reaffinns that the Cretan labyrinth is not analogouswith 31 the visual interpretations of the fonn; rather the looped and unicursal format is Cretan the to coins, structure visually, as evident on used as a means represent floor mosaics. manuscriptsand

Classical and medieval illustrations of the Cretan labyrinth tend to display the design, the to from the perceive its with onlooker enable so and above structure

13

Minotaur at the centre often in mortal combat with Theseus. The effect of this is to provide the reader with the artificer's view, the ability to witness the labyrinth from above, and hence smooth the intricacies of the maze. Later Renaissance depictions show the building from a raised perspective or sometimes on high to illustrate Daedalus' escape route. The sophistication of early mazes and their disrupt is describes knowledge hallways by Ovid to their capacity of signalled who Daedalus' own bewildennent within his creation: Such was the work, so intricate the place, / That scarcethe workman all its turns cou'd trace; / And Daedalus was puzzled how to find / The secret himself design'd. (Metamorphoses 8,27-30 tTans.Dryden et wys of what 3 .3 al) This feat of complexity is made more sinister when it is considered that the Minotaur, destroyer of life, also walks the passageways. The Minotaur, half-man 34 half-bull, was housed in the labyrinth and is the only character able to dwell 35 its both his home the comfortably within structure serves as and prison. walls: 36 The central space of the labyrinth is concealedand protected by the Minotaur. Entry into the labyrinth is to stray into a threateningand disorientating area which further conceals the menacing beast. This is a key concern as the texts chosen document the encounterbetweenwo/man and her/his environment as a dichotomy between disorientation and knowledge. The labyrinth finally remains empty with the Minotaur slain and Theseusfled, as the structureno longer fulfils its function as house of the beast. The emptiness and continued menace of the structure is House Leaves Passion Rose, The in Name The the where the and of of explored its leads labyrinth discovery beast to the that the the was own monster or slaying of a pervasivesenseof anti-climax.

32

The labyrinth is not a house in the usual sense; rather the internalised space is Instead hidden, 'domestic' the thereby subverting area. of opening convoluted and
14

into a welcoming arenathe Egyptian and Cretan models contort and conceal. The labyrinth's distortion and confusion of space is apparent in the inversion of in hierarchies in Rose, The Name the excessive patterning of the medieval of Hawksmoor, the spatial fluidity of The Passion and the overwhelming textuality of House of Leaves. The labyrinth representsthe known, comforting and enclosing proportions of the house,whilst at the sametime evokes a senseof the external as journey, through the the over-implementation of boundaries and the experienced
(Ehade, Comparative 369-379). The Patterns Religion in ensuing confusion effect

is between created a conflict movement and stasis. The experienceof walking the 37 maze evokes feelings of the unheimlich, which Martin Heidegger translatesas a
feeling of "not-being-at-home" (Being and Time 233; Alan Megill, Prophets of

Extremity 118-119). This tension betweenthe known and unknown, the domestic is key Danielewski's House Leaves the concept within and where unfamiliar, a of the corporeal effect of the labyrinth is explored.

The ancient labyrinth is a multivalent (OED a2) spacewhich functions as home,

temple and prison; both the Egyptian and Cretan examples share multifunctional

function house, labyrinths Though the the space is also these of a perform uses. emphatically ritualistic. The suitability of the labyrinth as a site of ritual has

its into Christian icon. leads its from to transition a earliest usagesand survived Religious depictions of the labyrinth construct an inner space that representsthe from labyrinth the modified escapeto goal of enlightenment with passageout of rebirth. These ecclesiastical labyrinths are often floor mosaics which signify

Christian existenceas a complicatedpath towards God, who is located at the centre. Illustrations of labyrinths used in contemplation and prayer were adopted as a

15

the (perhaps infirm for the for Holy Land of the source substitute pilgrimage to the Jerusalempattern).
38

Walking the labyrinth has been used as both a metaphor for redemption, visibly in floor Chartres, Amiens and Rheims, whilst similar the represented mosaics of into denote form descent hell, the the the mazy coils entrails of reprises mythical as 39 the underworld (Eliade, Encyclopaedia413). In Virgil's The Aeneid the Cumean
iconography labyrinth the the gates are garnished with of and anticipate the passage

to the underworld. This fundamental ambivalence is most evident in Milton's is f in 3) Paradise Lost (V. 622 IX. 499,11.5 84 IX. 18 the adoption of moti and and and later by (The Michael Ayrton Maze Maker, 1967). explored

The association with hell is reinforced by the location of the labyrinthine in fiction

40 it is into by By travelling the often subterraneancaves where represented . inverse: hell tunnels the the a meansof return cavernous of samepassages also offer
4 1 in (1796) Mathew Lewis' The Monk For to the example, or a path redemption.

his St. Clare, Alfonso absconds with victim, are underground vaults of where devil is during his It the the monk wishes to renege that caverns. pact with of note he feels but flee instead his to the surface, unable to travel the on promise and descent into He back the the the to surfacewithout assistance. equates passageways God Without Satan to the the and redemption. outside with maze with and ascent 42 interpreter God he lacks to return to the exterior. the the assistance necessary of These labyrinths beneath the earth bewilder those who enter, especially those recklessenoughto descendwithout provision.

16

In medieval Italy. Alighien Dante*s Divine Comedy aligns the lab%Tlnthinewith the Idescent into hell 43 This association is intensified by his placement of the Nlinotaur . hellish (Inferno. 12) 1314 these with the path and also conversel,,,,, within canto coils I (Paradise of ascent c1315-1317). The labyrinth contains the dual properties of

damnation, redemption and and confirms an assertion of the intnnsic ambivalence labyrinth (Doob, 369,379). Idea 1-13; Patterns Eliade, the of Dante's work

fortifies the concept of traversing the labyrinth with a guide, a human versioi-i of the 44 The properties of the clue (first Virgil, then Beatrice and finally St. Bernard). labyrinth are two-fold here, marking a movement from darkness to light, from knowledge. to ignorance The labyrinth holds the ultimate promise of

transformation, achieved through the perception of its whole and the experience of but held by this tension the threat of annihilation movement is its navigation, in by dangers by Minotaur It the the that are these either or structure itself. Is partly in literature. to used prominent effect contemporary

1.4

Emblems of the Contemporary Labyrinth

No, do not hurry. No needto hurry. Haste and delay are equal In this one world, for there's no exit, none, No place to come to, and you'll end where you are, Deep in the centreof the endlessmaze. (Muir, TheLabyrinth 41-45)

Edwin Muir's 1949 collection of poems, entitled The Labyrinth, explores the proximity of man and his environment as the experienceof, and interaction with, a labyrinth. In this nihilistic extract, there is an articulation of lost bearings and both distinctively in labyrinth. The the confusion, of which are employed modem dream-like narrator's earlier musings are subsequentlyrefuted by his 'bad spirit'
details the omnipresent and grotesque size of the labyrinth, whereby experience who

of the labyrinth's overwhelming whole entirely traps the walker, reduceshis role to loiterer, mere and underminesthe urgency of locating a path that leads out of the

45 maze. Recognition of the futility of engagingwith the structure results in

feelings disorientation, bewilderment the continued symptoms of maze where of lack and of progressionremain even after exiting the structure.

The labyrinth is a significant trope in twentieth-century fiction, employed in Joyce's Ulysses, Andre Gide's monologue, Theseus(1946), all of Borges' writing, RobbeGrillet's In the Labyrinth, Anals Nin's The Seductionof the Minotaur (1961), Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The General in His Labyrinth (1989) and beyond into the novels that frarne this study. In art, Pablo Picasso's later works depict an obsessivereturn to the iconographyof the labyrinth, specifically to that of the Minotaur as a re-examinationof Guernica (1937) his (1935), Minotaur (see Minotauromachia and man's monstrousself identification his Ayrton Similarly, the show of the monster mediations of sequence).

18

These Theseus. de-centring Daedalus, eclectic examples of with causing a subsequent device historical the labyrinth's importance typifies the which reflect as a mythical and life, "every for for identity the even the ultimate quest centre, and wholeness, where least eventful, can be taken as a journey through a labyrinth .
46 ) ,

The apparently stable

structure of the labyrinth contraststhe effect of walking its pathways, which invariably is As Doob the this the experience of both the creates effect of uncertainty. notes, deceptively fixed the unicursal and multicursal. model whereby and constant
passagewaysallow play through the labyrinth's repetitions (Idea 39-63).

Experience of the labyrinth

in twentieth-century

literature and art is still

transformative, but tends towards negative alteration. Some of these modem

labyrinths lack a central space altogether, making them appear grotesque and

monstrous,akin to the Cretan labyrinth. Absent from Muir's poem "The Labyrinth"' is the eponymousMinotaur; rather it is the structureitself that threatensto subsume the walker: "[fln suddenblindness,hasten,almost run) [a]s if the maze itself were
(35-37). inability force The to the the walker to adopt the after me" exit maze may

indefinitely incarcerated heart Minotaur the the role of and so remain at of the maze. It is the articulation of disorientation causedby the building's complex construction that is given prominencein this study's selectedtwentieth-centurytexts.

The labyrinth necessarilycreatesprofound uncertainty and often invadesbeyond the immediacy of the physical structure: an action felt in Hawksmoor and House of Leaves most pervasively, with The Passion making the processubiquitous through improbable fantastical Venice. that the exist outside of sequences common-place The Name of the Rose layers labyrinths, which exist not solely as the library but as both The for texts portray the the medieval and modem. world, microcosms

19

the labyrinth that confines of the out of extends confusing effect of as a sensation the ritualised spaceto infiltrate the exterior world.

A return to early representationsof the labyrinth in archaeology, history, mythology for literature, form the the textuality, and so suitable and as a mode of use of contemporary considerationsand prevalent within the modem novel, consolidates an
aesthetic continuity that easily predates temporal notions of the postmodern.

Labyrinthine digressionscharacterisethe form of an intricate search for knowledge in

Tristram Shandy (1759-1767):

is Search Endless [ dear Truth. ] My Toby, the of stop! uncle ---------... stop! go not one foot further into this thorny and bewildered track, -intricate are the steps! intricate are the mases of this labyrinth! intricate are the troubles which the pursuit of this bewitching phantom, KNOWLEDGE, bring will upon thee. (II, iii: 110)

Sterne's text is preoccupied with mazes and labyrinths of both a horticultural and 47 philosophical varietY. Thesefigures function both on the physical level of the garden implying in deeper design the the the textual and connotative of narrative mazy his labyrinth Tristram threaten to the engulf and properties of which uncle Toby. Repetition of delay and detour in this digressivenarrative createsa perpetual labyrinth Faris' that the refutes claim that as protagonist continually seeksmeaning; a procedure is (Labyrinths labyrinthine twentieth-century a solely phenomenon such narratology

10).

The labyrinth epitomises the condition of modem wo/man as a cog within a vast doubt, from legacy of religious uncertainty and without the a unknowablecity-machine, is The to condition of such modem mazes paralleled surety of a guide aid navigation. by the relationship betweenBorges and the labyrinth, and the transition from his writing to his later emplacement by other authors as custodian of the form (Eco, Rose; 20

Danielewski, House). In this manner,the architect becomesembroiled within his own designs.

The labyrinth comprises the mythological archetype, incorporates the threat of the unknown, foregrounds constructions of artificiality and materiality, and typifies the moment of crisis. An over-connotative icon, the labyrinth invites rich historical,

literary and philosophical speculations. Its presencewithin multiple disciplines ensures an overwhelming surplus of meaning,whereby the properties of the labyrinth intensify the need to grasp one thread, to follow its many digressionsthrough the maze; and yet,
at the same time, these same characteristics ensure that a singular 'clue' is illusory.

The labyrinth, with its allusions to creation and navigation, stressesthe arduous both nature of and becomesan appropriatemetaphor for the contemporarynovel. Working specifically within the late twentieth century, the chosennovels exemplify the labyrinthine as an articulation of spaceand time, of narrative construction, as a labyrinth. the physical event and as the interaction with earlier representations of Treatment of the labyrinth is typically twofold: it exists both as a perceivable structure that ensnarescharactersand also as a metaphor for textual manufacture highlights the active role of reader and author. A and narrative progress, and so (incorporating triangle this author, text and reader) and the reading of co-dependant implemented by is distillation the reader a artistic realisations experiencedand of 48 Wolfgang Iser's reader-response theory. Iser proposesthe role of the readeras an Eco's in theories of readerthe game of meaning-making. active participant idea demonstrate indebted Iser's thinking, to though of readeran evolved response, inference. Eco's At in labyrinths dwells the that core of appreciationof of response the relationship between the text and the reader is the idea of the labyrinth and so it

21

is necessaryto explore Eco's semiotics in relation to the labyrinth. The novel 'houses' the text whilst the readerundergoes the journey into the narrative maze and discourse. her/his the through creates a unique communication relationship with The labyrinth exemplifies this senseof the instability of meaning and articulatesthe interface (the labyrinth to the through their with reader's response walker) narrative the 'contained' textual unit (the labyrinth itself). Creation of a narrative labyrinth also indicates a particular concept of an author who, like Daedalus, is ultimately in his contained work. The labyrinth as a metaphor for narrative stressesthe

complexity of the reader's path, whilst simultaneously emphasising the role of the

author as guide and constructor of this narrative meander. Navigation and disorientation for both protagonistsand readersalike becomesa key narratological issue.

The appropriateness of the labyrinth as a model to interrogate theoretical practices such as semiotics, narratology and post-structuralism complements the postmodem

between theory and narrative. self-conscious relationship

The labyrinth is a

for persuasive and pervasive metaphor narrative encompassing textual complexity,

between A textual the author, reader and meaning. recursion and relationship labyrinthine discourse makes manifest the complex and convoluted aspect of the intricacy flow the and entanglementof meaning also narrative and processwhilst is Original the text. the meaning obscuredthrough emphasises repetitious nature of (Jacques "economy interconnected through traces" an of signs and a plethora of Derrida, Positions 40). This is particularly relevant when considering The Name of labyrinth Rose, the the the as a metaphor to capacity of which concentrateson reflect theseserniotic chains of meaning.

22

Derrida's postulations upon a theory of elliptical difference demonstrate that the ("Structure, language labyrinths is innumerable lost of semantic promise within Sign and Play" 351-370; "Ellipsis" 371- 378; Positions 40). The doublings and by "begins labyrinth the that the the complexities of sign reflect emergenceof itself' (Derrida, 297). Repetition Writing Difference repeating and tracery are and important motifs within such linguistic labyrinths where encounterswith the spirals language lead inevitably to multiple intertextual comprehensions of and palimpsests
in is is Duplication "repetition text of meaning. a ultimately subversive as what

disturbs, suspends, or destroysthe linearity of the line" Q. Hillis-Miller, "Ariadne's Thread" 70), and so causesthe labyrinth to be revealed.

The play of diffirance in a word ensuresthe searchfor an origin or a beginning is fluidity Movement eternally recursive. and eradicatethe notion of dwelling within
the maze, inhibit a senseof a cohesive self and ensure that the quest, epitomised by

from within the the experienceof the labyrinth, is a ftitile exercise. Re-appearance is labyrinth the not uniform; the outcome of this cyclical recurrenceand model of filter is to the through origin which returns view a meandering an elliptical passage, Out of this apparent chaos emerge of previous meanings, signs and outcomes. reader-imposed meanings that create multiple routes through the allusive, debns of the text. intertextual

Despite the labyrinth's significance as a metaphor for narrative construction and is there no comprehensive critical study that applies a concerted progression 'labyrinthine' theory. Faris also elicits her surprise that this is the case and

discipline (Labyrinths "labyrinthification" to this tenn the cover postulates awkward 10). The adoption of the labyrinth as a meansto articulate theories of semiotics is a

23

Language), Philosophy by (Semiotics Eco and the notable usagepioneered of and likewise the shadow of the labyrinth haunts the cyclical processof 'eternal return19 (Nietzsche,TheBirth of Tragedy;Michel Foucault, The Order of Things).

Each of the chosentexts is an 'experimental' novel which engageswith schemes of innovation and challenges conceptualisations of spatiotemporality through its distinctive use of the maze. Depictions of identity in these contemporary novels reveal a composite of fractured personae whose experience is stretched and in, manipulated or by, the labyrinthine environment. Presentre-imaginings of the maze undermine and invalidate the promise of return as the walker becomes excessively transformed by her/his experience within the labyrinth. The

significance of the labyrinth is reflected by the decision to examine complementary from examples each writer's earlier and later work in the introduction to each
chapter. This will aid and complement central examinations of the labyrinths and

the idea of the intertext indicated through the image of the labyrinth in their other fictional both writings, and theoretical.

Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose (Chapter Two) is a discourse engagedin the in labyrinths, rebuttal of ecclesiastical a return to a schemethat recalls the complexity is Cretan but different. Contemporary the of which also subtly model versions of the labyrinth, based on Eco's interpretation of the rhizome49 formation, pervade the distinctive labyrinth, He identified three the medieval setting. employs variations of as the classical, the maze and the rhizome (Semiotics 80). The rhizome is particularly displaces Eco's the the tangled of network routes significant as idea of a centre. is rhizome a 'hyperlabyrinth' of gigantic and engulfing proportions. Theoretical in is Eco's labyrinths he has work on semiotics, evident where engagement with

24

50 The formations the novel skilfully maze. of repeatedly sought to categorise the

balancesthe Cretan, the ecclesiasticaland the rhizome modes of the labyrinth, drawing directly on medieval and ostensibly Christian iconography to assertthe intersection and Eco's labyrrinth the pre-eminenceof medieval novel of over other varieties.51 rhizome detection, suffused with theology, philology and philosophical thought, creates an atmosphere of apocalyptic expectation. The themes of hidden knowledge and
epistemological enquiry, often perceived as ultimately futile, complement the

labyrinth. through the progression contemporary

Its associations with detection are

furthered by the climactic confrontation of protagoniststhat promotes the image of the beast within the maze. The Name of the Rose was originally written in Italian and in issues the translation analysis of novel raises a plethora of regarding translation and Significantly, intensify these themselves adaptation. concerns some of the salient themes of the text and so sustain the decision to work substantially from the English
(cf Italian to the edition with reference where appropriate Translation as Negotiation 45-46,95). Eco, Mouse or Rat?

Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor (Chapter Three) attends to the fictive use of the in London. There labyrinth in the construction of early eighteenth-century churches
is a direct invocation of its Egyptian origins, primarily through Herodotus'

description of the Fayoum pyramid and labyrinth (Histories H.148). The depiction its does London's the the experienceof streets motif, as of alleyways re-enforces bridge between This its the to maintains a change and repeat. and ability infiltrated by time twentieth-century are which an ancient sequences eighteenth-and in death, labyrinth Correlation the mannerof the and ritualistic of and exotic past. the Athenian sacrifice and the earlier Egyptian usage, is an integral textual between bi-fold is There the movement eighteenth- and oscillating an component.

UntvwsiW L&"
HtA

25

the twentieth-century timeframes which positions the diabolic Dyer alongside the
Significantly, detective Hawksmoor. contemporary all the novels make an emphatic

correlation betweenthe labyrinth and sacredspace.

Jeanette Winterson's The Passion (Chapter Four) adapts an overtly patriarchal desire to penetrate the labyrinth that results in a realisation of heterogeneous
52 Winterson's feminisation is the space. of maze predated by Evans (Palace),

Robert Graves (The White Goddess, 1948), John Kraft ("The Goddess in the Labyrinth", 1987) and reiterated by Smith's investigations (Myth). Winterson's is usage subtle and seeks to maintain a heterogeneouscity space that repels a homogeneous straightforward reading of the site. The novel accesses an obscure literary lineage of the maze envisagedas water.53 This unusual application of the labyrinth reflects Winterson's adoption of it as a tool for destabilisationand liquid
in identity, but the the possibility, not only obvious context regarding plurality of Significantly, Winterson to the time. also contest experience of space and refers

it be in Passion 'maze' The to the and accordingly will necessaryto consider only the implications of her decision.

Mark Z. Danielewski's immense labyrinthine novel, the House of Leaves (Chapter Five), foregrounds its own materiality and textual artifice. Storylines, snippets of film documentary, cartoon, collage and poetry present an eclectic bundle of textuality, whilst the perpetual flux and slippagewithin the text is highly evocative 54 foregrounds discourse knotted labyrinth. The the the contrived excessively of that the that the the parallels of experience reader's ensures and narrative nature of is destructive labyrinth It this the that the abilities of charactersencountering maze. integrity both to the to the the threatening, also protagonists and of so are obviously

26

detail fabrication the Analysis focus arduous text. will the and as novel on will house distorted the title. the of the that gothic nature of parallels reading process The text is preoccupiedwith ideas of repetition and originality: an examination of these considerations will be paralleled by scrutiny of the idea of the mutating labyrinth.

These texts make extensive use of the mythological, psychological and transformative effects of the labyrinth and celebrate the convoluted narrative
implications that a labyrinthine text conveys. The process is explicit in Eco,

Ackroyd and Danielewski's writing, yet not so immediately obvious in Winterson's

work. Appropriately, the labyrinth is a creation of high artifice whose recursive

movement complements the playful and teasing nature of these narratives and their

linguistic games. As such, factors of narrative authenticity, ludic etymologies and in be the processes of naming will considered eachchapter.

The chosennovels occupy an unstablehistorical spacewhosenavigation is achieved

by the looped ability of the narrative to pass from the present to the past. Although

The Name of the Rose and The Passion are outwardly historical novels, seemingly detachedfrom the author's and reader's present,here too are strong and persistent it is because These the are achieved partially contemporary. engagements with impossible for the author or produced text to escapethe burden of cultural and interrelate both because ideologies temporal with the novels purposefully and also Venice has Winterson the of constructed acting as a spoken contemporaneous. "mirror" for the city of London in the 1980s (The Passion preface), whilst Eco Ages ("The Return Middle debt to the the that the owes contemporary emphasises Both Ages"'). Middle the authors make the validity and authenticity of their of

27

inclusion historical the through of anachronistic episodes, chosen sites problematic quotations and intertexts, all of which construct a labyrinthine matrix of associations. Hawksmoor actively foregrounds a dual narrative composed of eighteenth and twentieth-century timeframes and visits the same space,events and utterancesin a bipartite form. Narrative layering in House of Leaves disguisesthe historical movementsof the discourse,as the contemporaryvernacular and profane dialogue stressthe modem.

The chosenorder of the novels follows the chronology of their publication and their temporal attentions as well (from medieval, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth
is The to the these centuries). ability examine progression of settings most appealing, allowing a comparison and depiction of the labyrinth at these different

historical eras. Thesetexts cover major historical eventsor time periods, located in different countries. The isolationism of Eco's medieval monasteryis such that the
from the surrounding physical environment. the events at abbey seem remote

William of Baskerville's frame of referenceincludes prophetic moments from the

flying including the the possibility of machines medieval, use of eyeglasses and

in together, the tie the a symbiotic relationship as contemporary which medieval and
Eco recognises in Travels in Hyperreality ("Retum" 64-65). The movement of

Ackroyd's narrative is labyrinthine, regularly looping from eighteenth-century London to the contemporary of the same locality. By tracing the central

Winterson's Hawksmoor Dyer to the use corresponds narrative experiencesof and The Passion, two conceived within a similar political of protagonists' voices. in Napoleonic in 1980s), their (Britain the the aftermath wars and explores climate This Winterson Venice. France to enables and especially nineteenth-century In individualism totalitarianism. Romantic with a climate of narrative of contrast a

28

its in is House Leaves arrangement and project; comparison, startling of Danielewski's novel is lengthy, multi-faceted and derivative, employing multiple labyrinth Eco's discourses The the of rhizome narrators, novel unites and genres. vision with Winterson's projections about the interaction of labyrinth and mental health, combined with the threateningand deadly properties of Ackroyd's labyrinth. The most recent of the fictions, it evidencesan explicit debt to the Egyptian and Cretan models, whilst its exploration of Borges' and Eco's writing unites all the threadsof the novels. The selectednovelists, by incorporating narratives concerned detection, discovery indebted to Borges, the with and murder, are necessarily
in literary labyrinth the the twentieth century, whose extensive, even guardian of

level labyrinth his labyrinthine the the to of motif elevates writing obsessive,use of virtuoso perfonnance.

Of the two British writers chosen,Winterson aligns herself most consciously with
European modernism, as emphatically separate from the realist fiction that

dominated the middle half of the twentieth-century in Britain.

This European

tradition does not, according to Winterson, discard modernism in favour of realism ("Vintage Living Texts"). Ackroyd makes a similar, if less obvious, assertion through his commentsconcerningEngland's covert Catholic past and its alignment fantastical in Catholic European the tradition, and mystical, of which steeped with a Eco is emphatically a part (SusanaOnega,"An Interview with Peter Ackroyd" 5-8). The extensive word games utilised by Joyce (Ulysses; Finnegan's Wake, 1939), Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49,1966) and Borges (Labyrinths, 1964) are directly continued by Danielewski and Eco, whilst the ethereal and dislocated Marquez Minotaur) (Seduction Cities), Nin (Invisible Calvino the and of worlds of (The General in His Labyrinth) are reworked by Winterson. The labyrinthine

29

Pynchon Trial, (The Kafka Franz and c1925) claustrophobic cityscapes of foreshadow Ackroyd's work on the city, and yet Ackroyd makes note of solely Charles Dickens. English predecessors Blake Willimn Daniel Defoe, and such as This follows Ackroyd's identification of a literary heritage focalised through England, and specifically London, which in turn attemptsto narrow his discussions labyrinth. the of

Through the considerationof the labyrinth it will be possible to assess the mannerin its it is being in classical origin, which manipulated and used conjunction with
its temporal emplacements. affecting and altering This late twentieth-century

literature returns to Egyptian and Cretan illustrations of the labyrinth and views the historical has through taxonomy that structure an and cultural appropriated the

labyrinth.

30

1In particular in labyrinths for her Doob Penelope Reed medieval examination of see England (The Idea of the Labyrinth: From Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages 192-221). 2 For example (Nigel Mazes Pennick, Indian Halebid Mysore the temple see at and Labyri nths 51) or Newgrangein Ireland. 3 SeeW. H. Matthews, Mazes & Labyrinths: Their History (44-45 Development and figs. 20-31) and Pennick,Mazes(14). 4 The graffiti in questionwas preservedin the ruins of Pompeii in I which visited June 2003. The small diagram is a type of early emblem and containsan image of the labyrinth with a Latin caption that comparesa homeownerto the bestial Minotaur (labyrinthus tuc habitat minotaurus). SeeMatthews (Mazes46) for a reproductionof this graffiti. 5 SeeJanetBord Mazesand Labyrinths the World and HermannKern Through the of Laby rinth: Designs and Meanings over 5,000years. 6 J. Alexander MacGillivray suggests a period of construction from 1853-1808B-C.E (Minotaur 1), which makesthe building contemporaneous Middle Minoan the with period (1700-2100B.C.E.), an epochthat witnessedthe constructionof the first and building. Matthews secondphasesof palace placesAmenernhet'sreign at 2300 C. B. E. (Mazes 13). Thesecalculationscontrastwith Pliny's approximately estimationof the building's ageat approximately3,600 B.C.E. (Nat. Hist. XXXVI. xix). 7 SeeDiodorus 1.66,Pliny, Natural XXXVI. xix and Strabo,GeographiesXVII. i. 8 Herodotuswonders buildings these whether might be semi-divine (Histories 11.149151). 9 For confirmation of this seeWilliam Smith et al (Dictionary of Greek Roman and Biography and Mythology Vol. 1.926), W. H. Matthews (Mazes23), and JacobE. Nyenhuis (Myth 28). 10 in his See Racine's Senecaalso engaged Phaedra. Jean this play also subject with Ted Hughes' in his Phaedra Euripides translationof and also reworking of version of Racine. Both playwrights stressthe continuationof monstrouslove, reinterpreting Phaedra'smother (Pasiphad)and half-brother's fate. 11 The Athenian hero is graphically reproducedin a rangeof ancient frescos,mosaics, Creative Myth Process (cf. E. Nyenhuis, Jacob the and manuscriptsand pottery his deeds heroic Theseus' Despite status, were sometimesquestionableand appendix). indirect Ariadne he proved fallible on occasion. His carelessabandonment the of and is ineptitude by his heroic Theseus' his father tempered this view. support murder of is in Gide's deftly his this though the subverted city; qualities and statusas patriarch of in be found Shakespeare's A Theseus Other Theseus. can of re-imaginings monologue, MidsummerNight's Dream, in Plutarch's Lives sequence and in Sophocles' Oedipusat Colonuswhere he acts as arbiter and custodianof the city of Athens. Plutarch's (Theseus). is life hero's the particularly useful compendiumon 12 The discovery of the Cretanpalaceis somewhatof a contradiction (as were Petrie's findings) as Evans' investigationswere easily predatedby Minos Kalokairinos' local filed Stillman by W. J. A (1878-79). to the referred a report subsequent site survey of "Daedalian labyrinth". Stillman's description alertedHeinrich Schliemannwho See land between 1883 1889. buy the to and or excavate repeatedlyattempted MacGillivray for theseand other aborteddigs at Knossos(Minotaur 96-99, fig. 5-7). 13 The hypothesisthat the palaceitself should be consideredthe labyrinth is refuted by Evans intimate is to and straightforward navigate,as viewing the scaleof the ruin which himself attests:"[flhere is nothing in all this to suggesta labyrinthine plan" (Palace 111. labyrinthine home the the launched to Evans theories 284). of absence explain various 31

dancing Ariadne's labyrinth Minotaur. included idea These the the the that of was its it floor in form that through the place, or mosaic, existed of a now-destroyed etymological root, and through the identification of the "Hall of the Double Axes" as sacrificial temple of the labrys (Palace III. ). After visiting the excavation,it seems obvious that the "Hall of the Double Axes" is extremely small and the architectural layout owes much to the imaginative rebuilding of Evanswho reconstructedthe room from bare foundations(cf. Matthews,Mazes33 fig. 10). Also, as this thesishighlights, the notion that 'labyrinth' originated from Vabrys' hasbecomeincreasingly untenable. 14 Evans' dig and subsequent scholarly observationsare currently being re-examinedin a processthat is not without controversy. MacGillivray, a recentbiographerof Evans, hasbeencastigatedfor his attack on the reputation and methodsof the scholar. His biography (Minotaur) exposes the flaws in both Evans' preconceptionsand recent archaeologicalpractices. "Evans, Palace 1.447 and MatthewsMazes, 175. The definition stemsfrom Max Mayer's commentsabout the double-headed axe, which seeminglyvalidates Heinrich Schliemann'sresearch,and is substantiated by Evans' archaeologicalandj ourrialistic investigationsinto the earthworksat Knossos,Crete (cf W.H.D. Rouse,"The Double Axe and the Labyrinth"). 16 With a thriving tourist industry relying on Evans' mythology, Cretan authorities appearreluctant to challengethe basisof Evans' investigations. According to MacGillivray, suchreticenceis still being circulated in wider archaeologicalcircles (cf. "Labyrinths"). 17SeeHermannKern, Through the Labyrinth: Designs Meanings 5,000 and over years and J. Alexander MacGillivray, Minotaur. 18 This decision was evidencedby Heinrich Schliemann(seealso Matthews,Mazes34 175-176;MacGillivray, Minotaur 213). 19Rouse,"Double Axe" 272; qtd. MacGillivray, Minotaur 212-214.MacGillivray also deniesthat the symbol found at Knossosis indicative of an axe and insteadrelatesit to the Egyptian hieroglyphic denotingthe horizon. This may be a compelling argumentas Pasiphad father Helios, Minos' to the was related sun god, and was Zeus. 20Kern, Labyrinth W. F. Jackson Knight, Vergil 149. Knight's commentaryon and Gtintert's findings refines rather than rebuffs Mayer's perceivedassociationbetweenthe labyrinth and the axe. Insteadof discardingthe role of the axe, GUntertstrengthens the significanceof labrys by arguing that it stemsfrom root 'lapis', meaning 'stone', and forms both (cf. Knight, 248). Vergil the so words root of 21Trevet qtd. Doob Idea, 95,97. This word play is also surveyedby Helmut Jaskolski (Labyrinth 89). 22As endorsedby Knight (Vergil 188), Matthews (Mazes 1-2), Doob (Idea 1), and Nigel Pennick (Mazes 13). 23For a detailed accountof the myth seeMatthews (Mazes 17-22),MacGillivray Charles (Minotaur 25-6), Plutarch (Theseus) Kingsley (Heroes), Nyenhuis or whilst key Greek document draws Roman together that the Daedalian succinctly and sources in Gide (Myth 23-33). Andr6 the narrative his amusingmonologue myth also reworks Theseus (cf. Faris for her critique of the work in Labyrinths 123-129). 24The myth is not congruentwith the image of Minos as the righteous arbiter and law in (cf. Plutarch, by his Hades Theseus defined XVI; especially giver as role ofjudge Dante,Inferno 5; Racine,Phaedra IV. xi). 25In particular, seeMichael Ayrton's Minotaur! and also Danielewski's protagonist Zampan6's hypothesisof the Minotaur's origins in House ofLeaves (I 10-111). 26The name Asterion is reportedby Pausanias as the nameof Minos' son killed by Theseus. In his description of the labyrinth myth he refers to Asterion as a man only 32

(Description of GreeceII. xxxi. i). Apollodorus,uses'Asterius' but I have adoptedthe earlier term to conform with Borges' usagein his story "The House of Asterion". To in bull's immortalised Minotaur the the the mark semi-divine ancestry, was that the Minotaur was destined for the constellation Asterion. This action suggests stellar systemas the name 'Asterion' is translatedby Jaskolski as "star being" (Labyrinth 16). 27Crete hasmany stories bovine for with protagonists; example,Minos was born of Europawhom Zeus kidnappedin the form of a bull whilst it was thought that Daedalus constructeda bovine automaton'Taurus' to guard the island. This device is possibly anothercandidatefor the Minotaur (Diodorus, Library IV 77). 28Although the reasongiven for this it that sacrifice varies, it would appear either formed a war tribute or was in recompense for the murder of one of Minos' sons, Androgeous,after he surpassed Athenian warriors during city games(cf Plutarch, Theseus XV). 29Farishas similar concernsregardingEco's discussion labyrinths of and the simplistic in he manner which attemptsto delineatetheir meaning(Labyrinths 158-166). 30Eliade equates the threadwith the sun's rays and so the 'clue' lightens the mystery at the heart of the mazeand exposesMinos' shame(Encyclopaedia411-419). It is fitting, given Ariadne's ancestryfrom the sun god that shebestowssuch a method of illumination. The needto light the labyrinth implies a coveredor subterranean structure incompatiblewith Daedalus' eventualairborne escape. 31The ecclesiasticaldepictionsof the labyrinth investigated by Kern are visually (Labyrinth). The shapebecamepopular in cathedrals, but can also be found in turf in South American in 'man the the maze' and Scandinaviansites. mazes, versionsof Theserepresentations do not tax the walker as the individual movesto the right until the is found centre at which point the structureis exited by moving to the left. It is a genus that has led Kem to arguethat the mazeand labyrinth are distinctive and incompatible units. 32Seethe twelfth-century manuscriptTheseus the Minotaur housed Bayerische and at Staatsbibliothekin Munich. Comprehensive illustrations collections of such are in (Labyrinth). (Mazes) Kern Bord contained and 33Diodorus describesthe structurein lessthreateningterms: "a man who entersit is find his he cannoteasily way out, unless gets a guide who thoroughly acquaintedwith the structure" (Library offfistory 1.61). 34Nyenhuis (Myth 211 fn. 11) recalls that PlutarchLives and Euripides (fragment) refer to the ambivalenceof the Minotaur ashalf human,half beast:whilst Apollodorus' Library describes'Asterius' as a male humanbut with a bull's face (III. 6.i). Diodorus his describes bull Minotaur to the also only shoulders(IV. 77). as 35It would seeminevitable that the Minotaur would eventually stumble free of Daedalus' design, so perhapsthe structurewas too brilliantly devised,the exit blocked label hence (cf. lived Minotaur the there the and removing of prison or willingly (87-88) portrays a structure XVI ). Gide's Theseus Philochorusqtd. Plutarch, Theseus into house hedonism herbs 'prison' the transforming a of whilst containing soporific Ayrton's Minotaur! (9,45) denotesan intricate systemof pulleys and rooms. Plutarch inescapable describes he how indicate that the to as many of structurewas would seem the youths died from starvation and thirst having never faced the beast(XV). In doing increases fear instead labyrinth. he lessens the the the the threat of creatureand so, of Seealso the changeablelabyrinth prison in lain M. Banks' ThePlayer of Games(118119), intendedto alter so that only the innocent can escape.

33

36ASSpratt inhabited Minotaur it the that an areaof attests,, would seemto make sense the labyrinth, rather like a den (qtd. Rouse,"Double Axe" 274). Diagrams of the maze invariably display the beastat its core. 37Though the Oxford English Dictionary defines 'unheimlich' as "uncanny, weird" a in found Sigmund "The be Freud's thorough term the essay more can examinationof Uncanny" (154-167 esp. 154-157). For a discussionof the relationship betweenthe individual and her/his surroundingsresulting in the feeling of alienation seeHeidegger "Building,, Dwelling, Thinking" Poetry, Language Thought,Nele Bemong's "The Uncanny" (5) and also chapter5 of this thesis. 38Another function of the labyrinth in from England Renaissance the onwards utilised its leisure detract Experience to the thought activity was was playfulness. of mazeas a from the importanceof the form. The Christian labyrinth at Rheims was removedat the behestof the bishop who objectedto its usageas a pleasurepursuit by local children. 39For a comprehensive view of the occurrenceseeW.F. JacksonKnight (Vergil 137287) and also for the labyrinthine descentinto hell seeEvans Lansing Smith (Myth). 40Seealso LaurenceDurrell's TheDark Labyrinth where tourists becomelost in a Cretancave system. 41To ultimately escape the labyrinth it is not always possibleto simply retraceone's footsteps. Daedalus,for example,was forced to don angelic wings of featherand wax to soarout of the labyrinth (cf. Ayrton, TheMaze Maker; Edwin Muir, TheLabyrinth for iii Sadly, Steme's Icarus 110). Shandy, Lawrence Tristram II, the samemethod and in ignorance his death (Pieter Brugel TheFall ofkarus; deliverance through of resulted Ayrton Testament).In Dante's commentaryit is Icarus' inability to follow the middle his demise (Inferno Ayrton's led 17,, 26,29). Whilst Michael to that engagements path his homoerotic in The Maze Maker, Testament Icarus The explore ofDaedalus and with desireto mergewith the sun as the root of his destruction. 42Horace Walpole's novel, The Castleof Otranto (1764), also involves a subterranean Catherine I from in labyrinthine to to the tunnels, the church. am grateful castle episode Wynne who reminded me of this prior occurrence. 43Descriptionsof hell often emphasise the inaccessibilityof the underworld space for its inescapability. Passage those the to not yet particularly underworld, coupledwith dead,is in the form of a quest. 44Geoffrey Chaucerin TheHouse ofFame usesOvid as his mentor through the mazeof the text. SeeDoob (Idea 307-340) for the labyrinth in Chaucer'swriting. 45The speedof navigating the mazeis evident in fertility rituals, especially in Scandinavianexamples,where male youths would race to the virgin at the centre(cf. John Kraft, The Goddessin the Labyrinth). 46Eliade, Patterns 382. Michael Ayrton usesthis premiseliterally as the central thesis Maze". his lecture Meaning "The the of of 47SeeStephenSoud's essay"Weavers,Gardeners, for Gladiators" his discussion of and the gardenmaze. 48SeeIser TheImplied Reader: Patterns of Communicationin Prose Fictionfrom "The Bunyan to Beckett, TheAct ofReading: A TheoryofAesthetic Response and ReadingProcess"'and also StanleyFish's "Interpreting the Variorium". 49SeeGilles Deleuze's and Felix Guttari's seminal exploration of the rhizome and later Eco's manipulation of their writings (A ThousandPlateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia). For further examinationof the rhizome model seechaptertwo. 50The rapport betweenauthor, readerand writer is extensively examinedby Eco in his be this topic with can engagement writings about narrative, and a more comprehensive found in the introduction to chaptertwo.

34

51Eco's delineation by labyrinth Jaskolski, is a transformation of tile of genre. reiterated labyrinth from its ecclesiastical mode, then to the maze and through to a posti-nodern appearancethat is envisaged as a rhizome (Eco, Seiniotics and the Phllosophvof Language 80; Jaskolski, Labyrinth 11). 52The labyrinth may appear explicitly masculine with its animalistic guardian, marauding patriarchal prince, cruel impassive judge (Minos) and its wilv creator; but the labyrinth was created as a direct result of Pasipha's infidelity and it is her daughter, Ariadne, that lends the clue to Theseus to solve the maze. There is also a body of scholars that suggest the labyrinth was Ariadne's dancing place, an association loosely based on the ritual dance of the crane deity, Geranos (cf. especially Evans, Palace Vol. 111.66-80). Furthermore, Evans insisted upon the relationship of the maze to an ancient deity (cf. Knight, Vergil and Evans Lansing Smith, All, th). matriarchal 'Strabo 53This Milton's descriptions includes of the watery Lethe; Pliny, and Chaucer's description of the river Meander and Percy Shelley's Lines Written ainong the Euganean Hills. 54This recalls Borges' masterful short story "The Garden of Forking Paths" (1941) where the text and the labyrinth are indistinguishable: "to no one did it occur that the book and the maze were one and the same thing" (Labyrinths 50).

The Name of the Rose 2 Umberto Eco's Use of the Labyrinth

' Impressionsof labyrinths dominateUmberto Eco's debut novel, TheName of the Rose, labyrinthine both the as the dialogue communicatesan overabundance of physically and
textually. Rose is formed from the memoir of a medieval monk Adso whose

have been observations passedthrough, and translatedby, a line of scholars. Blending contemporary and medieval sources, the novel creates a multivalent space that is
for extremely rich analysis. It is partially such textual overabundance that causes the route travelled by the reader, through the disseminated sculpture of Rose's residual texts

and quotations,to resemblethe labyrinth.

This chapter will

uncover the appropriateness of the labyrinth for discussions

concerning semiotics and, by extension, its worth as an applicable model for the detective fiction. The first of these analyses will examine labyrinths in a processes of in Eco's he device his theoretical the the selection of writings, specifically use makes of works. The examination of Eco's contrived delineations of the labyrinth, his

in his dictionary these types appreciation of and encyclopaedic applications of for basis thinking competence, and accordingly closed and open works, provides a

features determining labyrinth the the experiential and structural of about as a mannerof narrative.

A critique of Rose raises fundamental questions relating to translation and to anachronism,as the readernavigatesthe meeting of the contemporaryand the medieval in a composite script. Part of this process will be the identification and study of fragmentsof borrowed quotations,citations and paraphrasing,whilst the self-awareness

36

and artificiality

interpreter's the further the on which, text preface the unsettles of

surfacelevel at least,seeksto authenticatethe narrative.

Rose is a story concernedwith detection, overtly in the tracking and confrontation of a

in interaction the murderer and covertly expressing reader's with the text. Both of these movements are contained within the labyrinth. The suitability of the labyrinth as a

detective scheme is addressedhere especially through reference to earlier detective

fittingly, his Borges Finally to this narratives and ultimately and short stories. and chapter explores the apocalyptic pattern of the murders and focuses on the terminology of The Revelation of St. John that pervades the abbey space. Through allusions to the Book of Revelation the image of the Minotaur as central guardian of the maze is supplanted by the bestial iconography of the Antichrist.

37

2.1

Building Textual Labyrinths:

Encountering Mazes in Eco's other Writings

The construction, presence and most importantly experience of labyrinths of different

kinds are mediated in Rose and conceived through narratological interest with the intricacies of truth, knowledge and understanding. Eco's four novels may be grouped
into pairs, reflecting investigations of high and low cultural practices, targeted as such through their narrator. Through their attention to complex theological and historical events, both Rose and Foucault's Pendulum can be ranked as high cultural meditations.

Both of these novels deploy labyrinths, though more obviously in Rose through the
library labyrinth. the of setting In Foucault's Pendulum, Eco traces "the Plan", the

in epitome of encyclopaedic competence united with unfettered critical readings, which the protagonists weave a tightening labyrinth around themselves. Full understanding of their plight does not allow them to escape the structure; rather they fall prey to the

2 in Plan Mediations the they an created. of expose a rhizomic matrix monsters

from his his Rose non-fictional writings. and extension of musings

The labyrinthine is a pivotal motif in Eco's discussions of meaning and semiotics in his

theoretical work. Given the intrinsic relationship betweenhis writing and the device it is not surprising that a proportion of his academic time has been given over to its
brief in his labyrinths theoretical The writings necessitates a status of contemplation.

his between distinctions the better the mazes of varied understand exploration to labyrinththe the types three Eco to classical, mannenst of repeatedlyrefers choosing. in Semiotics his inform the and the reader-theory which rhizome, or maze and Philosophy of Language, TheAestheticsof Chaosmos:TheMiddle Ages of JamesJoyce 3 Rose (54-58). Name in Reflections his the the in of on writing and the recollections of its for implications has textuality: Each of his categorisations navigation and analysis.

38

Visions of the labyrinth inform Eco's discussionof the structuresof interpretation and by knowledge dictionary between he the tenns classical represented semiotics, what model, and encyclopaedic competence envisaged as the maze and its rhizomic is defined Reader In The Role the variations. a closed work as a text where the of
author is (largely) absent and there is an attempt to present a fictive peregrination that does not demand an explicit interactive process. The interpretative nexus generated by a closed text mirrors the classical model of the labyrinth, as identified by Eco, as a onedimensional and simplistic passage;a system that can be completed without the need to

decision in idealised is form, An the text the make a while maze. closed an elusive image as Eco demonstrates through his dextrousanalysisof suchpopular closedtexts as
Superman and Ian Fleming's Bond novels (The Role of the Reader; The Bond Affair). Using the classical labyrinth as a model for his discussion of a 'closed' structure, Eco identifies the maze and the rhizome as paradigms that imitate the open possibilities of a

text.

Eco confuses what he terms the "classical labyrinth" with the Cretan device when he Eco Theseus' the erroneously portrays the structure. easy navigation of remarks on

defeat Minotaur, the the that, of affords no after structure as a straightforward entity 4 difficulty to the interloper. His explicit engagementwith what he terms the Cretan labyrinth delineations 'unicursal' Matthews' directed is towards of a structure really
in depictions These (Mazes 184). present manuscripts representations are usually visual 5 but most commonly found in ecclesiastical floor plans (cf Pennick, Mazes 117). The

is in labyrinth a manifestations unicursal the even simplistic entirely as of appearance Matthews labyrinth, have the Academics flawed assertion. including written about who its (Mazes), Pennick (Idea) Doob (Labyrinths), all concur with (Mazes), Faris and

39

universal complexity and confusion acrossthe plethora of configurations that the maze adopts. What makes Eco's definition problematic is Ariadne's 'clue', 6 which comes from this the confusion and structural complexity inherent in mythological root and emphasises the Cretan labyrinth. The word 'clue' is derived from the thread that Ariadne lent to
Theseus to navigate the labyrinth and so evinces a connection between labyrinth and

detection in this early manifestation.

This association underlines the structural

complexity of the Cretan form. Eco attempts to solve this paradox in Reflections and in Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language by paraphrasing Hillis-Miller's also conclusions concerning narrative as labyrinth: as Eco reminds the reader, the shape of the labyrinth itself when taken up is transformed into a thread. Although Hillis-Miller

does not share the view that the Cretan labyrinth would, but for the Minotaur, be "a
his stroll", analysis of narrative process critiques the connectednessof the rope to the maze: "Ariadne's thread, is both the labyrinth and a means of safely retracing the labyrinth" ("Ariadne's Thread" 67). In doing so, he demonstrates the reciprocal nature by labyrinth His Eco's analysis of this "linear" the thread. of words are echoed and labyrinth, again meaning the ecclesiastical form, which "[s]tructurally speaking, [ j is ...

is it than tree: a skein, and, as one unwinds a skein, one obtains a continuous simpler a
line" (Semiotics 80).

In Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language, Eco positions the fear of the Minotaur

"the in figure, the makes threatening variety whole classical which who exists not as a is itself This but (80), little the an attractive argument thing a maze as more exciting" like become the by threatening the and monstrous the paths complex as process which Minotaur appears to be played out in these late twentieth-century narratives about in House Danielewski's its in Eco's (certainly labyrinths of own work and exaggeration does is itself 'clue' the the The that the not resolve Leaves). edifice supposition 40

in literature been has stressed and repeatedly confusion of the whole, whose complexity
in myth (from Ovid, Plutarch and Chaucer to Joyce, Kafka and Borges).

Eco accredits his seconddefinition of the maze as originating fTom the gardendesigns fashionable in the late Renaissance. Significantly, Reflections considers this second type a "mannerist maze" (15) and this gloss stresses the trial and error approachneeded
to traverse its passageways. Supplementing his description of the labyrinth with organic interprets Eco that the mannerist labyrinth when dissected is ((a kind of tree, metaphors, a structure with roots, with many blind alleys" (15). This consolidates a visualization of a Porphyrian tree (Eco Semiotics, 80-81), whilst the use of the organic metaphor recalls the usual Renaissance construction of maze, out of turf or hedge. Though the tree's branches are exposed in antithesis to the usual enclosing and concealed walkways of the buried is the maze, root system perhaps more sympathetic towards the concept of the Sinister labyrinth by Eco's tree simile and so, the maze. aspects of are not reproduced his his disintegrates. Eco By to the anticipates root network, again analogy referring idea of a rhizome labyrinth which unintentionally stressesthe proximity of the maze to the rhizome. This ensures a blurring of Eco's easy distinctions and thereby knots

further the differencesbetweenthe classicallabyrinth, the mazeand the rhizome.

Eco's final classification of the labyrinth is the most significant, and not least for the final determination His the third he this and of analogy. particular gives prominence

labyrinth is as a rhizome network which functions like a web or, as Eco claims in a limitlessly interconnected threads reproduce moment of over-elaboration, a net whose induces in Imes the The an enabling net a of relationship pathways. miniature it formed the identically also yet indicates and pathways phenomenonof multiple and by boundaries by the the meeting of created expressed are which restrictions of space

41

the thread and the outer barrier at the periphery. This reiterates Eco's point that the
7 -j but "infinite Charles Pierce's is study of semiotics that of within a closed semiosiSj and finite system articulated by the net analogy.

Discussions of this confined and labyrinthine organization are obfuscated by Eco's

in postulations referenceto the rhizome's organic membraneas a system that has "no
because it is potentially infinite" (Semiotics 83). The centre, no periphery, no exit,

fluid text allows the reader to make multiple semantic decisions achieved playful and both within the narrative's generic confines and beyond this enclosurein the field of the reader's knowledge. Movement between the reader, the unstable sign and the author labyrinthine figure: feature createsa a of semiotics that is remarked upon by Eco and
in Rose. made explicit

Labyrinths, described using rhizome terminology, are present in his books Reflections he Guattari's Semiotics Deleuze's Philosophy the cites and and ofLanguage, where and defines habit Rhizome) (A Thousand Plateaus; the the which rhizome expression use of in interrelated By tubers. the of organic manner skeins as a network of constructed impressions the of the rhizome with the overtly structured and conflating randomised defined walls of the labyrinth, Eco appears to be forging a contradictory union, but one

labyrinth The that usefully enablesconsiderationof encyclopaediccompetence. is then by the reader the and connotations extrapolationof meanings adoptedas the signifier of
labyrinths Mann's the text. the of at play explorations iTom the created organisation of
P---

in Rose ("Traversing") are predicated on labyrinthine chains of meaning. This insight is

based upon Eco and Constantino Marmo's similar hypothesis outlined in On the Medieval Theory of Signs (7-8): namely, that the convoluted and entangledroutesof the labyrinths to competence. encyclopaedic the refer rhizome mannerist and
8

42

There are clear problems with Eco's definition of each labyrinth type.

Critical

descriptions of the rhizome illustrate that this structure is without a centre whilst, conversely, labyrinths have universally protected and hidden their centres. It is this innennost point that producesthe goal which necessitiestheir existence. There would
be to seem an incompatibility between these two key signifiers at this juncture, or that Eco is attempting to construct, or give illumination to, a new connotative labyrinth. This emanation of a language rhizome complements the etymological properties of language stressed by Derrida in the trace of a word. Articulations concerning

encyclopaedic competence envisaged as a 'word map' (Semiotics 82) display a system that is continually spreading and enlarging and which cannot be understood from above, labyrinths the and so recalls mystifying of antiquity.

The exploration of labyrinths in Eco's theoretical work and its correlation in his novels is not an isolated phenomenon. An exemplar of the crossover between his theoretical Day Before in The Island his is fictional third the novel, of witnessed writing and

(1994), which contains a distillation of the significanceof the dove through literary and biblical dismisses discourse imaginings: the that obvious more wittily a mythological implications ascribed to the bird. Researchon the origins of the dove is extensive,
lasting as it does for the best part of a chapter (344-356), and yet there is the sensethat

is far falls the total bird merely meaning, which short of the discussion of the still dove, idea is to the the the the tease to path of The walk of this out effect of glimpsed. Delineations literature in of rhizome it archetype. an as and other appears word as final dove disrupt the the by central of the verbalisation triggered and sight connections
delaying By biblical this textual importance the denying reference. by the of allusion

43

node it intensifies its importance and thus highlights the vmterly construction and
attempted control of the passage.

Eco's authorship refuses to be limited by the publication of Rose, as he continues to publish and conspicuously engage with his novel. The commentary is mostly

constructive and ludic in Reflections,but occasionallyhis tone is more belligerent when

he advocates a return to authorial importance. Paradoxically, Eco as critic seems to contradict his stance in Reflections with the wish that "[t]he author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text" (7). This documents an

ironic gap between Eco as critic and as author. Again, Eco makes reference to the text as a place to be navigated which implies the labyrinthine experience of the reader.

Meddling interference and control over the text's reception exerted by Eco in this essay and evidenced elsewhere confer a paradigm of authorial presence. In Interpretation and Overinterpretation there is a desire to 'rescue' the importance of the author and thereby wresting part of the onus of interpretation from the overeager reader. From Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (1994), Eco discloses the model of the author whose knowing

in to the the text reader a complicit relationship: voice permeates and seeks position

The model author [ ] is a voice that speaks to us affectionately (or ... imperiously, or slyly), that wants us besideit. This voice is manifestedas a is instructions by to which given us step step narrative strategy, as a set of decide follow have to act as the model reader. to when we and which we (15) In an ideal circumstance the model reader and the author co-exist in a complicit the the dependent the engaging when with reader authorial of consent upon relationship,
levels Overinterpretation in the three the Interpretation textEco of and voice. outlines

interface which function between author, interpreter and text and the performance between these three players that traces an interpretative labyrinthine web. The

44

intentions of the author and the text are exercised upon, navigated or redrawn by the reader. As this intimates, there is a senseof journey (through the text) where the author (guide) coaxesthe readerthrough various possible pathways laid down in the narrative.
This guidance is perhaps only partially appreciated by the reader, who is able to step forcing the path, trom other possibly unintentional routes.
C_-

In The Role of the Reader, Eco outlines the attributesof the model readerbut ultimately foregroundsthe underlying pre-eminence of the text itself.
[W]hat matters is not the various issues in themselves but the maze-like structure of the text. You cannot use the text as you want, but only as the text wants you to use it. An open text, however 'open' it be, cannot afford whatever interpretation. (9)

The reader in her/his encyclopaedic knowledge in partnership with the author and
forges manuscript a pathway through the book, which may alter on re-reading, and in so doing chooses and rejects possible nuances, meanings and readings. The shape of the is by the diagram of the rhizome labyrinth which delineates a exercise encapsulated dependent and interconnected network. The reader continually narrows, discards and

in expandselementsof script and, creating a unique route through the novel, is exposed
"books detection the the text: talk themselves, true as among and any murderer of (Reflections is 81). There the that should prove guilty party" we are an underlying functions level detective fiction implicit in Eco's that all narrative on a as precept work,

fiction detective that the corresponds to the corridors of the and progression of labyrinth. The narrative presents many possible paths that the investigator must

lead down deductions William incorrect Correct numerous pathways until or eliminate. labyrinth Jorge this the where waits. metaphorical centre of eventually stumbles across By 'medievalising' this progress, Eco terms such digressions and variations as biblical babooneries that the supplement colourful marginalia, in recogrution of 9 investigation just hinder William's delays they Dead as and confusion ends, codices. 45

his "Nut be Adso's to times control: of out punctuate appears narrative, which at
is long lingering for 0 too this over resume your course, aging monk my story, in for labyrinth implications (25). The the the marginalia" story exists are obvious as

the digressions,oblique approachand uncertainty of Adso's narrative. It also servesto deconstruct the importanceof marginalia in general,centring the peripheral elevate and
images and clues that, ultimately, are significant factors in solving the mystery.

46

2.2

Constructing Bridges: Translation, Anachronisms and the Question of

National Identity

The intricacy of Rose is evidencedby the guides it has spawnedin both the Key to the 0 ' Name of the Rose, which dealswith the residual translationsembeddedin the text and brief further biographies Eco's Reflections, offers of relevant medieval personae,and
interaction with his novel. The ability of a key to 'unlock' textual puzzles and

is halted by layers, intertextuality the obscurities and sheer multitude of weight of alooffiess of Rose. Indeed, the locus of Eco's book is to explore beyond surface definitions, to exist through encyclopaedic competence in the spirals between texts, to browse in the 'treasure-house' of the library and to delight in residual ambiguity, which in culminates the very antithesis of a study guide.

Several critics are drawn to the holistic claims of the Key only to find the editors' is McGrady Donald intentions One whose pithy essay scholar such wanting. universal "Eco's Bestiary: The Basilisk and the Weasel" (75-82 esp. 81-82) details a paragraph of text uttered by Salvatore. The essay assesses the compound effect caused by a

highlights The (Rose). Weaver by William resulting semantic reversal mistranslation

In Mouse is the that translation, of mistranslation. or menace and anotherproblem with

Rat?: Translation as Negotiation, Eco returns to the thorny problem of translation,

in doing through so, evidences word choice and, essentiallyto the alteration of meaning between type author, translatorand reader. the practice of translation as a of mediation

by This Rose for issue is the majority of Translation a central is caused an readers. inheritors, through from the factors: various the manuscript of passage of accumulation Salvatore's confusing script, to the anxiety surrounding the transformation of God's

47

Word in the monastery and the presenceof embeddednon-translated dialogue. By from five is book in English times this the translation, the removed reading reader some
the writing of the manuscript. All references from Rose are from the paperback English

translation by William Weaver, unless otherwise stated, and this is important for two firstly, it has been noted that other versions of the text are non-comprehensive, reasons: containing substantiallacunae. As Christine de Lailhacar specifies, the American copy has significant omissions (from pages 110,120 and 279) which substantially alter the
localised and universal meanings of the text ("Mirror" 163 fn. 14). Secondly, by

in Rose the translation the question of transformation is emphasised. Despite studying Eco's high acclaim of Weaver's work, the English translation is a ftirther adaptation (Eco, Mouse 5).

Although extensive translations are enacted upon the manuscript, segments of text remain in Latin or Gen-nan, whilst Salvatore's Babelisms forms a hybrid of various " Romance languages. The existence of a translator that silently haunts the text is

in initial framework is the the the translation evident of preface where practice of journey by fictional, the of the text. Deliberate and evidentially convoluted, addressed
framing of the discourse through a series of narrative filters is prefaced by the final translator, who slyly introduces the narrative, and whose masked presence has caused Game Santoro, "The Name (Liberato him Rose identify Eco the the to of as some critics Plays" 255).

Rose is a document that was purportedly discoveredand translatedinto Italian from the French, in a flurry of scholarly output during the summer of 1968. This authorial 12 Prague. A invasion Soviet initiated by the climate of political of endeavour was instability also marks the production of Beatusof Liebana's eighth-century manuscript,

48

the Commentary on the Apocalypse, in a Spanish environrnent threatened with Moorish

faithful be is The Italian from French book, taken, to the attack. a professes which Latin manuscriptwhich is itself a copy of the original rendition of a seventeenth-century document written in the late fourteenth century by Adson13of Melk, who narratesand
in the narrative. The character that reportedly translated Adson's original participates into Latin was J. Mabillon, a non-fictional Benedictine scholar of the eighteenth 14 century, whilst the next known holder of the text was Abbe Vallet. His contribution

was to transform the subject matter into French, though he left intact elements of Mabillon's Latin passages because,as the final interpreter suggests,he "did not feel it
15 (5). The ultimate product of this endeavour is the Italian opportune to translate" translation that confronts the Italian reader of Eco's work.

These non-translated elements cause questions of consistency to arise, as a critical in translation survey of regard to Rose reveals. For instance, a MLA bibliographical hundreds books (30.05.05) that the search evidences of of articles, chapters and dedicated to Eco's writings and Rose there appears to be no consistent or duplicated translation of the final line. various. " Alarmingly, these translations are both numerous and

Perhaps the only hint Eco allows in response to this enquiry is contained in

Reflections where he refers to "pure names": a reference that recalls Brendan

O'Mahony's translation: "the primal rose remains in name, we retain only pure names" ("The Name of the Rose" 229). Adso's closing address is extracted from Bernard of Morlay's poem De Contempu Mundi, a poem that examines the empty grandeur of

Rome that now exists only in name (cf StefanoTani, The Doomed Detective 7 1; Eco,
Reflections 1). Ironically, in early transcriptions of the poem it appearsthat the line Eco

"rosa" from the text the of instead manuscript; to earliest miscopied chose cite was has his Eco the "Roma"' commented on meaning. which significantly alters should read

49

Ronald E. Pepin 1), (Reflections its also makes choice of verse and mistranslation whilst
this point: "Stat Roma for Stat rosa" ("Adso's Closing Line" 152). The use of such a

mistranslation, whether accidentalor intentional, in light of the playful and dissembling assemblage of quotations and paraphrases within the text, appears decidedly
appropriate.

Problems of translation cause certain mistakes or unintentional nuances to be

intensified, and one such glitch is the controversy regarding William's origins. significance of william's The

native land is felt in his philosophical debt to Roger Bacon

17 William Ockham. The monk directly refers to Bacon on numerous and to of his connectionto this veneratedthinker: occasions,w ic stresses
But he said to me, smiling, that Franciscans of his island were cast in [sic]: "Roger Bacon, whom I venerate as my master, teaches another mold that the divine plan will one day encompassthe science of machines". (17)

William's island birth emphasiseshis vantage point as an outsider and untainted

is philosopher, who relatively emancipated from the theological dogma and power struggles of mainland Europe. Many instances in the text point to William as a

quintessentially English thinker in accordance with medieval notions connecting place

to and philosophy, and yet this is cloudedthrough the diverse and conflicting references
his origins, possibly as a result of translational issues. By anglicising William, he

becomes connected with the famous Franciscan monastery at Oxford where Bacon Ockham. William of studied and which also nurtured

Intermittently, William talks of his island, or islands: given that he is an old and islands he (15), describes having "fifty the springs" witnessed some venerated monk in birth 6277 (a been Plantagenet have would correspond to the under rule would kingship of Edward I). Medieval maps like the Cottonian (or Anglo-Saxon) map and 50

Giraldus Cambrensis' illustration, display a topographical series of islands that appear 18 be held in Hereford to linked. Copies Hereford the closely cathedralreveal a map of
Hibernia that is very close to mainland Britannia, separated only by thin slivers of

Both Isidore's and Beatus' manuscripts include world maps as a means to water. mediatethe spreadof religion and to inform a particular view of the world.

Perhaps anachronistically, William's

islands" "my to reference appears to unite the

island of Ireland with England, Scotland and Wales in a contemporary sense. Historically these lands were bound under Plantagenet rule and so were colonised by the same power. Yet here again, William's aside that "[t]he men of my islands are all a bit

(311) mad" paraphrasesthe gravedigger's sentiments about the English in Hamlet

(V. i. 140-147). Such playfulness is extended to the labyrinth as, despite the conflation of Anglican and Hibernian sources in the rooms of Hibernia (311), there exists also an "ANGLIA" (320) in the North tower of the maze. The presence of both places

identified in the labyrinth foregrounds their significance and perhaps their perceived in separateness, keeping with surviving medieval cartographic manuscripts.

Tantalising references are made to William's

birthplace which causes wide and

disparate critical responses. This reflects Eco's conjecture regarding the propensity for in it ftu-ther distort forcing their to to text, the to attempts scholarly critics manipulate

debate. That the location of William's birth is in doubt seemsto be proven by a variety is has he hish his David Richter that claimed monk and an of readingsand misreadings. Echoes" Irishness Doyle's ("Eco's "The is deliberate to and allusion nationality a Mirrored World"). Likewise, Paul F. Reichardt also supports this Irish origin through his identification of the medieval location of Hibernia with Ireland ("The Name of the Rose" 3), a distinction which is confirmed by the OED and medieval cartographyalike

51

(cf Gerald Roe Crone Early Maps of the British Isles).

The majority of critics,

including Pierre L. Hom ("The Detective Novel" 90), assert he is English, in keeping

G. ("Murder David Baxter Bacon's Furthennore, Ockham's and with nationality. and Mayhem") also foregroundsthe Doyle connection but claims William's birth between Hibernia and Northumberland is indicative of Scotlandand so evokesDoyle through his
birth in Edinburgh. 19 The similarity of William's accent is compared to a monk from Newcastle (291) in a manner that extends this semantic play and also obliquely

indicates Duns Scotus,who takes his name Duns from his birthplace in the district of
Berwick (cf Tweedale, Scotus Versus Ockham for a brief biography of Duns Scotus). There is an obvious contradiction in these locations, not least as Baxter's assertion would have him born somewhere in the Irish Sea, perhaps brought about by a translation error. Eco refers to William as English (see Reflections and Rose 61,63,

181) and constructs a figure that appearsto be quintessentially English in philosophy

(Ockham, Bacon) and detection (Holmes). The idea that one's thinking is determined by birthplace is evidenced in the cataloguing of Virgil of Toulouse (311-313), a

it is his birth in in Toulouse Hibernia that the texts rooms: are stored philosopher whose is viewed as a mistake to be correctedby the librarian.

William might possibly have been an English settler in Hibernia, following a medieval Hibernia have been he 'colonisation', who a native of may or practice of religious in (England). Anglia Franciscan the monasteries moved to study under Ironically,

William's apparent Englishness is contained in a travelling monk whose peripatetic identifiable or wanderings and indistinctive roots makes problematic a notion of diversity, is Englishness it Englishness, multiplicity and of an unlessof course essential
vagary.

52

Part of the various readingsof William's birthplace is predicated on an imposition of a

Rose. the contemporary world view onto medieval geography of These scholarly

anachronisms are ironic given the criticism levelled at Eco's practice of rewriting contemporary narratives and their interspersion in the medieval environment. By

combining medieval and contemporary concerns, philosophy and quotations Rose is understandablyand deliberately besetby anachronisms. Such a conflation of utterances
adds to the difficulty of determining source material and causes some critics to bemoan Eco's a-temporal voice. For example, what is perceived to be a reworking of Ludwig Wittgenstein's ladder analogy of language has been criticised by Richter ("Eco's

Echoes"). The sentencein question is in Germanand so this first needsto be translated

by the non-native reader though, playfully, William cautions against locating the

quotation:
The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain But ladder because throw the something. afterward you must away, you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless. Er muoz ir die leiter gelichesame abewerfen, so er an ufgestigen... "Who told you that?" "A mystic from your land. He wrote it somewhere, I forget where. And it is not necessary for somebody one day to find that manuscript again". (492)

William appears deliberately evasive at this point as he muddies the location of the in doing tracing the these that or context ownership of so, suggests source material and,

ladder Eco is Ultimately, the the net metaphor and with replaces words unimportant.
labyrinth, a trope which points to the difficulty of locating meaning as a valid goal.

Whilst the mechanismof arriving at an outcome is here disregardedas a mere tool, the in labyrinth the imposition method. the of elevation an results of subsequent

justifies Eco in the By blending contemporary philosophy a medieval setting, ideas; to contemporary whilst the communicate a means as medieval of appropriateness book. In blur the ludic the to a various agesof the novel's vein of ventriloquism serves 53

processthat anticipates similar criticism of Eco, the accuracy of Vallet's translation is for its resemblanceto later manuscripts. As questionedand Adso's work is scrutinised, the last translator's critique of the text argues, Adso's commentary borrows "too literally both formulas of Paracelsusand obvious interpolations from an edition of
Albertus unquestionably dating from the Tudor period" (4). In this way, Eco addresses notions of untimeliness as elsewhere he attempts to pre-empt avenues of critical

directed his analysis at own work.

Complaints of scholarly anachronism are still

levelled at Eco whose 'medievalising' of contemporary sources and modernising of medieval quotations has drawn aesthetic criticism where it is felt this impinges too strongly on the thoughts of the medieval. As Eco explains, ironically:

[E]very now and then a critic or a readerwrites to say that somecharacterof declares things that are too modem, and in every one of these mine instances, and only in these instances,I was actually quoting from 14Ih_ century texts. (Reflections76)
This sentiment supports Eco's hypothesis of the root of the contemporary existing and being formed in the Middle Ages (cf "The Return of the Middle Ages").

In his theoretical writings, Eco is acutely aware of the historicising of contemporary issues, which is especially felt in the ironic inflections of the translator, who declares: "I transcribe my text with no concern for timeliness" (5), and ftuther: [1] can happily write out of the pure pleasure of writing. And so I now feel free to tell, for sheer narrative pleasure, the story of Adso of Melk, and I am it immeasurably in finding in time... remote comforted and consoled for day, in lacking our atemporally alien to our gloriously any relevance hopes and our certainties. (5)

This irreverent gloss is refuted by Eco who claims the Middle AgeS20formed the birthplace of Modem man ("Return"). This period more than any other, according to Eco, touchesthe contemporaryin a symbiotic relationship. He views the medieval as a fiction. later historical mutable space, perpetually revisited and reworked in The 54

Eco lists lure Ages Middle patchwork reflects our own economic and civil era. of the the stirrings of Capitalism, Communism, continuing religious conflict and class
inequality existing in violent union, then as now (Eco, "Return" 64). Using

Middle Ages Eco the terminology, as a psychoanalytical proposesan examination of psychological site that informs the present. This conceptualisesthe antithesis of the by fictional the translator of the Rosewho claimed his translation was a statementmade
document that had no relevance to contemporary issues or concerns (5). In doing so,

there is created an ironic distance between Eco the author and his fictional final
translator of Rose.

55

2.3

The Case of the Hesitant

Scribe: Naming

Detectives, Fragments

and

Intertexts Rose is a story of detection culminating in a revelation balancing Eco's investigator-

monk's agency of enquiry with the detective overtones of the reader's engagements Cloaked by the the contrived, artificial and self-awarecharacteristicsof narrative. with
the text is a detective pulse; a dynamic feature that has caused Richter to suggest that this factor accounts for its global popularity as a means to transcend the ingrained theological arguments and narrative complexities ("Mirrored" 257). Many paths are

between but to the these available reader, oscillate esoteric demandson encyclopedic
fiction. detective Exegesis driving the the of the text and strong of competence element exposes partially forms intertexts, the a multisubmerged experience of which

dimensional investigative story where the reader, in partnership with William, is in distinguishing literary identifying for the tracking murderer and also and responsible

passages of text. antecedents, citations and non-translated

in Noting the textual marriageof scattered quotationsand allusions conflated a medieval

the text Capozzi Rocco the of and characteristics palimpsestic stresses setting, Jorge Martin Laughter" ("Palimpsests "literary Rose qtd. and pastiche" as a recognises

books"' by "[g]hosts is haunted Rose 415). the Labyrinths Hemandez,Readersand of (500) that are deployed within the whole and which recall Eco's stance that "books
Textual 286). Rose 20; (Reflections books" concealment and cf. always speak of other truly a bewildering sources shapes medieval and array of contemporary adaptation of a

by literary 21 is intertext Strategic and supplemented 66 and quotation of use open" work. between further narratives, and make the historical protagonists that communication fictional. historical the between distinctions the or clear awkward

56

In his discussion of contemporary aesthetics,Eco identifies the postmodern trend to construct a cloth of 'stolen' textualities in order to conceive a self-aware dialogue
containing multiple temporalities ("Innovation and Repetition"). A similar stance is reenacted by Adso's return to the abbey and his futile collection of textual fragments: I

had before me a kind of lesser library, a symbol of the greater,vanishedone: a library fragments, made up of quotations,unfinished sentences, amputatedstumps of books the more I rereadthis list the more I am convinced it is the result of chanceand contains
(500-501). The soggy library enables a "glimpse of an image's shadow, or no message" the ghost of one or more words" (500) and constitutes a metaphor for Eco's composite

text.

The novel is extremely structured, ostensibly as a result of multiple editors and the imposition liturgical of medieval hours; whilst issues of unreliability, narrative Rose

construction and the experience of labyrinths compound this complexity.

documents a progression from a medieval over-ordering of systems and taxonomies,

finally Christian labyrinths (Chartres), delineations to the which gives of early way akin
OV

to chaotic and randomised events. Conversely, there is exposed a nostalgia for such dominant is in the rhizome model of a which revelation structures, culminating

abundantlyover-structured.

The manuscript contains compound narratives that fi-ame the reconstruction of one The in 1327.22 the the in regulation of year monastery monk's week an undisclosed
Prime, Terce. Sext, Lauds, (Matins, into is broken days the timely components up seven

Nones, Vespers and Compline) each taken from the Benedictine Rule which servesto impose a medieval ordering of time. Theseroutines guide the brothersback into prayer

57

location the to and their and worthy contemplation, and act as a means regulate monks'
thinking. Despite its intrinsic fragmentation, the Rule is intended to impress cohesion

through an enforced and structured routine. Time as marked by the Rule prevents deviation, though the flagrant abuses at the abbey suggest the breakdown of this divinely-given edict as a means of circumventing behaviour. Though the abbey's
community of Benedictine monks are bound to the Rule, William's (Franciscan)

is unorthodoxy registered by his willingness to stray from the strict time requirements of

the Benedictine order which causeshim to flaunt the order of the abbot under whose edict he is staying.

The imposition of this temporal system resurrects a medieval cultural impetus, based on

is taxonomy, order and which extendedto the narrative itself Such structures,rules and 23 imposed by Eco, who alludesto the first one hundredpages of Roseas a guidanceare
literary device to delay the contemporary reader and to synchronise the modem individual with the envisaged speed of monastic life, which is both fragmentary and monotonously routine. During these first hundred pages, readers are shaped by the

literal difficult Adso's These to the trials abbey. approach pages narrative which mirror

if does like initiation, "a them, so much the worse not and someone resemble penanceor
for them. He can stay at the foot of the hill" (Reflections 41).

Like the novice monk, the reader is instructed in medieval monasticism:an experience faith the logic, through textuality. of interface mediated and and austerity reliant upon This medieval ecclesiasticalenvironment was not uniform: denominationaldivergence forms a key feature of the text whilst the subtlety of thesevarieties is also apparentin the actions of the novice and his mentor.

58

The older Adso, through repeated references to William's difference, occasionally Adso's liberty. This the him for flagrant displays aware of makes reader admonishes of in his his Benedictine order, establishment a removed position as scribe of past events, desire to conform and of William's incongruous liberal persona. William's physical intellectual force him Rule the threatening and and at odds movementsoutside make a (apparent) in fraternity. is his Nowhere the the this than with stability of more apparent
labyrinth, is through the manoeuvres whose structure supposedly emblematic of the mystified, absolute and closed ecclesiastical routines. His inevitable exposure of the

labyrinth illuminates the the structure as made by human hands and systems of fragility the emphasises of this model as a means to discuss man's relationship with

God and, by extension, the world. It is appropriate that he comments on these most
his detection invades forbidden spaces. mysterious structures as and enlightens such Despite William's impressive reasoning, the murderer may elude or 'out-smart' him and detective by disrupt the practice. a narrative overtly aware of expectations set up so

24 Rose consciously adheres to, and manipulates, the rubric of detective fiction especially

include detective detectives. These its imitation through obvious allusions of archetypal
Poe's Edgar Allan Sherlock Holmes, Doyle's Conan Arthur protagonist, evocations of Compass" from "Death Borges' L6nnrot the C. Dupin and the more recent Auguste and

identified is William Such (1944). as a correlations create a comforting constant as is Holmes, the then to in hero, subjected the who mould of ostensibly recognisable directed from Straying the the Eco of path the employs. genre which subversionsof
intertext intensifies this feeling of labyrinthine digression.

in William's is formulae detective Doyle's appearance obvious Acknowledgment of Adso's (16) (22-23), manner of terminology and also with (15), method of reasoning

59

recollection.

Even the relationship between Adso and William mirrors the co-

Adso it is dependence Watson, Like the Hohnes Watson. apprentice who acts as of and in his deductions to scribe and adventures an attempt to understand record master's them and, in part, to resemble his master. The similarity of Adso's and Watson's
commentary is alluded to by David G. Baxter ("Murder and Mayhem" 173-174), who

details their sharedquixotic voice, vicarious detailing of another's brilliance and their desire (and failure) functions to the mutual adopt cerebral of their mentor as collective characteristics. Additionally, Adso does not begin his narrative immediately; rather, in
the mode of Watson, his writings are retrospective. His are the remembered and

he the recreated version of events witnessed as a novice, combining the memories of the 25 young 'innocent' apprentice with the clouded eyes of the experienced monk.

It is partly the blindness of Adso's narration that leads an examination of Rose to his his (both the young and old), question reliability of voice; principally, whether age intellectual competency, emotional character and religious bent prevent a holistic is facts This the text the the the which stresses unreliability of of case. representation of further amplified by Adso's ignorance of dealings both as a naYve young monk and

(14). fully does he understand not ultimately as a re-constructorof events

His lack of scrutiny and concentration is shared by Holmes' associate, Watson, who is

in Scandal "A In lack the for his short story of concentration. repeatedly admonished Bohemia", Holmes castigates his colleague for his inability to truly record and Though have (162). [a]nd have "[y]ou seen" yet you not observed assimilate clues: purports to Adso suffers similar rebuffs at the handsof William (23-24), he nevertheless design" I). This (I heard, I a be "now repeating verbatim all saw and without venturing labyrinth the irony eventually is the loaded rhizome of pattern chaotic as with phrase

60

overwhelms the text in structural mockery. In an aware poststructuralistaside,possibly saturatedwith authorial intent,,he claims to be recreatingthe "signs of signs, so that the
prayer of deciphering may be exercised on them. " (11). The passageis highly involved

as Adso appears to link the exegesis of divine scripture with the textual analysis
necessary to solve Eco's puzzle. The description of the labyrinth as a meta-signifier is

so full of meaningthat Adso's reproductioncauseshim to constructa textual maze.

The events in the abbey appear so disparate and disordered that they fuel his bewilderment as he repeatedly confides: "I understand nothing" (196). His lack of

awareness slows the intellectual progression and allows William to re-clarify matters in turn, ensures the reader is better equipped to follow the clue of the which, investigation and esoteric argument. Adso's competency is frequently probed as his ignorance surely clouds his vision of the theological polemic and of the murder investigation. As Eco notes, the reader must surely question the narrator who claims to be transparent (Reflections 34) and, as a consequence,also the writer who ensures that comprehension is achieved "through the words of one who understands nothing" (Eco, Reflections 34; qtd. Mann, "Traversing" 137). Adso's blind wanderings, both through the library's interior and, significantly, through the passageof the text, trace the shape

knotted ball labyrinth. becomes Adso lays The tangled that a of enquiries of a past out
in a tracery of pathways and false starts of the labyrinth. Unable to perceive the design,

he remains in a state of disorientation and is still embroiled within the walls of the labyrinthine construction at the end of his life.

to reflect on the drama Although Adso spendsa short time with William, he hasdecades is he he to the that perceive unable nature of the confides at abbey and yet, crucially, does hindsight his is ignorance His William's mission. as not aid cross-temporal

61

know Brother William did I intentions: his then what comprehensionof not mentor's know (14). Adso's do I today" to tell the truth, was seeking, and narrative not still method, complete with his senseof incomprehension,is congruentwith other medieval
scribes who depict the divine plan, and so his repeated protestations of ignorance possibly belie the scope of his understanding. The rapid departure from his mentor

shortly after leaving the monastery perhaps emphasises Adso's appreciation of

William's outcomes. The unsettling relationship between the two men is prematurely curtailed as Adso retreats back to the enclosed shelter of the Abbey of Melk and foregoes the travelling Franciscan life he previously enjoyed with William. Adso then

has been exposed to a range of proto-humanist and older facets of medieval Christianity and has chosen to reside in the latter, a transition that is highlighted by the present

denouncement Adso's narrator's of outmodedrecitation.

Adso's narratological proficiency is iterated by the latest translator's comments which

influence indicative hyperbolic his the the of earlier of condemn nature of writing as impervious like has "Adso to the thinks remained a monk who and writes sources:
in library housed he bound the to the tells the pages revolution of vernacular, still learned language far been have the [it] the and quotations as written, as could about ... dates him from (4). His in thirteenth the twelfth or another narrative style century" go,

firmly in Adso this early middleroot which anachronisms of era and confers a strain
age tradition. Far from having William's Adso proto-modern methodologies, is He

thinking. in of vein conservative a the within medieval, specifically entrenched

Holmes' incredulity Watson's systematic his with confronted when counterpart echoes Hohnes' initial Watson's philosophy of is 'reading' appreciation events. way of in first 1,26 Life 'Book their appears from his which of entitled article mentor's extracted belief Holmes' The that Scarlet". in Study "A communicates publication casetogether,

62

be but in then tiny studied, minute elements of the truth exist a pure state which can collated and understood. A similar conceit is recast by William's comments: "I have been teaching you to recognizethe evidencethrough which the world speaksto us like a
great book" (23). Reading life as a physical text presupposes underlying structures that exist and propose the concept of an implicit creator beyond the process. Ironic play is

between the (fictive) medieval notion of the absolute relationship betweentext created and meaning, and the contemporarypost-structuralist disruption and disintegration of this correlation.

William's sharp observations enable him to read this book of life and also to appreciate how others view the world through their appreciation of text: "[h]e not only knew how

to read the great book of nature, but also knew the way monks read the books of
Scripture, and how they thought through them" (24-25). The ubiquitous presenceof the Bible is stressed here, as contemplation of God's Word was invested in every aspect of the daily routine. This relationship leads Lesley Smith to deliberate that "[t]he medieval imagination is a biblical one" ("The Theology of the Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century

Bible" 232). William acknowledgesthis correlation and so settles upon a textual impetusbehind the murders.

William's purposeful and deductive pursuit of the murderer is in contrast to the old

Adso's reiteration of the observationthat only God seesall, knows all and that humanity in illegible) how (alas, fragments the the in "see be of error world, so to must content (12). Here to its faithful they obscure us" seem signals even when we must spell out Adso voices his desire to replicate God's design without pretending to understandits he is the tests onto William's and reason imposes as proactive more approach pattern. unknown. looks for he Ockham's the teachings William keeping In of with

63

dissemination of lesser truths, read through repetition or luck, which may inevitably
expose a pattern or reveal a certainty. The promulgation and diffusion of truth is

submerged in reflections of error and disorder in a labyrinth of falsehood, which is replicated in William's scepticism: ,the truth was not what was appearingto him at any given moment" (14). William's miraculous ability to trace and then follow these threadsof truth, which would seemto suggesthis inevitable success, doesnot dispel the
complexities and indistinctness of parts of the text. Indeed, the residual ambiguities of

the Rose remain even after the unveiling of the murderer and the disclosure of his scheme. The complexity and regularity of embedded quotations and allusions
in encountered the text encouragesthe process of re-reading.

Re-reading the text is a pleasure not dissipated by the knowledge of the eventual

27 revelation, as the novel remains convincing after the outcome is known; for example,
28 the religious contestation which climaxes in the meeting between Michael and Bernard is fundamental to the story, as this gives the detective level of the text historical additional gravitas and emplacement. Detective stories which 'survive' an initial reading have been tenned "analytical detective [fiction]" by John Irwin (The

Mystery to a Solution). Irwin cites Edgar Allan Poe as a writer of such fiction and this

is perhaps noteworthy as Eco in his essaysrepeatedly alludes to his debt to, and his 29 Particularly significant in this discussion is the echoic delight in, Poe's work.
Dupin's Letter", Purloined "The the erudite analytical capacity of where presence of

30 disguising The demonstrated the material examined is mannerof and questioning is .

is the in significance of which sensitivity, extreme of correspondence question an epistle

is realised by the potential blackmailer who choosesto 'hide' the letter in full sight, invasive The from the in letter searches. police masterful rack and so safe placed a Holmes' William's highly imagination leap Dupin, through a and suggestive of of

64

analytical work, enables the recovery of the letter by adopting the actions of the miscreant.

The location where the hidden object is least incongruous is potentially the most successful hiding place and this procedure is replicated by Jorge's trust of the manuscript to the library. However, this scheme is not successful as many monks

before William have guessedits existenceand attemptedto accessthe library to read

and possess the script. By settling upon the presence of the book, William's

investigations implicate the library. His intellectual conclusion is anticipated by Jorge kill the to who smears pages with poison any who seek its ownership. The murderer's recognition of William's methodology is accentuated by his covert surveillance of the

other monk:
I heard you were asking the other monks questions, all of them the right ones. But you never asked questions about the library, as if you already knew its every secret. One night I came and knocked at your cell, and you in. here. You had be (465) to were not Jorge's logical analysis is comparably equal to that of William's reasoning as he

detection his deduction His sharp and critical mind and of own. undertakesan unseen
during his it is Aristotelian Jorge's his tenninology used overtly confinns guilt as diatribe about laughter (78-83,471-2) which alerts William both to the premise of the

hidden book and the elderly monk's complicity in the murders.

By mimicking the criminal's thought processes in an attempt to circumvent the is identified doubling The his her like become detective or nemesis. may murderer the
31 by Tani (Doomed 7) as existing through intellectual engagement. Systematic

in duplicated the Rose, as Jorge reasons: disclosure of another's covert motivations is in it to "you know that suffices to think and reconstruct one's own mind the thoughtsof followtracking William's to of He model a a capacity the other" (465). recognises 65

criminal evidenced in Dupin's castigation of the inept methods of the intelligence officers unable to look beyond their own reasoningin "The Purloined Letter" (693).

The arrival of the great thinker William at the abbey necessitates the existenceof the
murderer,, as what greater puzzle can a detective fathom than the identity of an apparent killer? Consequently, the presence of the murderer demands the detective and serial further, complementing William's syllogisms, the existence of the murderer requires the book. the presence of Such an apparently simple triangle of deduction generates an The final meeting of all three

atmosphere of subterfuge, uncertainty and ambiguity.

components, which would seem to require the demystification of the events of the past days, intensifies the confusion in Adso's mind and culminates in a seven merely is revelation which not synonymous with "understanding" for him.

The confrontation of a murderer in an overtly labyrinthine environment is a dramatic is in in Borges' the other three recast moment envisaged repeatedly writing and also books in this study. Thematically, Eco draws widely from Borges' short stories
32 , Compass'

"Death Babel" Library "The and and the of especially

His debt is

figure, Borgesian Jorge by the which as a conscious caricature of acknowledged

33 is fiction. his Though the the connection prefaced writer and combines attributes of
by critics concerned with the two writers, including Eco in Reflections, the surname of for it is Burgos The truly is apposite recalls the monk universally overlooked. choice of

both the Argentinean writer and the abbey of Silos in the Burgos province (470). The dissemination historic bound intrinsically to the of apocalyptic culture monastery was Beatus' famous manuscript. of through the production of copies

66

For Borges, the labyrinth formed the inevitable archetype: it prefigured his thoughts, fiction and poems. After his death, he has become immortallsed (or trapped) in a series 35 34 is librarian Borges labyrinths Eco's that was so texts the of clandestine concerning .

noticeably absentin his own story, "The Library of Babel". Borges' narrative combines the library and the labyrinth in a building that contains all possible permutations of
its infinitely books words, symbols and within vast labyrinthine corridors. The

librarians' futile quest, to locate the book that will explain everything, leads to the suicides of some of the more disillusioned custodians of the library, actions that

36 Otranto in Adelmo Eco's WNIst Borges' the the anticipate suicide of monk of novel.
building has infinite volumes available to read, Eco's structure is secretly coded and finite labyrinth. In books limits this the the contains a controlled within of number of duel Jorge William the the meeting of and prefigures of the guardians of these way,

different labyrinths, between the mathematicaland deliberate Borgesian structuresand

the intangible web of paths represented by Eco's narrative. 'mazed' world-view mediation of reality. Eco's revelation of a

language the in the experience and position of emphasises The meeting with nature and the disclosure that the world

functions as an unknowable labyrinth complements Borges' vision of the desert as

God's labyrinth ("Two Kings and Their Labyrinths") but contraststhe confinementand body detail labyrinths his the the that mind. and other enclosureof most of

both in between their final the writers, During the embodimentsof men, confrontation these that two felt: this is "I moment at shudder, a with realized, an element of esteem if had to only in acted each as other, each admiring men, arrayed a mortal conflict, were is based debate their Their (472). mutual understanding and on the other's applause win his for Jorge that preparation acknowledges so much so another, one of anticipation

67

William's arrival: I have been waiting for you since this afternoon before vespers, when I came and closed myself in here. I knew you would arrive" (463).

Such is the inevitability of this final confrontation that Adso describesthe seven-day
delay as time for "making, as it were, mysterious appointments" (473). Foreseeing and

expecting each other's moves, as archetypesof good and evil, they are eternally locked
in an attritional cycle. This deepening sensethat the detective and murderer are equals (469-470) or desire one another (472-473) makes the demarcations indistinct between

their two roles.

Another Borges short story that is pertinent to this praxis is "Death and the Compass" especially for its final meeting of detective against master-criminal, in a pastiche, perhaps, of the unseen meeting between Holmes and Moriarty. Unlike Conan Doyle's

"Valley of Fear", where it appears both protagonists have been destroyed, Borges' intellectual L6nnrot's logic his the villain prevails. prowess and of reasoning are known and anticipated, and so can be surpassed by the criminal, Red Scharlach. The

accomplished revelation is a reversal of the climax of the Rose where, although William's and L6nnrot's reasoning is similarly faulty, William's foray results in the anticipated destruction of the murderer, whilst L6nnrot's quest ends in his own death.

In "Death and the Compass", the discovery of the murderer is supplanted by the intellectual journey employed by the detective and the reflected symmetry of the
labyrinth L6nnrot defeated down in lying he of crimes. a is as criminal's endeavour

fails to recognise the murderer's motive. His fatal miscalculation born of his hubris
his generates sacrifice. Scharlarch's superior knowledge of the officer's mental
(66

labyrinth him the "to man" around a weave reasoning enables

Death and the

Compass"'155). By predicting L6nnrot's deductionshe is able to exact his revenge:I

68

I had Hasidim the that the rabbi; set about sacrificed realized you would conjecturethat
justifying that conjecture" (155). Similarly, Jorge re-enforces William's supposed

apocalyptic pattern (470-471). In both instances the detective provides the mould decides the to participate. within which murderer consciously This inverts the

syllogism that the presence of the investigator requires the criminal, as without L6nnrot

the murder sequencewould not have been initiated, and thus produces an illusion of
knowledge that, through the final revelation, is exposed as peripheral. pattern and

Being a text concerned with labyrinths, Rose is necessarily proliferated with patterns and structures, plainly evident in the practice of detection. Such methods attempt to map meaning and mimic the passageof the sign (between receptor, signified and sign). However, the procedure of navigating back through this labyrinth to its source is displayed as being more fragile and tenuous as the text progresses. Early

deduction incident, first William's trial attests. His representationsof are without as
horse is the recognition of an anecdote awash with intertextuality. (Zadig, 1747) Zadig Voltaire's pastiche of ,
37

In an intertextual
38

Dickens' Gradgrind (Hard Times, 1854) ,

Holmes in "Silver Blaze" and Isidore of Seville's equestrian entry in Etymologies (Rose 24; cf. Key 97), William is able to speedily surmise a situation from a scarcity of facts: to literally conjure a horse out of nothing. Although not quite nothing, William, in a

iterates his diminutive his demystify the to composite of conclusions, repeatedeffort doing in (23-25) Adso to conveys a collection of minute, apparently and so methods insignificant signs which cohere to communicate the impression of a horse. He between halfway found the the "I perception of concept that myself acknowledges first Because horse" (28). individual this the knowledge 'horse' and the represents of an 39 by it is William's is faced much examined critics. an episode skill time the reader with luck, deduction, through William's is sound and though achieved an element of

69

between things, between in signifiers signs and reaffirms part a "non-arbitrary relation
Horse" 7). Name '7he the Caserio, (Robert of and signifieds" Later investigations

labyrinthine language to to the trail return attempt where expose as a post-structuralist

illusiveness is to the to transfonnation an origin of singular and appreciate experience identifies dialectic between God's design, horse The the the meaning. whose episodeof oblique presence is perceived universally by the monks, and William's ability as a deduce is This to rational man an outcome. a correlation that is scrutinisedthroughout.

William's reasoning, like Hohnes', exceeds that of Zadig as he uses conjecture to make the final connective leap, whilst the other man is solely bound by empiricist logic in his decision not to name the horse and risks death for witchcraft as a result (23). This display deductive Holmes' opening action resembles of genius where, prior to engaging investigation he he before the the often meticulously surmises a case, subject matter of

is told of the predicament.

Reinforcing the bond between William 'Baskerville' Baskervilles.

is Doyle's Holmes the selection of and

The Hound the case of of the strongly suggests which as a surname, Comparably, Adso's initial description of his master's demeanour and

in depiction Holmes Watson's (15-16) their of resembles vividly outward appearance

first outing together in "A Study in Scarlet". The interplay between Eco's detective and Doyle's Holmes is consistently reinforced and manipulated in Rose and the resulting intertextuality is routinely commented upon in critical articles 40 about the novel.

figure William historical intended had (27), Eco the to Reflections According to of use Ockham as the detective; a persona that would have bound the knowledge of Roger Bacon with Ockharn's later reasoning and so create a composite that unites the

70

255). Using Name" Santoro, "The (Liberato, Eco, Ockham, Bacon competencesof and such a non-fictional character in this instance would appear too restrictive and by rejecting this choice it allows the meaning of the name to insinuate both William of
Ockham and to intensify the connection with the inspirational HolmeS41while avoiding a narrowing of interpretation.

William, in direct relation to his proto-modern thinking, suffers an 'uncertain' destiny

(498). He dies in the random act of plague (probably in the mass outbreak of Bubonic plague in Europe 1347-1350)42whilst Adso returns to the familial security of his youth. Interestingly, David Richter notes that Ockham also died of plague ("The Mirrored

World"

266)43

implies that Eco borrowed this incident from Ockham's and so

biography. This historical fact or co-incidence distorts the appropriateness of William of Baskerville's demise in a return to historical pattern above writerly invention.

The Hound of the Baskervilles forms for many the apotheosis of Holmes' reasoning

between detective. disrupts The Holmes the skills and guile as a case also union and
Watson, with the doctor active alone in the initial investigations. Importantly, The

Hound of the Baskervilles requires the detective to plot a course through a labyrinthine bog complete with a supposed supernatural hound that threatens to devour trespassers.

Although the demonic dog would appear to be disincentive enough, the bog itself before in its digests the consuming the glutinous wastes pony a pit men and menaces " Stapleton. murderer This organic maze shows aspectsof contemporaryarticulations

directly the to in threatens labyrinth the assimilate walker. that the structure contorted of from be drawn inference is that this Doyle's the The connection to can sole not story by font letter is the Baskerville eighteenth-century created a also name: choice of typographer and printer John Baskerville (1706-1775; cf Oxford English

71

Encyclopaedia

V..

45 ).

So, tangentially, Baskerville is also synonymous with writing and

the action of printing.

The surname 'Baskerville' fonns an interesting choice for an archetypal English thinker. Other monastic nomenclature in the novel indicates the monk's affiliating abbey and yet this does not appear to be the case here as there is no English location of this name. This raises the question why would a monk from the British Isles (sic) carry a sumame Europe, France to more closely aligned continental or the Basque region? Possibly, the is the extent to which Eco intended to signify the connection most obvious conclusion between William and Holmes. It is also feasible that William travelled and worked in a different monastic site that bore the name, though this is not alluded to in the text.

Eco discusses the problem of onomastics both generically in Search for the Perfect Language and in relation to naming a book in Reflections (1-3). It is appropriate that is iterated by is in foreground the title the the emphatically of piece, which and naming insubstantial favours, Critique the title readings and multiple yet novel's ambiguous. of is pertinent for a text concerned with the nature of signs. The 'name' of the title is deliberately tantalising, partly owing to the figurative properties of the rose as a 46 As Eco the in literature trope scrutiny of concedes, alike. culture and commonplace Author His In for "An first is and a scholar. the title point of analysis perhaps the Interpreters", Eco quotes from Reflections in regard to his choice of title and claims that

3). Instead, Reflections free" (66; "set intended is the to cf. the rose of the title reader is in the rose a connotative the reader becomesenmeshed a network of connectionsas
it be Before, Day in Island The demonstrations the Eco's would of that, after symbol

unviable to attempt to exhaust

fUlly.

47

The rose as a visual motif is notably peripheralto

by Adso in brief to the is it girl's rosy made allusion though the narrative, present a

72

(244) language (246), the breath encounter and also sexual perftimed as a pun on and drawn on the panel marking the start of each new day. However, the most significant finale in Latin to the the reference of the piece. at rose occurs

73

2.4

Spatial Cartographies: Mapping the Library

and Abbey

Explanation of, and guidance through, the labyrinths at play in Rose is elucidated in
Reflections (54-58). Eco principally foregrounds, two labyrinthine modes: "'[t]he

labyrinth of my library is still a mannerist labyrinth, but the world in which William

he is living has is is, it but be that realises already a rhizome structure: can structured
definitively" never structured (Reflections 57-58). The interplay caused by these two

is fascinating functions in tension the text. William repeatedly conceits and as a major imposes delimiting structures and orders in microcosm that appear to work, such as in the identification of Brunellus, but when these systems are extended to create universal laws they are exposed as fleeting and transient. This practice of system-making is seen

in the construction of the labyrinth, which is a shapethat describesthe mannerof the in world oblique terms.

William's own pattern based on an apocalyptic scheme and influenced by the others

is Although for but is the the murderer wrong reasons. within the abbey successful
futility highlights investigation the William's of attempting apprehended, the manner of is Castigation follow this formulate obvious method of enquiry to of a plan. and then behaved "I fire, he the stubbornly, pursuing a semblance of order, states: when, after

(493). William in the known have there universe" is no order well that when I should which approach mental a cultivated that only as exists order ultimately concedes
imposes artificial delineating facility structures as a necessary to deal with

interactions the physical world Representations with medieval of overwhelming chaos.

in be this illustrate such intellectual systemsand seen the outline of ecclesiastical can divine accepting whilst creator labyrinths the of a labyrinths. These concept maintain is What these in about significant is life that daily shrouded mystery and confusion.

74

becomes God's that is plan; a providence contours that they act as an allegory of increasingly obscure and underniined in the abbey. Initial deductions that appearto
in knowable labyrinth, the tracing of chains of support a view of this type of present meanings, are refuted by William's illusory. growing appreciation that such passages are

In response to Adso's effusive remarks concerning the discovery of the

in is bit horse, forced William Brunellus, "there to of order abbot's concede only: is a this poor head of mine" (208). Finally, William understands that such taxonomies are

in divine by the man, conflict of creation, and so evinces that proffered with notion in destruction the are pervasive of the abbey. chaosand godlessness

Labyrinths are elevated in Reflections where, in a one-line synopsis of the content of Rose, Eco states: "even the ingenuous reader sensed he was dealing with a story of labyrinths" (54). This apparent clarification really obscures, as given that a single

labyrinth is elusive and richly full of meaning, a composite of multiple labyrinths intensifies textual and mental difficulty. Impressions of the labyrinth loom large: it is

integral to the plot in the impenetrability of a library that is "not like others" (35), with a

difficulty that guards both Jorge and the book. Those who possessknowledge of its library's design, its the structuring principle can navigate whole or understand
(15 8). labyrinth "sign the by the world" of of man as constructed

its be builder. labyrinth Often the only person to understand a would

This

Rheims labyrinth Eco's the a partial is as at through of use understanding reinforced 48 four depicts the the labyrinth of This comers at library. masons for master the model discussing When is the these doing stated. in artificers the significance of maze and so the the tracing but path of labyrinth, considering when equally valid navigation of the the the "retrace it is of operations to minds our William in necessary claims murderer,

75

William's the (218). Jorge's This apprehension concerning advice artificer" and recalls of the murderer (465) and so connectsthe murderer to the artificer; a correlation that Is
extended in Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor. The labyrinth conveys the realisation that in for is begin by it its to to totality any attempt witness expressing a mechanism necessary

its navigation.

In the labyrinth, as an allegory of the world view, man is unable to place himself outside the structure. Such confinement is understood by William who surmises the extent to

he is by interwoven which contained a massive and matrix where there exists no is This that to microcosmic procedures extend allow guaranteed navigation. understood
in the labyrinth where, when questioned about the methods of escaping an unknown labyrinth, William replies that the successrate for such an operation is "[ajlmost never, as far as I know" (176). Labyrinths seem to repel those who seek to understand them either through their impenetrability or by devouring those who enter.

The physicality of Eco's monastic space is a feature of the text that is beginning to

49 labyrinth factor the the that of as an analysis complements receive more attention; a
diagrams the There two narrative. within contained cartographical major are event. Through the incorporation of accomplished sketches of the abbey's ground plan, the

library, lays is displayed the the the edge at whilst centrally, church's cruciform shape focus of William's investigation. The boundariesof the Aedificium are outlined and yet incongruity blank; is left building layout internal when positioned an the of the main Even the dimensions the on outbuildings. and chapterhouses the of realised next to library Descriptions the Aedificium of illustration the excessivesize of the is evident. Sacco, Giuseppe Eco (77) writings Ivperreality whose Travels in quotes where recall buildings "'public document disruption the of mutation apparent concerning cultural

76

50 The use of the Latin word [into] fortresses" (Eco et al, il Nuovo Medioevo). Aedificium to depict the library and kitchen is oblique and would appearto distract the from library importance. The lair building's the the reader as murderer's is narrative
concealed at this early juncture, as the library (as a library space) is not identified as such on the main map. Fundamentally, the crux of detective fiction is to mask and distort the inevitable solving of the mystery and so this foregrounds the necessity to

disguise even the location of the final duel. It is unclear who has introduced this
diagram of the abbey; whether it has been rendered from an original by Adso or included by a later translator to illuminate the relationship of the buildings within the abbey.
nU 51

The former seems most likely as the abbey remains anonymous, much to the

agitation of the final translator.

It may be conceivable, given Eco's claims in Reflections (25) regarding the authenticity illustration from faithful be Rose, the time the text. that of action and may extracted a in Attention to real time displays the interaction between the character and their

surroundings, as Eco stipulates:

When two of my charactersspoke while walking from the refectory to the before they I the reachedtheir eyes; and when my plan cloister, wrote with destination, they stopped talking. It is necessaryto create constraints, in I Write" Eco, "How 25; (Rej7ections freely. invent to also see order Illuminations 179-180)
Imagined architectural limitations are then rigidly imposed upon the characters. These

labyrinth the the epitomeof structuredspace. as recall physical parameters

Although the identity of the abbeyis in dispute (or unknowable),the authenticity of the his discusses the by Eco of construction is to regularly who referred site repeatedly "invented [ ] world" ("How I write" Illuminations, 179). The mystification of the ...

"shrouded by Adso's shadowy many, in is are which memoirs, maintained abbey

77

mysteries, beginning with the identity of the author, and ending with the abbey's location, about which Adso,is stubbornly, scrupulously silent" (3). The ground plan of the abbey is reminiscent of surviving cartographiesdetailing the abbeyof Melk (George L. Scheper, "Bodley Hann" 6) and is perhaps conflated with the idealised but never constructed abbey of St. Gall (Adele Haft, "Maps, Mazes, and Monsters") and the
St. Denis. The richness of the abbey recalls twelfth-century wealthy monastery of St. Denis, possibly because Adso is using this abbey as a holy template narratives about through which he can denote the opulence of the church. Plausibly, Adso's portrayal of the unnamed monastery may have become contaminated with his earlier and later impressions of Melk. Critical judgement about the root of the abbey is clouded by the follow to propensity of medieval monasteries similar ground plans. Scheper's

for ("Bodley" identifies Melk the abbey as a prototype summation

6), though he

incongruous is library the that the and potentially monstrous size of concedes

dwarf "the it treasure tremendous six of codices which anachronistic as contains a

thousand codices" housed by the library of Novalsea in the thirteenth century (Rose 35). The structure of Melk may have been applied by the elderly Adso, who possibly

his life he has in the the of onto majority spent abbey which ascribedthe proportions of 52 Kohn's Rolf Garret's Jeffery in the gloss on the strange monastery mountains.
both highlights 373-388) Eco" the ("Missing libraries unusual analysis of medieval it to library Eco's the design claims labyrinthine volumes of magnitude sheer and of in keeping is library Ecos him with massive hold, leading more to conclude that

itself becomes library is the another this To that libraries. the so, extent modem from the to the contemporary. the medieval crossover of example

In Adso's identification of the abbey it becomesapparentthat the church and surrounds is building fortress-like The Aedificium. a have been added to the site of an existing

78

residual formation that has been incorporated into the monastic settlement:
immediately realized it was much older than the buildings surrounding it" (26). it

follows that the library, which has hauntedhis thoughts, is large and mysterious. The structure rises above him, "[flowering above the abbatical church itself' (37), on the approachto the monastery. During the ascentof the mountain, Adso is "amazed" by the magnitu eo the Aedificium (21). This is a witty and appositeobservationgiven that
this massive structure holds the labyrinth. The presence of the labyrinth is

complemented by the young scribe's bookish delineation of the mathematical

building. The library is then both peripheral and liminal: built at the the proportions of
very north of the roughly octagonal settlement, it is equally and simultaneously within and outside the monastery's girdled walls: "the building joined the walls and seemedto from its towers, toward the abyss, over which the north tower, seen obliquely, plunge, (26). describing When the Aedificium, Adso declares that the northernmost projected" from "to the steep side of the mountain" (21) and so gives the ramparts seemed grow impression that the structure is both natural and unnatural. Overpowered by the vast scenery, Adso views the impressive mountain as approaching sublimation: "reaching up toward the heavens" (21). The sensation is countered by the precariously sited abbey

fall. the threat the the of chasm,underscoring permanent which residesabove

Ever-presenttrepidation and the needto battle the forcesof the Antichrist are alluded to
in Abo's warning of the escalation of man's avarice. He declares man's propensity to

destruction: "[b]ecause lead inevitably factor to of mankind"ssins the sin as which will by brink is the the world teetering on the abyss, penneated the very abyssthat the of invokes" (36). abyss Abo's words ironically recall the abbey itself which stands

is library level, On literal the its also evoked, as another chasm. perilously above own The the Aedificium centre the a void. of around partitioned the are codices within

79

labyrinth, often the objective of a quest and which denotessuccessfulnavigation of its is It inaccessible. is here primary coils, recognisedeither as the central sealedoff and space used to circulate air around the books or as the locked room; an unknown or
impenetrable portion of the maze.

The drama of the architecture lends itself to the detective topos, especially within this irregular and undulating fortress where the intricate circuits contained in its library becomea haven for evil. The Gothic edifice affirms the inconsequentialposition of the individual in relation to its vast proportions and recalls the fashion of continental
fagades cathedrals whose gigantic play with the traditionally symmetrical internal

dimensions of a church in an act of defamiliarization (cf. Robert Branner, Gothic Architecture 11). Although Adso associates the massivedimensionsof the Aedificium
holy is the to nudge the reader with and symmetrical numerology, residual effect towards the unholy aura that surrounds the abbey where towering buildings evoke

impressionsof deathand horror.

The labyrinth

both explicitly works

implicitly: and

Gothic as an ostentatious

fortress in insurmountable by feat documented the narrator the map, as an architectural

Adso's psyche and as a signifier of the concealedwithin the text. The massivestructure level houses kitchen the above whilst contains a mundane ground-floor refectory and A for the the staircase of manuscripts. creation the scriptoriurn, a place of study and site leads from the scriptorium.up to the protected library at the summit. The monstrous the the decentres signifies importance of and abbey the of religious centre edifice is forbidden. The learning in held is tension, learning, as some which education and dimensions the library holds floor are under navigation and the whose upper prohibited in his traditional librarian with accordance the assistant, and sole custodianship of

80

knowledge. hidden is The labyrinth library precepts. a central metaphor concerning as Since what is covert is veiled by the walls of the labyrinth the investigator necessarily

becomesinvolved within the labyrinthine composition, both representedby the library and by walking a maze-like path of deductivedigressionswithin the abbey.

The Aedificiurn

functions as a microcosm of the whole abbey, as it intrinsically The

hierarchical the represents social and nuances of the monastic environment.

arrangement also relays a corporeal separation of bodily and spiritual experiences. Stephen Kolsky, in reference to Theresa Coletti's discussion of the Aedificium, identifies the "cultural, social, epistemological and metaphysical" ideologies

Coletti, by (Kolsky, Spaces" Naming Rose "Theoretical 73; the the represented structure 128). Through his extension of Coletti's analysis of the Aedificium, Kolsky implies that the building reflects certain facets of human behaviour, though his analysis is To kitchen ("Theoretical" 74). his Salvatore the to association with and restricted ("MetaLaurel Braswell its towards this employs natural extension, as progress analysis Aedificium 3), the psychomachia" forms a corporeal encapsulation of human

53 from (apart floor, located to the kitchen The the earth nearest ground on experience. is in It bodily for is the the passions. the underground ossarium), an area pursuit of kitchen that the monks' daily meals are prepared and where at night their sexual
between forges two types The thus is the of a connection space use of sated. proclivity appetite: the culinary and sexual. The kitchen is the site of Adso's only sexual

Joseph J. Wednesday the as located evening on the novel of point central at encounter, is lust Adso's description The 389). recountedusing Carpino identifies ("On Eco's" of ingrained Songs Song the sensual to, whose from, of allusions terminology and graphic knowing literary This 'textualises') (and the and space. imagery further sexualises biblical indoctrinated to of script Adso's use both and persistent seduction reiterates

81

infonn his past and present and Eco's continued utilisation of a patchwork of
theological and literary allusions. Notably, it is during their sexual encounter that the first allusion to the rose occurs, her language despite being unintelligible to Adso is described as "a rosy perfume" that "breathed from her lips" (246). 54 The kitchen forms

an unstableboundary where the village and the monastic co-exist. The indigenceof the
is demonstrated by desperation the village of the girl's predicament. Such a piteous is in existence stark contrast to the opulence of the abbey and the comparative luxury in which the monks live. The division in wealth is made manifest by the lowly 'worker'

monks Salvatoreand the cellarer who, in turn, manipulate the villagers whose situation
is precarious and entirely dependent on the monastery. These two monks, tainted by

their associationswith the outside and the worldly, are 'sacrificed' to the Inquisition in
order to protect the independence of the monastery.

The scriptorium located on the second level is affiliated to intellectual enquiry and

forms a location for philosophical debate. During the day it containsmonks busy in the
holy act of codex illumination and copying, close by the entrance to the library, which the librarian accessesthrough the two great doors and elevated staircase that separate the two areas. The library is the containment and the imposition of control onto a

Eco's Winter F. Michael books, position, the observesreiterating systemof and yet, as joy of discovering new books in a library is partly achieved through the individual's freedom to wander unhindered amongst the bookshelves("Umberto Eco" 125). The liberty to perusethe shelves is rigorously denied the monks, who insteadapproachthe librarian for pertinent books for their study.

for death the revelation discovery for or as setting the The library as the site of a Scheper is glosses a remarkable clich6d. surprisingly mystery murder a sequencein

82

array of writers who deploy this utilitarian and intellectual spacein their crime fictions
("Bodley Harm"). 55 Detective and murder stories use the library as an innocuous

setting to be subvertedthrough the discovery of a body. Alternatively, the library as

place of reading uniquely balances the unravelling of the murder plot and the disclosure

of the murderer.

As the investigation proceedsit becomesapparentthat the number of monks able to

accessthe library floor is larger than first indicated, which casts other monks as suspects in the murder. Given the severity of the crime and the location of the first victim who, based on an initial hypothesis may have been pushed from an upper level window, it is

is William denied access into the restricted recessesof the library. that surprising
Whilst the abbot gives William his blessing to wander with impunity amongst his fellow he William's monks, recoils at wish to gain access to the library: "[t]he abbot rose, face. 'You can move freely through the whole abbey, tense almost starting, with a very have be floor I But library"' Aedificium, (35). to the top the the as said. not, sure, on of

An extreme response to apparently so simple a request is influenced by a number of factors: Abo's fear of the old librarian, the historically guarded space of the library and his belief that books can alter and inspire evil even in the most pious. This is confinned

by his later deliberations: "not all truths are for all ears, not all falsehoodscan be has (37). This by though apparently radical, reaction, recognizedas such a pious soul" knowledge foundations the of theological policy guarding abbey's and maintains strong Traditional for the hierarchical edicts which shelves. accessing order and the residual forbid unlawful entry to the library and translation of its codes result in a librarian is Abo's his At thinking the the knowledge core of and power surpass abbot's. whose library, the hegemony the the of symbol the protect and to abbey's need maintain is flatly "to William doing In told to investigator. from conform the so, abbey's power, 83

the rules of the abbey" (38). It transpiresthat the abbot's reluctanceis predicatedon his belief that the crime grew out of the 'unnatural' couplings between some of the monks, 56 who confessedto him of their carnal longings and deeds. Abo's deliberatedprotection of the library, achieved through the manipulation and restriction of William's investigations, is circumvented by the Franciscan scholar who choosesto disobey his explicit orders.

Monks who flaunt Abo's wishes and so penetratethe library may find the labyrinthine
habitat prevents their leaving. The structure and its additional miasmas would certainly disorient the interloper and clearly inhibit the retrieval of a desired volume, if not prevent his leaving. The codices are recorded in a format that enables the librarian to locate a volume, but as William notes, the classification is incomprehensible to all those do knowledge labyrinth. the topological the who not contain of This connection is

tacitly acknowledged when Adso's garrulous questioning regarding the nature of the is catalogue's cipher received with stem reproach from the librarian, Malachi: "[i]t is know by heart know book for librarian the to them enough and when each came here. As for the other monks, they can rely on his memory" (75).

Malachi's ruminations seemto distancehim from his role as librarian; as Adso notes:
"[h]e spoke as if discussing someone other than himself' (75). The catalogue

describing the collection is incomplete, partly due to the abbot-enforced exorcising of inflammatory texts and also to Jorge's custom of censorship.

by is library the practice of sealing desire tempered inquisitive the The monks' to enter Malachi the to Although doors. routine prevent Aedificium's is claims the exterior is it to this (84), that a means primarily "by appear would outsiders or animals" entry its The by books to those monks' allusions the walls. to within restrict unlawful access
84

from by threat is displaced fear the menace and the unforeseen within; of outsiders is hierarchy, Malachi to inner than to the threat willing the rather abbey's articulate
dissemble by maintaining a pattern of xenophobia. His intention to contain William is

futile, as the old scribe perceiveshis meaning and confidently utters just a few pages later: "[w]hat is certain is that in the abbeythey want no one to enter the library at night have that the tried or are trying to do so" (91). This would seem and many, on contrary, to indicate that the power and authority of the abbot's word, so confidently alluded to
by Malachi, is in reality insufficient to quell the monks' intellectual lust. Although the Abbot appears erroneously content that the knowledge contained within the labyrinth is from incursion, he for labyrinth the treacherous those the safe emphasises nature of

foolhardy enough to enter: "[t]he library defends itself, immeasurableas the truth it
houses, deceitful of the falsehood it preserves. A spiritual labyrinth, it is also a terrestrial labyrinth. You might enter and you might not emerge" (38).

Abo's gesticulations towards the labyrinth epitomise Eco's description of the mannerist

its becomes Minotaur. the own maze, as structure paradoxically

William's

investigations are primarily hampered by the structure, though his later intrusions are made difficult by the knowledge of another monk, as one who is at home in the

images beast design bestiality the Jorge's and the of conflate and murderous structure.

his in labyrinth, Theseus. foe lurks deadly the that awaiting architect: a potent and

In order to contravene the abbot's wishes and the rule of the abbey, William must detennine a passage into the labyrinth at night. Generally, it is easier to enter a labyrinth than to leave it, and this is certainly true of the labyrinth in the Rose,but there library. In total there three difficult this to are few labyrinths as that enter are as are into Aedificium. lead the that secret passageways Once the physical limit of the

library through the the to intruder main building is broached the access gain can easily 85

functional detail deductions William's the leading from the scriptorium. entrance from for the its to the church passage necessity of an ossariurn and a conduit role as Aedificium (97). Finding his summation correct, he and Adso approach the library through this subterraneanpassage. The ceiling of the ossarium leaks bones and down from descend dead the that the to cadavers graveyard above so monks continue
after their death, a displacement that is in antithesis to the metaphorical heavenly ascent.

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2.5

A Discarded Bundle of Narratives: Uncovering the Apocalypse

Eco's monastery is an enclosure saturated in religious fear and hypocrisy, predicated infused is in It Revelation. Book the upon an eschatological culture steeped also with of

'Revelation' textuality, and so confirms Lesley Smith's thesis that the medieval
imagination and culture is a biblical Thirteenth-Century Bible"). one ("The Theology of the Twelfthand

Given Revelation's emphasis of one thousand years of

57 Christ's reign, logically its influence should have dissipated in strength shortly after the passing of the millennium. Instead the breaking of this prophetic deadline has

engendered a spirit of apocalyptic proximity and urgency amongst the monks: an is intensified by the elevated and isolated location of the abbey. that atmosphere Patterns of apocalyptic expectation drive the text towards its conclusion and act as an for in labyrinth. between freewill found the tension the analogy providence and

Though the mountain's summit is speedily clambered, the monks are really descending fragmentation The disorientation into and and abomination. and entering a place of into descent Hell. journey Dante's their guided recalls circularity of Intellectual and

is initial into from is there disorder the the an abbey as entry acknowledged religious

(15). is Loss kilter: "[e]verthing is the the path" of that on wrong world out of sense
into intrigues dishannony into the abbey of this one true way plunges universal

God's in hannony Although the doubt. presence order reflect and confusion and
God's disorder the signifiers of chaotic act as and medieval mind, paradoxically 258). Time When Boyer, (cf apocalyptic plan

become instead A dissipated dislocation exaggerated. Original feelings of and are not leads the to the of novel, a section opening arduous with coupled when sensationwhich,

87

incisive William's by both comments. the young monk and reader alike, on reliance, Inversions are obvious in discoursesurrounding marginalia, sexual couplings and even,
Venantius' Laurel Adelmo's in Braswell the cadavers which as and position of notes,

intertext both discovered biblical down ("Meta-Psychomania" 6). The are main upside for the abbey's chaos, beyond the primal void described in Genesis (1:2), is The Revelation of St. John the Divine. John's vision details the culmination of God's reign from Antichrist has been his Despite the the when revengeful released imprisonment.
fear attached to the Apocalypse, the appearance of the Antichrist confirms a prophecy 58 in So it can be argued that part of that ultimately results the triumph of Christianity. Jorge's invocation of the Revelation is a desire for finality through a consolidation of

the cities of Heavenand earth.

'Apocalypse' is generally synonymous with the action of disclosure or revelation though John's writing has inextricably tied it to notions of catastrophic destruction. Although contemporary and medieval usages of the term 'apocalypse' are negative, it its does its to wider cataclysmic share not appear earliest usage appears that its dissemination Revelation John's Various to and critical approaches associations.

through Beatus have concededthe distortion of the term from its Greek origins. John
Williams' introduction to the history of the Morgan Beatus Manuscript (A Spanish

Apocalypse 11) briefly relates 'apocalypse' to 'revelation' and so too does Paul Boyer,

is hidden"' is Greek, that itself "[t]he of which an unveiling meaning that word namely
lists Etymology Dictionary Chambers The 23). the More be No Shall Time (When of literally Greek "apokalypsis", from translates the which 'apocalypse' as coming root of

59 "uncovee' By from "apokalyptein" to derived is meaning "uncovering"' and as . Rose integral themes 'apocalypse', two the within of the of source acknowledging discovery and destruction are intrinsically bound.

88

Mediations of the apocalypseare invested in every level of the text and so it is fitting that Eco has alighted upon the name of Adso to act as scribe, as it directly addresses Adso-Montier-en-Der whose tenth-centurymanuscript,Libellus de Antechristo, became
60 is by directly This the a core medieval mediation upon apocalypse. affiliation raised Jorge who remarks upon the earlier Adso's credentials as a prophet of the Apocalypse (83). The encounter with Jorge implies that the apocalyptic fervour of Adso's narrative

is distilled from his time during and after the murders as the text foregroundsthat the
young monk, perhaps surprisingly, has not heard of his namesake. Despite his initial ignorance, Adso's prologue resounds with trepidation about the time that is to come, leaving his writing: "to those who will come after (if the Antichrist has not come first)"

(11). His dread of the future, coupled with tenninology entrenchedin the Revelation,
his link literary date As to the to construct a predecessorand writing an earlier century.

in introduction: in but it is his Vallet's namelesssuccessor Latin, "Adso concedes wrote

his (or from development the culture of the the text that the of culture also clear whole further" is here him) dates back (4). influences The even narrator abbey, which clearly

later defearfulness Revelation from the to to of a an early medieval alluding a progress

centring of the Apocalypse text. The journey is encapsulated by the detailed and

in Apocalypse, Commentary in Beatus' displayed drawings the composed on gruesome leading Adso-Montier-en-Der's the eighth century, and up to the millennium. narratives Evolution of apocalyptic thinking is a process from which Adso and the abbey appear

Book Revelation: "'for the that Individual the of regulates phrase monks cite excluded. the time is at hand" (Rev 1:1;
61 10), 22:

in which results an atmosphereof immediacy

horse Brunellus invocation William's the Even abbot's of and apocalyptic expectancy. horse's be the that been have gallop as re-envisaged to could or preordained, seems begins the advanceof the apocalypse(Rev 6:8; Rose 23). The Book of Revelation is a

89

library in collection and the abbey's architecture and pervasive element present
The in the the of the the cultural imperative accordingly abbey. at monks of psyches

document directs William's interpretationof the sensitive young Adso's vision until he
finally considers it as a suitable detective paradigm.

Adso's musingsmake manifest the apocalyptic fervour behind the church's construction
62 his descriptions bound His narrative voice clearly to John's Revelation. as are hyperbole imaginative has been the encapsulates of an novice monk which not dissipated by the long years between its happening and the inscription of the event. Adso's sensitivity leads him to see the hallucination as an allegory of the murders in the abbey: "I realized the vision was speaking precisely of what was happening in the had learned from lips" (45). Such the abbey, of what we abbot's reticent visions are described with hindsight and perhaps show the imposition of the older writer upon the Adso "[w]rite trance the to the to: younger man's and so cause obfuscation of command

in a book what you now see" (45). This mannerbefits John's instruction: "[w]rite: for
these words are true and faithful" (Revelation 21: 5).

Adso's preface is reminiscent of Beatus' opening to his Commentary which is, as

Williams suggests: "a borrowed commentary using borrowed terminology" (The Illustrated Beatus 1:19). This tautological processis a meansto presentthe divine in a impetus denies discourse fashion. John's traditional and unalterable a creative and
instead draws upon the rhetoric of prophecy as commonplace in religious documents of

the medieval period to ensure authenticity. Adso's evident ambivalencetowards this his between illustrates he differences thoughts in is as an old the sentiment contained faithful between debate the the and rendition creative raises and a young monk and so he Abo improve. tension the to this when espouses same to reacts urge alter and

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for His library. the reasons protection of the written word through the censorship of doing so parallel John's warning about the alteration of God's holy word: "[i]t is up to he God, defend Christian the to the treasure of the as very word of us world, and dictated it to the prophetsand to the apostles,as the fathers repeatedit without changing
63 This embittered response underlines a monastic call to arms to a syllable" (36-37). God's light: "[fln this the prevent perversion, with monks as purveyors and guardian of

light, horizon. long high And torches the the the sunsetwe are still and as as these on be divine (37). Word" the walls stand,we shall custodiansof
Abo's belief in the permanence of his abbey is doubly misplaced in both the sanctity of his monks and in the fortitude of the abbey. Despite his grandiose speech, he is

is days that the the after cycle of unaware seven completethe walls of the abbeywill no longer stand,which createsan increasedirony on re-readingthe novel.

These walls mark a boundary, outline sacred land and delimit the profanity that lies

beyond. These fortifications constructedto repel invaders to the faith also enclosethe Rule. flaunt Benedictine the sinning monks who As J. Patrick Greene outlines:

"[r]eligious houses were susceptible to two principal dangers: decay from within, and

64 learning 3). The Monasteries (Medieval from and perceived new attack without"
during iterated by from the course of the threat various monks cities and universities (36,126,146,151,153,184-5,204) novel initially disguise the threat from the canker

within.

The monks are tacitly awareof the silent 'infiltration' of foreign librarians and monks in Greeks" [and] (35). Spaniards, Frenchmen, Dacians, "Germans, an abbey that contains This 'commonwealth' reveals the dilution of their order and functions as a potential internal menace. The significance of birthplace and national identity is a considerable 91

issue in the text as the abbey's monks are extremely sensitive to issuesof denomination
first At foreign by divergence incited by monks. the penetration of their abbey and

William interprets the fears of the Italian monks as a xenophobic gloss before realising that they are really alluding to the penetration of the library by a singular foreign and library (465). Jorge's the unhealthy monk successfuland progressive colonisation of
and, by extension, the abbey is achieved through his power and knowledge over others, from his which stem reading and scholasticism. Such influence is affiliated to his

homeland, his linguistic ability in infidel languages and the opportunity to rob the abbey its Burgos of copy of Aristotle's Comics. of

Despite Jorge's physical frailty and disability there are various reasons that highlight him as suspect: namely, his Spanish associations, academic acumen and his 65 Even William's comical retort to terminology, punctuated with Aristotelian imagery. Jorge's description of the Antichrist implicates him as a source of evil within the abbey: "[T]he Antichrist will defeat the West... and in a violent ftiry the flame will bum... the bearer of darkness. These are the features that will mark him: his head will be of burning fire, his right eye will be bloodshot, his left eye a feline green with two pupils, and his eyebrows will be white, his lower lip " feet big, his his his thumb crushed and elongated! ankle weak, swollen, "It seemshis own portrait, " William whispered, chuckling. (403)

In his carnivalesque sketch of the Antichrist, Jorge repeats the necessarysense of darknesswhich correspondwith the abbey's destructive conflagration and subsequent
Revelation. the engrained cliches of The pedantic exactitude of Jorge's portrait is

humorousand so ironically undermineshis unwavering stanceagainstlaughter.

Questionsof national identity are alluded to by the structure of the labyrinth. Indeed, discussions his William's is discovered through labyrinth's key of the to the room homeland (312), while the confrontation with Jorge occurs in the 'Y' room of Yspania.

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William's allusions to Hibernia, which he refers to as "[m]y islands" (312), and Jorge's birth in Spain suggestthat the beginning and end of the two protagonists' struggle is
displaying in labyrinth. This the start the the preordained cartography of mappi mun&, and climax of the affair, begins with William's native reasoning and ends in the fiery

heat of Yspania. Jorge effectively returns to where he stole the book and exits the 66 labyrinth of life where he began,in the place of his birth and studies.

The climatic denouement occurs within the enclosed room within the labyrinth and heightens this feeling of a puzzle within a puzzle. According to the two detectives' deductions, the rooms of the labyrinth include a further chamber which is apparently inaccessible. In Haft's research ("Maps"), the enclosed room represents the much discussed fourth and unknown continent of Middle Age thinking, the terra incognita. Adso utilises the same terminology when he identifies the library as existing at the fringe of the monastery and refers to its body as a celebrated Jerusalem which is incognita " (184). Hades. "between terra the and edge conversely situated at This

investigations in finis Afficae incognita the the the terra pre-empts room as mention of library's listed (85), including Hereford the treasures the amongst often medieval maps, depict the terra incognita as existing off the coast of Africa. The amalgamation of terra incognita and Hell indicates the permutation in Adso's psyche between the unknown

by is that repeatedlymade the monastery'snative monks as they and evil; a connection

from Hades, Latin Hell invasion intellectual fear the the their outside. vision of of voice his hyperbole. The Adso's by teaching Virgil, with of use classical combines envisaged library is a rivulet connecting Heaven and Hell, allowing William and Adso to ascend

into decent Hades, in demonic Jorge the and in a expected towards the a reversal of inversions. mannerwhich recalls the many narrative and symbolic

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After discovering the beastat the heart of the maze, William recognisesthat the plan he for his I his false Jorge it actions: perceived was responsibility of and that absolved conceived a false pattern to interpret the moves of the guilty man, and the guilty man
fell in with it. And it was this same false pattern that put me on your trail" (470).

Although William has identified that the apocalyptic model that he investigated was an erroneous one, the interrogation of this scheme ironically enables him to make the necessary connections to solve the murders. In tracing the murderer's motives, William re-enacts the method of Hercule Poirot in the ABC Murders and Murder by Numbers. In the fonner instance, Hercule's deductions expose a false pattern conceived by the murderer to mask his real intentions. William's process bends to this plan as he judges his quarry's decisions to be based around the Apocalypse. Jorge finally thwarts

William in his endeavour because in the fulfilment of this false order he progressively devours the impregnated text. An act that ironically is encapsulated in God"s and the angel's messageto John: Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy little book hand, honey. And I the took the out of angel's mouth sweet as had honey: it in I it and as soon as and eat up; and was my mouth sweet as 9-10) bitter. (Rev: 11: it, belly eaten my was The departure of the seventh angel heralds the beginning of the reign of the Antichrist book. devouring the the of and Jorge quotes this Revelation phraseology when he

begins to eat the manuscript (480-481), thereby 'sealing' his own death and preventing has been book. Although from the the exposed apocalyptic schemata others possessing

direct biblical by forewamed false text the occurs and as a result as a order, the plague 67 dies. Ultimately, William Bubonic there these three plague widespread of of years despite disorder between the labyrinthine what remains order, as and play remains a between Rose the tension the is teases manout the of structure. semblance confusion library, the the with residual present in world-view, made construction of a maze-like

94

and prevalent rhizome structure which the former arrangementmasks. God is literally absentfrom this confusion, as William in his despair professes:"[n]on in commotione,
non in commotione Dominus" (493). In this sigaificant aside, William exposes that

only confusion and mystification lie at the heart of the labyrinth.

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2.6

Coda

The experience of the world as reflection of the labyrInth is expressed as a rhizome, ail W from is distinct the time-consummg, yet quite unmappable mesh of strands, which 'nths. determinable medieval ecclesiastical labY171 Remaining 'truths' are mereIN, a I=

imposed fabrication Through this examination of a chaotic conscious upon universe. Eco's The Name of the Rose there is established the flexibility of the labyi-inth as a trope to discuss narrative issues of reader-response, language and episternolooy. Ackroyd's , fiction also plays with ideas of the labyrinth; his subtle approach draws upon Eco's ication labyrinth, detective the the the and of appli I appreciation of qualities inherent in thus the interplay between detective and criminal, architect and writer.

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1The novel Rose. hereafter be to will abbreviated 2A chapter TheIsland the Day Before is termed "The Labyrinth", and yet this is a of of labyrinth The different his from the mazesof either of in very earlier novels. experience finds himself is both in Roberto for the question and the puzzle which a metaphor physical description of the ship that holds an Edenic garden. Like the labyrinth of 'other' Roberto the text the mythology, and chasesthis shadowof of an relates presence himself believing himself to be stalking death. In a subversionof the myth, Eco frightened exposesa and passivestowawaynot the monstrous'other' that Robertowas hoping for. 3 This book has also appeared asPostscript to TheName of the Roseand in a shortened version without the pictures as "Reflections on TheName of the Rose". Citations from Reflectionsare from the full London text (1985) and the title will be abbreviatedto Reflections. 4 Faris has similar concernsregardingEco's appropriationof the labyrinth and the in simplistic manner which he attemptsto delineateits meaning(Labyrinths 158-166). 5 There is also a connectionwith turf for tend towards this mazeswhich naYve shape clarity and convenience. 6 Eliade equatesthis threadwith the sun's rays and as suchthe 'clue' lightens the dark recesses of the maze (Encyclopaedia411- 419). 7 Eco's critical engagement with Pierce is mentionedin his essaysand also by critics (cf Eco and T. SebeokTheSign of Three). 8 For a diagram of this imagined structureseethe rhizomic-labyrinthine characteristics Finnegans Wake (Eco, Aesthetics Chaosmos The 7 1). of of 9 'Baboonery' is the term given to the bodily and comical caricaturesthat augmentearly books (cf. Peter Ackroyd, Albion 132-134,322,342). monastic 10 Hereafterknown asKey. 11 ("Eco's SeeDonald McGrady for an in-depth discussionof Salvatore'sspeeches Bestiary"). 12 The discovery of a manuscriptis a recurring topos especiallywithin Gothic narratives from from her/himself distance the reception to the any repercussions author and allows fictive is factual. imply to that the to the text really of and add a mysteriouselementor 13 In the prefaceAdso is namedas Adson a determinationthat stresses a close alignment Doyle's character. betweenthe monk and Watson,asthe soundof the nameresembles This point is madeby Pierre L. Horn ("The Detective Novel"). Other critics had but have fictional between tended to two the the not characters refer similarities stressed back to the prefacewhere the elongatedchoice of "adson" intensifies this close comparison. 14 This hasbeen identified as suchby Laurel Braswell ("Meta-Psychomania"4). 15 book by Abbe Vallet as the motive force Eco refers to the finding of a second-hand is his inclusion by debt Vallet The doctorate. his to him repaid to conclude that allowed journey Rose. in intermediary the of narrative and as a node as an 16 Ronald E. Pepin's short essay("Adso's Closing Line") dealsdirectly with Adso's final remark, his translation is short, yet poignant: "the rose of old standsin name;we hold mere names". Seealso StevenSallis ("Naming"), StefanoTani (Doomed71-72), ThomasM. Catania("What is the Mystery"), JosephJ. Carpino ("On Eco's" 398), T. Bennett Helen ("Naming"' 76), ("Naming" Cohen Michael (Naming), Coletti Teresa by Lois Parkinson Zamora 175) translations (Key offered 126), Haft et a] and the two ("'Apocalyptic Visions and Visionaries" 40).

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17Eco favours the is Ockham's denved William Occam surname of and yet spelling of from the village of Ockham outsideOxford. In keeping with the majority of critics, historians and the nameof the village, this thesiswill adopt the Ockham spelling. 18 The Cottonian map foregroundsHibernia with Britannia wrapped around the larger island. SeeGerald Roe Crone for a collection of reproductionsof early mapsdepicting the British Isles (Early Maps of the British Isles). 19ConanDoyle has heritage: born in Edinburgh to an Irish mother and a a split cultural father of Irish lineagehe was known to speakwith a Scottish accentand yet, as a writer and thinker, was concernedwith Irish fiction and issuesof Home Rule. Suchblurred national identity is further compoundedby his narrativesof Empire which seemto align him with an English mentality (Wynne, Colonial 1-18). 1 am indebtedto Dr. Catherine Wynne for her subtle explanationof ConanDoyle's heritage. 20Eco identifies the Middle Ages falling betweenthe 5 to 13th centuriesA. D., existing in two stretchesfrom the fall of the Roman Empire to the millennium and a second from 1,000C.E. to the adventof Humanism ("The Expectationof the epoch Millennium" Hyperreality 72). This would place Rosejust outside of this period and hencein a time of change. 21SeeEco The Open Work and 7he Role of the Reader. 22Eco has discussedin Reflectionsthe in order very tight temporal window he accessed to engagewith the PapalBull directedtowards the Spiritualist Franciscans, to coincide journey Michael's to the emperor,and the outbreaksof Black Death. This juncture with in continental medieval history was significant in terms of the growth of the Spiritualist Franciscans and threatsto the central power of the Catholic Church. It also was the year in British history that marked the deathof Edward Il. 23Various lengths are given for this from 60 to 150 pages. A pedanticopeningranging possiblereasonfor this discrepancywould seemto be the extent to which the critic enjoyedthe beginning of the novel. 24Meaningsof 'rubric' include both the rules of a religious order and the liturgical in annotationswritten red on religious text (OED; cf. Martin Brick "Blueprint(s)"). Eco's useof detective fiction in his narrativeblends high and low cultural modes(cf. On Literature) and so the ecclesiastical its 'rubric' descriptionof root of coupled with detectivepractice mirrors his narrative strategy. 25Adso's different ages,eighteenand eighty, when he experiences documents the and flippancy by (Reflections Eco 33). the mystery at abbey are statedwith some 26John refers to "the book of life" as a collection of man's deedsread at judgement (Rev 20: 12). 27Thus recalling Borges' claim that it is "not readingthat matters,but the rereading" ("A Weary Man's Utopia" CollectedFictions 462). 28The Franciscanmovementpreachedthe poverty of Christ and practisedthis theology by living ostensibly from alms. Their vow of poverty as an extensionof the question of Christ's material ownershipof goodsdirectly threatenedthe power edict and wealth of the medieval church. 29A similar fascination with the writer is documented by Danielewski whose sister Ann has adoptedPoe as her stagename. 30This connection is also madeby StefanoTani (Doomed231-232). 31A processexplicitly capturedin Ackroyd's Hawksmoor and in the deadly climax of Borges' "Death and the Compass". 32Jocelyn Mann also notesthe significance of Borges' story "I'lon, Ugbar, Orbis Tertius", claiming that it might be considered"a key to the commentary" ("Traversing the Labyrinth" 137).

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33Various influence Rose. These have discussed Borgesian the critics on include Jaskolski (Labyrinth 129-130),Mann ("Traversing"); Kate Fullbrook ("The Godfather" 181-196),Edna Aizenberg (Borgesand His Successors), Jorge Martin Hernandez (Readersand Labyrinths) and Christine de Lailhacar ("The Mirror and the Encyclopaedia"). 34Both Eco and Danielewski idea the play with of the librarian within the maze. 35Thechoice of librarian is fitting it as parallels Borges' former occupationas headlibrarian in the National Library of BuenosAires. 36The monk's Gothic Walpole's namecorresponds with novel The Castle of Otranto and consequentlywith the town of Otranto, in SouthernItaly. 37The similarity of Zadig's and William's explanationof the horseis remarkedupon by Mann ("Traversing"), Michael Cohen("The Hounding of the Baskerville"), Joann Cannon("Semiotics and Conjecture"),TeresaDe Lauretis ("Gaudy Rose") and David Richter ("Eco's Echoes"). 38Robert L. Caserionotesthe horse is in the naming of a seminalepisode Hard Times ("The Name of the Horse" 5), an occurrencethat foregroundsthe limitations of language. 39Seefor exampleMann ("Traversing") Cohen ("Hounding" 65-76). and 40For commenton the Holmes and the Baskerville connectionseeDavid Richter ("Eco's Echoes") and especiallyBenjamin A. Fairbank Jr., who ruefully indicatesthat 66no one overlooks the hint of the Baskerville" ("William of Baskerville" 83). 41Incidentally, in the Italian edition the comparisonis less pronouncedas Eco's protagonistis Guglielmo de Bascavilla,which perhapsveils the inferencemore than is evident in the English translation. Mihai Nadin also notesthe alterationof William's from the Italian original in his essay"Writing is Rewriting". name 42SeeLillian M. Bisson for her discussionof the relationshipbetweenthis disease and the fourteenthcentury ("In the Labyrinth" 19). 43Paul Boyer setsthe date as c 1349in the court of EmperorLouis of Bavaria (When TimeShall be No More 3) and yet contradictsthis slightly by referring to the deathas having occurred in 1347in the main body of the manuscript. 441 am grateful to Dr. CatherineWynne for her explanationof bogs (cf. Wynne, Colonial 65-99). 45Originally, this correlation is madeby Lailhacar in her excellentessaywhich relates Eco to Borges ("Mirror" 160). 46Dorothy Tanning's SomeRosesand Their Phantoms(displayedat the Tate Modem) flower. the transformations the of f ives a senseof mutations and 7 SeeRobert Fleissner(A Roseby Another Name). 48The French Gothic cathedralwas begunin 1210and the labyrinth was later destroyed, bishop headstrong fire. The that a resented apocryphalstory goes althoughnot through during his labyrinth the by traversing the soundsmade pilgrims and children sermons (Key 153) Haft Adele destroyed. labyrinth this note makes of the et al as and so ordered the doesMatthews (Mazes). Adso's illustration of the labyrinth accuratelyreproduces floor plan of this ecclesiasticallabyrinth (321 and Reflections55) whilst Haft signalsthe 5). Monsters" Mazes ("Maps, in her and essay importanceof this model 49SeeHaft ("Maps"), Rochelle Sibley ("Aspects of the Labyrinth") and JonathanKey "Maps and Territories"). 0 Eco's newspapercolumn has also comparedthe 1980sItalian bureaucraticsystemto Minotaurs. by a seriesof mazesguarded 51Key expresses fn. ("Maps" 14 in detective 4). found stories the commonality of maps 52Eco has commentedupon the choice of the mountain retreatand reasoned that the his integral blood, narrative, in moment an pigs' practicalities of congealing 99

the setting of the abbey,whilst the isolation recalls ThomasMann's The presupposed Magic Mountain (as specified both by Eco, Reflections30 and Fairbank Jr., "William"). 53Haft also sketchesthis idea ("Maps" 4). 54In Rosethere is in in keeping the a generalabsence of women clearly with setting a closed monastic settlement. The unnamedgirl who 'deflowers' Adso intrudeson the 'sealed' monastic environment.Her native dialect is largely unintelligible and her demise is in the novel. In the film version of Eco's book even undocumented Adso's lover is reprieved from her fate of deathat the stake,whilst the devilish Bernard is killed during the confusion at the abbey. Hugh Silverman writes about this problematic adaptation("The Sign of the Rose"). 55Agatha Christie in the her to preface novel TheBody in the Library affirms the desirability of the library for a murder mystery and her long-held aspirationto employ in locale her writing. such a 56The crime of homosexuality would be consideredunnaturaland threateningto the stability of the monasteryas a whole, and had only recently beenoutlawed and so was a heresy (cf. Patrick Greene, J. Medieval common slur to thosewho were accused of Monasteries). 57A prophecy and belief known as chiliasm (cf Eco, Hyperreality 8 1). 58SeeJohn Williams' brief discussion the text in the introduction to his of commentary Beatus' Apocalypse (Introduction). on 591 am indebtedto Paul F. Reichardt's essay"The Name the Rose:The Sign the of of Apocalypse" (1984) as the writer briefly glossesthe etymological origin of 'apocalypse' from the Greek "apo- and kalptein" (1). 60Given the textual importanceof the connectionbetweenAdso and his namesake it is not surprising that the following critics note this relationship: Nadin, ("Writing"), Zamora("Apocalyptic"), TheresaColetti Naming) and Haft et al (Key). 61SeeHaft et al (Key 94-176) for examplesof the text of the Revelationthat infiltrate the novel. 62Thejewels of the apocalypse from (21: 18-19) the Lapidary are also narrative and in for the present abbey; example,the sharednumeralsymbolism of candlesticks(Rev 1: jasper and sardonyx,predominantlydisplayedin 20,2: 1) and the semi-preciousstones the church and also on the abbot's ring. 63The notion of lightnessbringing truth and goodness St. John the echoes gospelof (1:4-9 and 3: 19-21),whilst light, in Abbot Suger'swritings concerningthe for God's (cf. St. Denis the presence actsas a metaphor abbeyof reconstructionof Erwin Panofsky,Abbot Suger). 64Although Greene'smeditationsareprincipally directedtowards eighth-century English monasteriesunder the possibility of imminent Viking attacks,this dual threat is in played out the abbey. 5The rediscoveryof Aristotle is relatively recentin relation to the temporal settingof ). the novel, as Eco confirms in his essay"In Praiseof St. Thomas" (Hyperrealil, 66Eco refers to this senseof completereturn in Six Walksin the Fictional Woods, where his birth back is he to the transported sky of and night's on a visit to a planetarium impression I had "I that the the the was only the moment: of commentson roundedness being his had had the dawn reunitedwith privilege of ever of time, who man, since the I I die desire feeling that that the had beginning... I could, should, at the almost own been (140). have It untimely" Is that very moment, and that any other momentwould demise Jorge's Pierre that which, as this senseof totality and appropriateness prefigures homeland his is (albeit to the L. Horn also points out ("Detective novel"), a return representation).

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67Rochelle Sibley Jorge's in deaths last the "the the can and abbot's that novel notes list I fn To 40, 18). (Illuminations be this into fit Apocalyptic the also madeto pattern" would also add William.

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Hawksmoor Pattern and History in the Textual City: Labyrinths Peter Ackroyd in the Work of

Ackroyd's novel Hawksmoor fabricates a physical labyrinth in the grounds of an is labyrinth In to this, the eighteenth-centurychurch. addition also present as a
for for for the the metaphor city, a controlling system narrative and as an analogy

the passageof time. Ackroyd's fictions shape the past as an active force which through the medium of the city is able to infiltrate or supplant the present. Topics
that accentuate such a process include a recurrent Catholic tradition steeped in ritual

and the vision of London through the activity of antiquarianism. Thematic demonstrates delineation labyrinthine Ackroyd's in writings a of consistency
terminology which exists across his fictional, biographical and non-fictional

inclination ideas English Given his to the of nationhood and extrapolate writings.
imagination, the persistence of the labyrinth trope would tend to stress its importance in the English canon.

An examination of Hawksmoor will focus on the intertextual and historical folds demonstrate Analyses the by the will sources. and caused overlap of narratives labyrinthine movement that Ackroyd employs to discussthe historical renewalsof London. Commentary on the city foregrounds the correlation of different

Tondons' where the experienceof the city is viewed through circular repetition and the re-enactment of crucial events.

documenting in two chapters, The labyrinth formation is emphasised the opening locale, textual Spitalfields a used as motif Hill and the the death of Thomas at the and eighteenthcontemporary The across sensiti%ities throughout. network of

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century narratives is analysedthrough the effect of the churchesupon the onlooker, by behaviour especially the of each victim who surrendersto the pattern imposed the murderer, Nicholas Dyer. Crucial to this discussion is the idea of the city as a tissue of historical narratives.

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3.1 The Forest and the City:

Labyrinths

in Ackroyd's

Fiction

and the

Location of an English Imagination

Physical encounters with labyrinths in Ackroyd's fiction are realised in two determinate groups. There is the forest or tangled wood, an untamed area that threatensto mislead or engulf The journey into this heart of darknessis evidenced by Milton's blind wanderings in the uncultivated paradiseof Ackroyd's Milton in
America (1997), in a comparable experience of Dante's descent in the Inferno (1314). Second, and most significant for this study, is the representation of the

labyrinth as an architectural composition, either as the construction of an building, house ecclesiastical as a or city enviromnent. These types are divided betweenthe natural and the manmadeand parallel possible distinctions concerning
the composition of the maze and the labyrinth. This secondary grouping is possibly

more obviously labyrinthine as the architectural construction or resulting street

is imposed landscape. Such designation the a effectively patterning artificially on

individual Treatment through the the multiple or crowd routes. guides movementof firstly, in here; Milton be briefly the topos these two maze considered of modeswill before the analysesconcentrateupon the labyrinthine in America will be addressed
in found Ackroyd's city novels. commonalities

The encounterwith the mazy dimensionsof the forest is a common trope to convey human bewilderment in nature. This process is highlighted in Dante's Inferno in "I his decrying to begins a situation: came myself which with the protagonist dark wood, for the straight way was lost" (1.1-3). For Dante the loss of the path Like initiation into hell the twisted through descent pathway. and preludes his Eco's exploration of labyrinths in Rose, Ackroyd manipulates the contradiction

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between the labyrinth as constructed by God and its metonymy evident in the devil's intentions. Frustrating or fearful encounterswithin woodland perhapsrecall a pre-historic relationship with nature as representativeof the unknown at the edge habitats has The to the the of village. growth of city caused natural woodland shrink and so it seemsproper that the remaining forest should unsettle modem from her/him lose her/his bearings, to causing adrift civilisation and wo/man, susceptibleto the treacherous pathwaysthrough the trees. Despite the terror of the unknown, the description of the woodland as a maze acts as an implicit reformation God's it design though the of unseen which, not revealed, reassures walker, as the presenceof a creator,guide and an overarchingpattern. supposes

Appropriately, the labyrinth in Ackroyd's Milton incorporates John Milton's

in America syrnpathetically

labyrinthine from his the epic poem application of

Paradise Lost. Ackroyd's Milton is a cun-nudgeonly old man who leaves England

in fear of the wrath of the newly returned king (1660). Instead of writing his epic Paradise Lost (1688), he embarks on an odyssey into the recently colonised
America. Impressions of the labyrinth are implied through ideas of creation,

in New England the setting. navigation and guidance

For Ackroyd's Milton the perils of the forest act as a metaphorfor the difficult path lost I (198). The dark "[fln this the my way" maze world wood of ahead,where in troubled threatens to engulf the an attempt to tame the protagonist who for demonstrates trees. especially growing apple gardening, a propensity wilderness When in this Edenic and cultivated comer of North America, Milton is confronted by a snake,describedin Paradise Lost as contorting its body into a maze-like figure (IX. 181,497-498). The poet beratesthe serpentin labyrinthine terminology: "[y]ou

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labyrinth of many rounds self-rolled!" (Milton 123). This episode maintains a from line Indeed, image transposed between the the two works. is consistencyof Milton's poem, where the description of the serpent is of a "labyrinth of many a between (IX. 181). The the serpentas symbol of evil round self-rowld" association is labyrinth in (56). Hawksmoor the and reprised

The maze also functions as an analogy for the complexity of Milton himself who

he has I (276). I This that claims am a swamp. am a maze" suggests unfathomable dimensionswhich threatento forcibly integrate or entrap those who encounterhim. Although mazes and swampscan sharea common attribute of disorientation, they idea distinctions. incorporates have The the also marked mazecovertly of a creator
has form, is the constructed who whilst a swamp solely natural and overtly more

dangerous. Bogs have sometimes trapped and destroyed the more foolhardy ' explorer, preservingthe body, whilst the mazetendsto confound and confuseonly.
Although it is Milton who is morally adrift, by referring to these entities he equates

disorientation himself with the mechanisms and also preservation. of

The semantic association with Paradise Lost is sustained as Milton becomes in "wander'ng fallen Adwn's in to steps state, staggeralone reduced, a pastiche of 648): (XII. slow" and Dark. Dark. Dark. Dark still. This is the end. This is the beginning of all dark through blind the The man wandered aheadand, weeping, our woe. (277) his took solitary way. wood Such movement at the climax of the novel recordsthe return to the beginning of the labyrinth. The project of hope and knowledge, inherent in the adventure to the is by Goosequill, discovered land and contained within the character of replaced Milton. Though blindness literal in ignorance the of encapsulated negativity and

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this episode forms the final words of the book, it is a repeatedevent from Milton's time in the forest. The uncertainty and shamefelt here are replaced upon his return by absolutism and a determination to mould the colony in his own image. Milton himself places outside the natural maze, as he intends to act as an 'architect' and constructthe civilisation on his terms.

Milton in America and First Light (1989) are atypical of Ackroyd's writings as they are not predominantly set in London.
2

This is unusual as the writer's theme of

expressing Englishness is primarily channelled through poets, artists, writers and

bound to the city of London. The focus on the city as a filter for an philosophers English imagination is articulated in his works of non-fiction such as London: The
Biography (2000) and Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination (2002); in his lectures "The Englishness of English Literature" (The Collection 2001,328-340)

"London Luminaries and Cockney Visionaries" (Collection 341-351); and and

especially in his biographies on T S. Eliot (1984), Dickens (1990), Blake (1995) and

TheLife of ThomasMore (1998).

Ackroyd's writing is directed towards the encounterwith the city, to its effect on the inhabitant and the layers of meaning createdthrough the interaction of individuals habit The the time. of travelling through London and city spaceover a period of fog is fraught its is thickening that with an exercise many alleyways and with difficulty. This fog is typically associatedwith the nineteenth century where a

combination of pollution and atmosphericphenomenacaused"peasoupers"whose thicknessdefamilarized the terrain of the city. Experienceof London fog is realised to great effect in Richard Harding's short story "In the Fog" (Victorian Villainies 1901). The transforniative fog invades the urban expanse and the corporeal

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is House Londoners in Bleak Dickens' the evocatively sensations of opening of

realisedin Dan Leno and the LimehouseGolem (1994).

Ackroyd's delight in Dickens is reiterated in his canonical views and in his biography of the writer. His novel The Great Fire of London (1982) consciously Dickens' intertext. Little discussing Dorrit When Dickens on BBC adopts as an Radio Four's Book Club, Ackroyd recalledthat the author would attempt to produce image an of the city of London in its entirety; whilst in his own thinking he identifies implausibility its the consciously creating of such a city, as real
counterpart is experiencing perpetual change and upheaval. In a gesture that

deliberately rejects a Dickensian appreciation of London, Ackroyd concentrates on locality London a precise which may or may not reflect on more generic questions relating to the capital collectively. This allows the juxtaposition of the amorphous

intangible boundaries and of the physical London against the 'idea' of London, is which also unstablebut continuesto be reformed and envisaged,especially in the Ackroyd. work of

In Ackroyd's The Great Fire of London, Hawksmoor, Chatterton (1987), Dan Leno House Dee (1993) (1992), The Music Golem, English Limehouse the and ofDr. and The Clerkenwell Tales (2003) a specific locale in London is reproduced. TheHouse Dan Leno Clerkenwell from inspiration its Dr. Dee the takes and the areawhilst of Limehouse Golem, as the name suggests,concerns the Limehouse district of the de fin the capital at sikle. Ackroyd once again returns to this vicinity in

Hawksmoor and so createshis own literary palimpsest through engagements with both momentous and inconsequentialhistorical events which are then overlaid in be Ackroyd Clerkenwell, In to his the seems the course of streetsof own writings.

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drawing his own mystical centre, combining English creativity prevalent within the urban spacewith a topology of gratuitousmurder.

Discussionof London in Ackroyd's recent biography of the capital centresupon the labyrinthine labyrinth text needed to the the necessarily notion of and city as a describeand evoke such an entity (London 2). This reading is restricted mainly to the first person introduction, as the remainder of the book fails to take up this thread. The connectionbetweenthe city, labyrinth and the individual is a personal one, as it is limited to the introduction and made by the author. This compounds
Ackroyd's argument that the city cannot be visualised in its entirety as, like the

labyrinth, it obfuscates and dissembles and so prevents an optical view of the its descriptions Ackroyd's comprehensivesum of of the city are maze-like parts.
illustrate the snarled and partially organic outline of streets. and Ultimately,

Hawksmoor's London recalls the labyrinth: from the experience of the walker, the

figure lurking through to the the appreciationof sinister city and church structure, design. the within

The city as unknowable labyrinth collapsesto reveal a multitude of minor mazes through which literary and historical associations create a fluid temporality. Clerkenwell and the areaof Whitechapel are frequently documentedas sites which have retained notoriety as the murderous territory of the nineteenth-century'Jack the Ripper' (1888-1891) and also the lesser known Ratcliffe Highway slayings (1811). Consequently,this areaof London appearsto breed violence. The cyclical initiation of destructive acts recalls the regularity of the Athenian tribute whilst the for its These fulfil Minotaurs thirst labyrinth to sacrifice. murders city createsnew interaction the to with the city space are elevated ritualistic slayings, whereby

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instigates a murderous imperative. In this masque,the individual adopts the role that best fits her/him.

Ackroyd in his non-fictional work arguesthat this palimpsestic quality is inherent to the city and henceinforms and affects the contemporary. When discussingthe Jack the Ripper murders he suggests thesesavagekillings re-awakenedthe occult in this part of London, or rather that an unseenpattern was residual and merely re-imposed itself. "[t]he essential paganism of London here reasserteditself' (London 273). This act would seem to suggest that despite the obvious sense of change and
transformation experienced within any city there is an underlying permanence, and

in teleology, even present the maintenance of the buildings of Ackroyd's London.

Graphic enactments of city perambulationdenotea repetitious city spacethat exists

The Hawksmoor, Nicholas temporal across sites. eighteenth-century protagonist of Dyer, frequently wanders the roads that connect his lodgings, and the building

in beast his territory or enclosure. To trace that the walking works an action mirrors his steps today along Newgate to Cheapsideand beyond towards Spitalfields and Clerkenwell is to encounter a diverse panoramaof buildings ostensibly stretching
from the Renaissance to the contemporary. From the sixteenth-century buildings at

the end of Chancery Lane (some of the few wooden buildings spared the fire of 1666), past St. Sepulchreand the Old Bailey, by the site of the notorious Newgate Street Bread Threadneedle and prison, through to the medieval street-namesof Street, the architecture and street-names speak of the present and the past. Interspersedalong the route are modem architectural edifices coupled with Wren's in City the to Hawksmoor's where churchesand cathedral,growing a crescendo and Norman Building (1986) Lloyds the industrial soaring glassy curves of the and

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Foster's Swiss Re construction (2004) dominate.

This short walk visually

documents some four hundred years of building practice in a chronology of It facades by that and originality. structures are marked their continuity of striking does not seem surprising that this locality bred and fed the imaginations of More, Hogarth, Blake, Dickens and Turner and so is tied to Ackroyd's notion of a
3 continuity of aitistry and place.

Ackroyd's narratives are concerned with locating a "visionary" lineage of English

artificers who, through their collective achievements,add to the richness of the

English imagination. In his musings about an English imagination, Ackroyd

distinguishesa canon of writers whose work is bom out of the capital and whose inspirational impulse is createdby, and is analogouswith, the city. The work of these practitioners through their poetry, fiction, biography and art sustains Ackroyd's argumentof an underlying GenisLoci of the British Isles and one which
impetus. the combines a senseand a spirit of place with creative

Ackroyd identifies the creative force as being containedand intensified around the City region of London in an areafrequentedby artists and the literary custodiansof his English tradition. Theseauthorsare scrutinisedin his biographies Chaucer (see in forthcoming Great), Eliot TS. (see Dickens Clerkenwell), Blake, the and also also Shakespeare (see also The Lambs of London, 2004). Ackroyd also finds supporting Nikolaus Pevsner, Albion (cf. London, Hogarth in and seealso evidence the work of TheEnglishnessofEnglish Art 1956),Chatterton(Chatterton), Dr. Dee (House) and Oscar Testament The Last Leno Dan (cf Leno Dan of and the music hall performer, Wilde 1984). While accepting that Virginia Woolf s writing can be considered 1925), Ackroyd Dalloway (Mrs London visionary and concerned with the city of

III

London her in these to the same mode as seemsreluctant consider other writings "vital identifies Susana Onega him the visionaries. on this point when she pushes total absence of women" in his proposed English tradition ("Interview" 216). Ackroyd has since contributed to Jeanette Winterson's commission of Virginia
Woolf introductions for Vintage. His essay on Woolf s Orlando: A Biography

(1928) is ironically the text Onega proposes as being potentially pertinent to his discussionsof the English imagination.

Though Ackroyd claims to shun contemporary fiction (Onega, "Interview" 6), he has his for the writer Iain Sinclair. Like Ackroyd, nonetheless voiced respect
Sinclair draws upon the effects of the city and this is particularly felt in his 'novels',

Lud Heat (1975), Suicide Bridge (1979) and White Chappel, Scarlet Tracings
(1987). These books incorporate multiple discourses to emphasise the difficulty of articulating the city and accessthe past through a fractured present. His influence,

and especially the inspiration of Lud Heat, is emphasisedby Ackroyd in his is discussed in Hawksmoor Julian Wolfreys' acknowledgementswithin and also interview with Ackroyd ("Imagining the Labyrinth"). Likewise, Onegabegins her
discussion of Hawksmoor through reference to Sinclair and his book Lud Heat (Peter A ckroyd 43-44).

Ackiroyd's visionary heritage (New As Will Self s review of London emphasises, Statesman,16 Oct 2000) is a canonical configuration of traditional male English figures with some noticeable absences and silences. These include fleeting from literary little female production away emphasis on writers, references to London and the exclusion of writers from Scotland and Wales, who whilst living island. After the England, same are neverthelesscontained within outside of

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fashioning a similar project, Pevsnerrefers to the paradox at the core of any attempt to restrict thinking about Englishnessand culture to just England and, in doing so, in Ackroyd, Wales. Scotland the contrast, acknowledges and role of marginalised for historical Albion, to talk passage prefers of a name that recalls a mythical and England and so ignores the margins of the country. This decision results in a South, focalizer is fed the the through and of centralised source of analysis which especiallythrough London.

In Albion and his lectures, Ackroyd presents a thesis that identifies the bond betweenvisionary genius and location. Commonality, from within this perspective, in by Dickens termed relies upon a generalartistic emphasis,rooted eclecticism and bacon" however, (cf 230-238). Ackroyd, -streaky "And Now" Albion, refers to as
the phenomenon as prevalent "heterogeneity" ("The Englishness of English Literature" 333-334,338). Through his establishment of heterogeneity as a

factor common of English writing, Ackroyd refutes the contemporarytag attached to postmodernism. Instead,he highlights an historic and enduring trend of play and
fragmented genre present in early novels and poems (cf "Englishness" 333-334).

'Englishness' for Ackroyd is createdby the synthesisof literature, art and music. This meeting and interplay of genre, as emblematic of an eccentric native corpus, Origins book Albion: The Ackroyd's the of the recent of argument exists as central found Ackroyd English Imagination. The multitude of discourses, poemsand songs in Sidney's Arcadia (cf "Englishness" 334) are sympathetically incorporated in English Music, Hawbnioor and in his biography of Blake, whom he refers to as a in universal man, versed poetry, song, engraving and painting.

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Despite the interdisciplinary inclusiveness of this model, the evaluation of Englishness for Ackroyd is pivotally a literary one which hinges aroun writers fiction is primarily concernedwith, or produced in, an urban environment. whose Fundamentallyfor Ackroyd, perhapsowing to his origins and time spent within the factor is follows London. He the traits that transcend time and capital, crucial distinguishescommon featuresthat denote "Londoners of all times and all periods" (Blake 22-23). These include an innate mysticism linked to England's submerged 6 5a Catholic past, delight in London antiquarianism and, in the hybridism of high 7 low and cultural modes;the unity of folk songs,poetry and music hall songs.

Thesemotifs are presentin Hawksmoor although surprisingly, given its eighteenthis between Catholicism largely Protestantism tension century setting, religious and

intensifies Glinert he Ed dissension this notion of religious specifies absent. when

that Hawksmoor's churches were commissioned by the government as a method "of

taking Anglicanism to areas that were rife with dissent" (London Compendium 316). Dyer's religion ignores this historical mechanismand instead aligns itself

in its Christian that schism essentially eradicates with a primitive pre-Christianity fundamental attack on the locus of Christianity and the scientific. The historical frame allows Ackroyd to juxtapose the foundations and inheritance of the British Enlightenment and its conflicts with occult behaviours which hold a-temporal Ackroyd's This timeframes. the emphasises contestation senseof meaningsacross by its English both suppression the continuity of artistic expressionand writing of rationalising mechanisms.

dependent type He recognisesthe multiplicity of the eighteenth-centurynovel as a "[ajt the time the the greatest city's of city: the of eclecticism vibrant upon

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links Such the 327). is (Albion the connect expansion, novel endlessly prolific" This development the the prolix city city. novel's growth with of alteration and growth emphasisesthe heterogeneity of the urban space as an ever-changing historical palimpsest of competing markers. Despite the careful conflation of historical documents to apportion different timeframes in his fiction, Ackroyd deconstructs the differencesthat keep them separate and so causescommonality and boundary. He to the the temporal resemblance unsettle notion of relates the in during this technique physical processof a an anecdoteof evening reposewhen, into Street Liverpool through the the the transforms stroll area of city, evening a historical in "Broadgate, time: the early evening,containedmany times, spectacleof
like currents of air invisibly mingling" (London 778). These historical layers

for the text, those sensitive enough to read the emphasise city as especially

culmination.

Underpinning the fluidity of time is the establishmentwithin Ackroyd's flctions of is in interweaves This historic the timeframe that with present. achieved an
Hawksmoor by the interplay of the current with the eighteenth century. In this

dialectic, the significance arguably falls upon the chapters set in the eighteenth in These begins because the the portions are earlier setting. novel century possibly foregrounds Dyer first-person in immediate the as an active narration which written ("In Hieroglyph Alan Hollinghurst in Indeed, the and novel reviews of participant. Shadow") and Joyce Carol Oates("The highest Passionis Terrour") have laudedthe bemoaning in the the whilst passages eighteenth-century verisimilitude achieved lacklustre narrative of the modem sections. As Hollinghurst notes,"when he is not in his possessedmode, AckToyd does not write nearly so well" ("Hieroglyph" 1049). From such articulations it would appear that there is a fascinating

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to by if, dialogue the willing more ambivalence raised as readers,we are novel's first-person because it discourse. Is this the accept eighteenth-century perhaps because historical through their conflation of sources,partially presenceand partly this is a memoir, is equatedwith fact and hence 'truth'9 Ironically, Dyer's 'realism11 is constructed through a textual composite, including eighteenth-centurybuilding tracts, letters and contemporaneous views.

Criticism of Ackroyd's contemporaryand historical narratives is commentedupon by Heike Hartung ("Walking and Writing the City") who refers to Hollinghurst's Oates' Hawksmoor and analysesof and comparestheseto David Lodge's review of Chatterton ("Marvellous Boy"). In expanding this viewpoint, Hartung includes a
in David Richter's ("Murder Jest") where Richter argues that the reading of critique

differencesbetweenthe narrativesis a purposeful strengthof Ackroyd's writing (cf. Hartung, "Walking" 144 fn. 7). In justifying her position, Oates("Highest" 3) has is insubstantial the tone the that of contemporary passages possibly a suggested is intentional imagination device. lack Hawksmoor's and so an of reflection upon
In response to her reading, Hawksmoor is often perceived to be too intuitive and it is his sensitivity to the crimes and the city in particular that instigate his downfall.

Clearly these reviews detect a consequentialchange in mode between the two narratives.

The competing temporal chaptersconstructa pivotal bridge betweenthe eighteenthfirmly textual the structure with, equate the and present-daypassages century and I that these argue that will excess. narrative and of play amongst other attributes, features, which include repetition, unreliability and textual aporia, cause time to leach from its containment in both temporal areas. Such an action causestime to be

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fluid The dependent the viewed as choice of a modem city. or maze-like and upon setting with which to offset eighteenth-centuryprose and drama also reflects a further juxtaposition that details the expansion and capitalist growth of the City. There is perhapsa temporal reasonfor thesenarratives as prompted by the political environment or, as Ackroyd might argue,theseworks are part of a continuation of indigenouswriting that has long antecedents British Isles. the within

The significance of the city novel to this period of the twentieth century is surveyed

briefly in SusanaOnegaand John Stotesbury'sintroduction to London in Literature in be Guide Nick Rennison's Waterstone'S London Writing traced to which and can is cited in the introduction to the collected essays. Urban changeaccompaniedthe
fiscal heart hub dealings This the the of commerce resides at of capital. growth of

in St Our identified Dickens' Mutual Friend London the as centreof and was within
Mary Axe (Wolfreys, "Imagining" 101). In Hawksmoor, Ackroyd returns to this district a sense of its beginning, a reminder of the root of its power. The mirror he

both the original and the reflection where, as the commonalities offers contains betweenthe two world views increase,the distinctions of eachbecomeblurred.

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3.2 The Stones of London: A History of Fire and Lost Direction

One of the earliest metaphorical applications of the labyrinth was its use to defends describe is labyrinth The the the and represent or city. analogy apt as prevents knowledge of its centre, in an attempt to obscure and mislead would-be invaders in a network of looped paths. Many labyrinths still bear the names of cities like Jericho, Jerusalem and Troy Town (cf Kenner, Mazes 250).

Significantly, the defences of these cities ultimately proved unsuccessful, as they

invaded fire. destroyed by image The were or neo-classical of London as a new

Troy (Geoffrey of Monmouth, History 53-74) recalls Homer's description of

8 Priam's house(Iliad VI) and so continuesthis lineageand threat of destruction.

Just as the labyrinth was used to describe ancient cities built for defence, it also
fitting is the stands as a sign of modem city and particularly relevant as a means to convey contemporary urban experience. The Industrial Revolution witnessed a

development to and the mass migration urban places of work when rapid urban dwellings. is This led to those a more complex network of experienceof migrants doubt, in by humanity grappling to achieve a struggling confusion and epitomised identity loss led Such to a of and a movement semblanceof stasis and stability. increaseduniformity, attributableto the labyrinthine environment.

Ackroyd details within his biography of the city, the precursor of contemporary London, through the filter of pre-historical, ancient, medieval, renaissance, literary and paintings eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuryand contemporary sites, in in felt 'plan' the the the These metropolis, of periods are writings of the citY.

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London in of remnants of earlier architecture, the perpetual reclamation and reuse London. describe dirt dust to the terminology the stone, used and and consistent

In addition to Ackroyd's idea of London's creative trans-historical community, there can be drawn a similar pattern that denoteshappeningswithin the city, often the result of major catastrophicevents,such as periodical fires. Although the Great Fire of London in 1666 is possibly the most memorableconflagration seenby some
9 divine immoral, to there are many other episodes that the as punishment cleanse

have incinerated part or all of London. This purging of the city was partial, as Richard Trench and Ellis Hillman suggestin London under London, and causedthe
be largely before innovative for to the sewerage system city rebuilt as with plans

(arguedfor by Evelyn) shelved. The city had to wait until the nineteenthcentury for this modernisation,and so the dirt and dust describedby Ackroyd in the eighteenth
century becomes more overtly dangerous through the very real association with

disease.

In a list of these major conflagrations in his biography London (218), Ackroyd cites

in invasion 60 including Boudicca's incidents, the capital of someeighteenseparate C.E. and the Great Fire of 1666. More recently the city was again engulfed in flame during the Blitz of the Second World War-10 The iconography of St. Paul's was formed in Blitz that the in the a an act city after crucial the massive rebuilding of In Great following Fire 1666. before, this the of the processcenturies repetition of build to the to out of ascend there upwards, a need was conceived modem rebuild, fine indeed the in spires exceeded pit of rubble and ash, an action that emulatedand of Hawksmoor's churches.

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London is perceived as a city that, despite constantly undergoing transfonnation, ' 1 historical in be dichotomy the to appears remain the same, and this viewed can Wren's desire to completely overhaul the city, following 1666, through the implementation of a planned rebuild. However, his designs were thwarted as the
12 its London 115). (Ackroyd, "was to capital restored approximately original state"

The 'restoration' of the previous order was figured in narrow lanes and cutthroat fire by "[t]he the alleys apparently untouched and so city, as always, reasserted
itself along its topographical lines" (London 238). Likewise in Ackroyd's fiction, the city functions like a prevailing pattern which, although at times is unfathomable,

is nevertheless systematic.

The navigation and the experienceof architectureare central conceits in Ackroyd's

fictions, as the manner of walking through a house or the city becomes a labyrinthine act. As the young protagonist of English Music confinns, it is

labyrinth have to through the to of London's necessary a guide steer a course father's lost held hand I "sometimes to truly and on my with was altering streets: determination; I suppose that he always knew his way, although there were and courtyardsand of passageways occasionswhen the apparentlyendlesssequence
in in impression to that order stay the we were walking quickly squares gave me the

its loops labyrinth (13). The the with and similarity and monotony of sameplace" digressionsrenders the city unfathomableto the younger traveller. Traversing the impression it the becomes that of required perpetual produces network so uniform figure, The through in perhaps to male older movement order remain stationary. in in boy, lead is tum trusts the to who younger able or skill, experience Immowledge,
I--

his father's navigational abilities.

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Physical disorientation within the capital is a common phenomenon and sympathetically reproduced in Ackroyd's writing where the multi-dimensional spaceis inhabited by the protagonists and navigated by the reader. A character's depictedjourney through a maze of tiny alleyways and streetsreflects the reader's
progression through a novel rich with intertextuality, underlying connotations and

allusions.

London as a manuscript is continually being rewritten.

The effect is a work-in-

joins that the the progress makes readerexplicitly awareof and texturesof the cloth,
whilst preventing the viewer a glimpse of the whole. Knowledge of the labyrinth's

is it is the experienceof construction no guaranteeof successfulnavigation and so the walker that is pivotal. The acceleratedrate of construction exacerbatesthe individual's senseof disorientation within the city. This rate of incremental city intimated is by the citizens of the capital: "[t]he common sort of People growth
London Rate Building is now to the other of and exclaim each gawp at prodigious

Situacion Streets Yesterday City House is the the there that or of or was not another led disintegration Such Changd' (47). to an overwhelming and renewal rapid quite impressionof lost direction and uncertainty,a processepitomisedby the paraphrase
Monstrous, "London Daniel Defoe's the grows more capital: of writing about

Straggling and out of all Shape" (48; Defoe, A Tour Through the WholeIsland of Great Britain 286-288). The conurbation becomesa threatening entity, spatially live Music) those there. English daily (cf who confounding and morphing Certainly, the personal experienceof alleyways and streetsin Hawksmoor implies fragmented journey The through this bewilderment the confusion and of a maze. half flesh" locale "half hybrid documents is stone and of a site labyrinthine and be but in its be only as "cannot a experienced can entirety conceived which

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in thoroughfares, wilderness of alleys and passages, which even the most courts and in is labyrinth lose it is the way; a experiencedcitizen may curious, too, that this is Significantly, (London 2). there no continual state of change and expansion" from is like labyrinth, the the external or exterior view: within and experienced city, so remainsunknowable.

Ackroyd's commentaryrecalls his remarks regarding the nature of London and the inability of the viewer, artist or readerto comprehendthe whole (Book Club). This
forms a significant variation from his earlier comments when he implied that through an engagement with London writers and artists the reader might view a "complete picture of the city of the thousand years" (Ackroyd Interviews qtd. JeanMichel Ganteau, "London: The Biography" 211). This contradicts the

he the that capital espouses elsewhere. unknowability of

Ackroyd's fascination with the city of his birth is consistently sustainedacrossall

13 his writings. His present-day London pulsates with the effects of all previous

Tondons', both real and imaginary. A site's ability to retain some of its ascribed London indicative, Ackroyd is time aboveall other cities. argues,of meaningacross Through this fascination with areasof London there are displayed various localities layered meaningsco-exist and converge on a single place, partially where several fixed in contemporarytemporality. The stability of the chronological zone is made from folksong by the ritualistic chanting, and architecture, explicitly problematic into (or the that Dyer's eighteenth-century experience, contemporary spill over
14

perhapsvice versa).

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Despite the many rebirths and renewalsLondon has known, there appearsto be an
essence of place that is residual. The capacity of the urban to retain malevolent

forces leads to the inevitable re-enactmentof horrific crimes. Such a feature of inscribed evil is addressed in Sinclair's White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings where the bloody Ripper murdersbreak through into the contemporarynarrative apparentlyto is in locations The to claim supremacy. city's capacity reproducemurders specific by commentedupon various guides to the capital, as Ackroyd's biography of the
city specifies: "in a more elusive way the streets and houses of that vicinity became

identified with the murders themselves,almost to the extent that they seemedto
share the guilt" (London 273). This supposition is also present in Hawksmoor 11 s

pontificating on the methodologiesof murder (116-117), in a speechthat echoes Thomas de Quincey's famous pastiche On Murder Consideredas one of the Fine Arts (1854). Through allusions to the infamous 'Jack the Ripper' murders and the is Ackroyd the mythology of crimes, able to confirm that "the areasof Spitalfields and Whitechapel [act] as the dark accomplicesof the crimes" (London 273). The
further (suggested by topographical the a sites of grid churches are overlaid with

Lud Heat) and so these crime-marked areasfall within Dyer's septilateral diagram Sinclair's Onega fresh that poem and notes set of crimes. and are re-awokenwith a Spender's musings in The Great Fire of London both make reference to Hawksmoor's churchesand stressconnectivity basedon a pentacle. In Hawksmoor, Dyer talks of a "septilateral figure" presumablyenlargedby the church of Little St. Hugh (Peter Ackroyd 48), and by creating this fictional church Ackroyd is able to denouement. to the textual the site points expandthe signification of the group and

In an interview with Ackroyd, Wolfreys identifies the lingering spirit of place as the 5 a characteristic that he and Ackroyd both consider to be study of psychogeography,

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98-99). in "Imagining" Ackroyd's (Wolfreys, manifest compositions

The term

'psychogeography' contains the sense of the mystical becoming etched upon place.

Ackroyd in The Collection describesthe word (chorography' as a principle facet of the English canon and hencealso his work, as he attemptsto closely align himself with this tradition. The indefatigable force of the city as the epitome of multifarious place is a factor in Ackroyd's writings, whilst the capacity of the streets to remember resurgent is having been by both trivial and reproduce, and substantial, a crucial marked events factor in a reading of Hawksmoor.

The prevalenceof place is here taken to extremesas the spirit of paganism evidenced by the buildings of the early Britons is interpolated by Dyer outwardly into Christian
into beyond in heterogeneous the these sites and appreciation of monuments the present

16 day. Similarly, the foundations of each of thesechurchesare rooted in paganism,an

ironic and necessary inversion that amuses Dyer. The mouldering decomposition of

[ ] (24). beneath his "[p]illars Foundation" the church establishes and plague corpses ... His inverted methodology parallels the practice recordedby Bede, who disclosesin his letters the habit of distorting ancient British worship through the transfiguration of 17 is by This Christian into the temples action repeated churches. orthodox pagan deliberately Dyer) (and Hawksmoor recall earlier sites of whose works also architect both paganand primitive Christian significance.

18 Christian Hawksmoor's churchestouch at the conversion of the pagan to the and, as Pierre de la Ruffiniere du Prey notes, nowhere was this more evident than in the legend Possibly 79). London to the (Hawksmoor's St. Alfege's owing of structure of Alfege's martyrdom at the site by Danish invaders, the church comprises a union of of pagan artefacts: re-workings and marginalia ancient practices, eighteenth-century

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"[Hawksmoor's] sacrificial altars surely represent fragments of some dismantled

D

by Saxons by to described Bingham, a create temple reused as Romano-British Christian church of their own" (79). His churches represent a tissue of architectural is from imagination displaying that utterly appropriate quotations multiple sources, an for Ackroyd's "bookish" character. The architect's revival of the pagan within the Christian edifice is remarkable as it reprises a union that is potentially threatening.
Contrastingly, du Prey argues that this practice represented a concerted return to the Christian introduction). Basilica (HawksmoorS London As the worship purity of early

idols by historical the replaced a of generally receded, conversion of pagan sites was impetus build in intended to them to eradicateand efface the practical over a procedure
is The temple. original nullification or permanent alteration of such space strongly

idea by the refuted of pyschogeography,whereby these usagesare transformed into

invocation Hawksmoor's of pagan residual and recurring motifs. conscious and witty is for Sinclair's Ackroyd's topos purposes. apposite and and ancient

Christopher Wren Junior, in his annotations of his father's family memoirs, also
Roman the relics of a suggests a similar act of suppression when after unearthing

"Pavementof a Temple, or Church" his father "determin'd to erect his new Church over 19 instance in Ironically, 265). the scribe appearsunclear as to (Parentalia this the old" incident discovering is Christian. The discovered of a structure pagan or whether the in is incorporated by Ackroyd St. Paul's in foundations of temple the a paraphrase of Wren Junior's words from Parentalia, regarding a spiritual site. Ack. Toyd writes that
"after digging down sufficiently and removing what Earth lay in the way, [there]

is There (Hawksmoor 55). Temple" Pavement Walls be a the of a and appearedto deliberate repetition of the unusual term 'pavement' (Parentalia 265; Hawksmoor 55), (OED), Latin the from derives the other close observations while pavnientum which

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The Ackroyd's text. Parentalia this to create support portion of use of the script of diverge there biographical document when eighteenth-century novel and contemporary is found a depiction of an idol in the pit, indicative of pagan activity (Hawksmoor 56). In Parentalia, Wren rejects the paganusageof the site when he castigatesa connection by made the Bishop of Rochester(1713) in referenceto a temple of Diana lying under
St. Paul's. He similarly refutes the suggestion of an Apolloian structure at the same site

(Parentalia 293). Dyer is at pains to confirm the pagannature of thesesites in order to utilise their energy.

The resulting archaeological layering is directly alluded to by Dyer's philosophy his determined through and choice of church sites that overlay earlier Roman and
Anglo-Saxon temples and dwellings.
20

Such practice forms a link to the beginning

itself is in Lewis Mumford the of city which, as argues, rooted archaeological

investigation (The City in History). Murnford's writing uncovers a masked

is by in beneath duality Dyer necropolis all cities whose presence and also sensed

the brickwork of the streets:

[T]his Capital City of the World of Affliction is still the Capital of Darknesse, or the Dungeon of Man's Desire: still in the Centre are no proper Streets nor Houses but a Wilderness of dirty rotten Sheds, allways tumbling lakes Mire Fire, takeing of and rills of with winding crooked passages, or Stinking Mud (47).

The foundations of London, built upon earth that contains previous civilisations, is This death, through the of excavation. the system uncovered partly encounterwith indicates by dig by the the method archaeological subterranean necropolis exposed burial 'writes' itself the imposes living areas of over upon and city which the the Naturally, the rejuvenation of and sites of pagan use continued previous eras. later foundations that structureswould repeatedlyreveal these enclosuresmeant of 21 from earlier periods. secularisedmaterial 126

The relationship between the dead and the living polis is examined ironically in Will Self s short story, "The North London Book of the Dead" (Quantity), which documentsa parallel city of the dead living parasitically and detrimentally around the living. The samerelationship is remarkedupon by Ackroyd when he observes that "in London the living must keep close company with the dead" (Albion 319).
This morbid proximity recalls the Egyptian labyrinth that purportedly contained

both living quartersand tombs in its vast structure. In this fashion, London acts as both a dwelling place and a burial ground, in a manner that evokes the early city
practice of locating the interment place within the city confines. Alex Link argues

that it is from this foundation of abjection that Ackroyd constructs his London
("The Capitol of Darknesse").

The layered stratum unearthedby the archaeologistworking behind St. Mary Woolnoth representsa visible reminder of prior historical eras and the permanenceof a spiritual
building on that site: "[flhere's always been a church here. Always" (161). This

histories is history detritus the the of these superfluous as of physical reminder of

bands, Unlike felt the the revealed geological all around. previous periods are is fluid in Hawksmoor time and recursive. experienceof

Building in London is theoretically "founded upon the Experience of all Ages" (Wren, Parentalia 351) and is reinforced by Dyer's enthusiastic listing of for his buildings: antiquariansites and the newer plaguepits aspower sources Thus under where the Cathedral Church of Bath now stands there was a Temple erectedto Moloch, or the Straw Man; Astarte's Temple stood where in Veneration; it held Britains is and where the Paul's now, and the great Abbey of Westminister now standsthere was erectedthe Temple of Anubis. And in time my own Churcheswill rise to join them. (22)

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Construction in London necessarilyentails the building over of previous dwellings in inhabitants histories their through the resourcefulnessof early city and and, This into home. in the the the reclamation of city wall, reincorporation of materials from the the renewal processmeansportions of new city are cyclically reconstituted old.

22 Contemporary Londoners like Walter and Mrs. Best are oblivious to the history that is leached into the stones around them and the ground beneath them. They tread the samethoroughfaresas the ancientsbefore them and yet they are insensible
to the history encircling them. Hawksmoor, on the other hand, is susceptible to the

in determining the terms processes of city and professes non-rational crime ways of through oblique methodologies. He displays a bookish tendency evident in his knowledge of De Quincey and in the murder patternsof the eighteenthcentury that
his location. In this manner, Hawksmoor's actions mirror towards stress sensitivity

that of his counterpart, Dyer, whose reliance on ancient and occult practices determineshis world view and underpinshis architecturalworks. Walter's desireto bring Hawksmoor into the 'now' through the demonstrations of the computerserves
to make his mentor retreat into the hermitage of time that he shares with Dyer, the

vagabondsand the victims.

Hawksmoor's lethargy and ineffectual decision-making is seemingly in contrast to is detective, fictional the supposedtradition of the whose role purportedly that of the like HolmeS23 in the archetypalanalytical practitioners scientific exponent,manifest Dupin. and in The ineffectual Collins' Wilke like Hawksmoor, protagonist

here Comparisons is are evident Moonstone (1868), unable to solve the mystery. by does The but killer foils (Rose) the Baskerville so chance. Eco's serial who with

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bumbling detective is a demeanourutilised in television and in film where the visual for is This detective. logical evident, appearancesmasks the processesof the in Columbo's Miss frail Marple's example, cluttered attire and physique or inconsequential apparently ramblings. Columbo, like Hawksmoor, is often

for detective for Whereas this is television the the mistaken a member of public.
perhaps a useful ploy to appear inoffensive, unofficial and insignificant, for

Hawksmoor it is a side effect of his mental deterioration and his blending both with the wandering killer and with the itinerant victims. Alternatively, perhaps

Hawksmoor demands a re-evaluation of what truth might be as, unlike his

Metropolitan colleagues, he appearsopen to intuitive readings of crime.

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3.3 Continuity

and Manipulation:

Names and the City

Historical protagonists are central to Ackroyd's writings either by behaving to A by disregarding historical type their concern with recorded position. or ascribed the minutia of detail is a characteristic feature of Ackroyd's rendition of these his is by This Onega ("Interview" 4) the author over noted characters. who quizzes Silvia by Library Marx's British the and misrepresentationof seat number at Mergenthal who also detectsa deliberatemanipulation and play on the birth date of Charlie Chaplin ("Whose City?"). Another instanceis the refusal to use Dr. Dee's
known residence at Mortlake, preferring instead to construct a fictional house for

him to occupy in Clerkenwell. Effectively, the fictive and the factual become indistinct to the uninitiated reader.

Ackroyd also adopts historical figures as pivotal characters;for example, Milton is included in in Chatterton America, Milton in there a narrative of appears whilst
the 'forger's' death, which centres around the figure of Thomas Chatteron and his

in by Wallis. Henry immortalisation paint subsequent

Karl Marx and George

Gissing along with the music hall entertainerDan Leno are charactersin Dan Leno in brief The Testament (Leno, Golem Limehouse appearance of a also makes and the is Dr. Dee, Oscar Wilde), whilst the elusive Renaissance a magician and occultist, Dee. in House The for focalizer the ofDr. narrative pivotal

In Hawksmoor, Ackroyd has chosen to undermine the practice of transposing an historical figure directly and largely unalteredinto his narrative in the figure of the in the he the this with Hawksmoor, minor novel same achieves although architect based his Ackroyd Vanbrugh. Sir John Wren Christopher Sir and characters

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murderousprotagonist upon Nicholas Hawksmoor (c 1661-

1736)24

an architect who

in implies, Sir Christopher Wren the novel was a contemporary of and active, as during destroyed Great by Fire 1666, the early part of the rebuilding of churches of the eighteenthcentury. From this historical foundation, Ackroyd transfersthe deeds
), (1654-? Hawksmoor his fictional Dyer Nicholas and compounds of onto creation,

the architect's constructionswith a seriesof pagan-inspiredslayings. In this fiction, the nomenclature'Hawksmoor' is applied to the contemporarydetective, and so it is his name as well as that of the historic architect that forms the title. Onega's

it detective Hawksmoor's that the commentary suggests short-sightedness is part of that he fails to perceive that his name is congruent with the eighteenth-century architect ("Pattern"). However, in Ackroyd's narrative Dyer has supplanted the

historical Hawksmoor in all his achievements,as can be seen when Hawksmoor

its St. Ann Nicholas Dyer the the that espies plaque on church of specifies as

distance decision historical Hawksmoor This to the authorial serves architect. figure from the fictional murders, in a manner that acts to reaffirm the dominant between the murderer and the temporal the two throughout narratives association detective.

The synthesisof these two symbiotic sides of the law is a feature indicative of the betweenthe psyche detective fiction genre. The associationand close resemblance literature in is this type. detective both of archetypal other evident of criminal and Connections between villainy and law enforcement are apparent when the killer Dyer intends to entrap his supposedfoe, the improbably named Yorick Hayes, Yard. Scotland lodgings at within their shared
25

Historically, the architect

Scotland Yard (see his during Wrens lodged Hawksmoor apprenticeshipat with the Lisa Jardine, On a Grander Scale 380-1). The buildings have obvious

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contemporary associationswith policing and by extension to the investigation and he Dyer's this apprehensionof criminals. connection, as rhetoric substantiates recalls when "I enteredScotland-yardlike a Guilty thing and, wheeling about to see that I was unobserv'd" (104). His haunteddemeanoursymbolisesthe meaning that the place comes to be associated with later, that of the headquarters of the 26 Metropolitan police force. Given the Metropolitan constabulary's subsequent Scotland Yard of the detective Hawksmoor's reality is actually the new the moves, Victoria Embankment. However, the yoke between the places that the premisesat ties murder and detectivetogetheris maintainedby the name.

Ackroyd's text exhibits an innate propensity, possibly as part of the English imagination, to convoluted and ludic conundrums regarding appellation and etymology. In renaming and replacing the architect Hawksmoor with the fictional Dyer it follows that the substitution is worthy of investigation. There are lengthy

articulations possible upon the nature of Dyer's surnameand his forename is also from Greek G. Withycombe E. 'Nicholas' the suggestive, as records: stems Nikokaos meaning a "compound of vikTI 'victory' and kao's'the people"' (Oxford
Dictionary 227). The significance of this etymological root is partially diluted as

Nicholas is also the first name of the historical Hawksmoor and so substantiates the figures. have been Although between this two the the may approximation determining influence in Ackroyd's choice of 'Nicholas', it is a forename that dual The interesting origin reflections and connotations. nevertheless affords some his for Dyer's his triumph to sense and of victory eternal cravings of matches name be amplified through his buildings. In his moment of glory the ritual summonsa his them. with connection reaffirms crowd of victims and

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Both Nicholas and, more emphatically, the abbreviation 'Nick' have long been In devil, Dyer's related to the amoral purposes. a correlation that complements 27 tracing the derivation of such an ascription there are three main plausible strands: St. Nicholas, have from depictions derived that these of namely associationsmay from the Germanword for Nickel, or from the Germanicwater sprite called Nichus. Early narratives of the Christmas ritual endorse St. Nicholas as an attendant of Christ acting to reprimand unruly children. Though St. Nicholas was later perceived to be the gift-giver in his own right the characteristic of punishment lingered,
creating a contrary force symbolised as St. Nicholas' 'other'. In British folklore, St.

Nicholas has retained these punitive qualities, as he is traditionally perceived as being ready with either presentsor coal dependingon a child's annualbehaviour.

This negative aspectof the name Nicholas has been investigatedby the prodigious
Jacob Grimm, whose compendium on mythology is astonishingly comprehensive in detail (Teutonic Mythology). and minute Grimm points to German nickel's

for British 'devil's to the vernacular name silver', a usage akin colloquial name of

iron pyrites (fools' gold), and so plausibly stemmingfrom the devil's ability to trick idea discounts in hubris. He the that the phonology of those who act and mislead
'Nickel' devil. the the nickname of resembles Alternatively, the circumstances

Old formulated High been have devil the Nick the of as a result may and uniting German word "nichus " (488), a name attributed to a mischievous variety of has Dutch "nikkei" Modem Grimm the to this traces more which waterspirit. in devil" (488), "evil turn being translated which spirit, as sinister overtones, (488). "old Nick" Nicholas foreshortening to English to the of corresponds

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Typically, Wren abbreviates Dyer's first name to Nick, which reinforces the familiar link between them. The adoption of this nickname exposes Wren's

displaced, ironically is factor his that as perceived ignorance of previous charge, a by calling him 'Nick' he has inadvertently found out his 'true' nature. Dyer's "[w]hat but hidden, is by the to prophetic madman: essential, self again alluded " (100). The Death Nick, Nick, Nick, rhythmic utterance still are my own! more you discloses three primary factors: firstly, it implies that somehow the incarcerated lunatic is aware of Dyer's deedsand hencehis purpose; secondly,that he knows his
finally, intimacy by form demonstrates he this applying shortened with name: and Dyer. 28 Such familiarity also functions as a conventional sign of mastery, an

inferencethat is substantiated by Dyer's immediateresponseof powerlessness.The

his Dyer "you thorough the are my madman confirms recognition of corroboration: ". own! The phrase is inherently ambiguous and could indicate sameness,

ownership, familial ties or a combination of these readings. When Bedlam gives

home in dementia drug-controlled the the to the of residential care way is doubled the text, the or recast as prophetic man contemporary portion of Hawksmoor's father, thus exaggeratingthe control over Dyer/Hawksmoor. Perhaps the foresight and inexplicable knowledge of these demented men is again an history. London to the allusion visionary aspectof

The numerology of three is also paramount,as the name 'Nick' is called thrice in a in devil. Repetitious invocations chanting of a name of the parody of traditional 29 English folklore denotesa fantastical summoning. Dramatically, the madman's invocation of "Nick" which, given its temporal location and proximity to Dyer forth Hawksmoor instead imply calls the eighteenth-century protagonist, would is juxtaposition The in first for the congruent time the chapter. next meet whom we

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folktales. English dimension with the shifting performed in traditional

The

be Dyer's 'other', Hawksmoor, to a good variant recitation summons who appears or a reproduction of the murderousarchitect.

The doubling and similarities of the charactersare addressedin Onega's critique in keeping interconnectivity the of the text, she where, with circularity and concludes that "the same events repeat themselves endlessly, and that the same live die in live be bom to the same events again and people and only order and
death" in life (Peter the ever-revolving wheel of and again, eternally caught Ackroyd 45). Her reading over applies the prevailing patterns within the text and

complementsthe portrayal of Dyer as a protagonistwho "shadows and foreshadows Hawksmoor in a hundred details" (Hollinghurst, "Hieroglyph" 1049). Though
is Ackroyd's this to superficially would appear mirror sense of continuity what is difference. by Onega, The Ackroyd's to thesis, the notion of pivotal and missed

foregrounds disorientation the and ambiguity, residual effect of narrative structure imprint leaves Onega's destabilises the the of the reading and neatnessof which labyrinthine system.

The ambiguity of Ackroyd's text is conspicuousand exacerbatedby the textual fulcrum disagreement leading the to regarding emphasisupon pattern and repetition, of the work. Hollinghurst ("Hieroglyph") talks of possession, whilst Oates

("Highest") suggests that Dyer himself may be waiting for Hawksmoor In the Janik's Ivan Del hand, that to Link, Alex suspicion the refers other on church. Hawksmoor himself may be revealed as the perpetrator of the crimes ("Capitol" 537).

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Minute difference caused through repetition and reproduction is also evident in the
representation of the geography of London. The topographical accuracy of Ackroyd's

fabrication is evident throughout the novel and causesminor embellishmentsto be made prominent. Ackroyd's attention to detail, especially in regard to historical and

is features is born is Dyer, It that geographical comprehensive. who significant

in intervening in Black-Eagle Street Stepney Parish the the specifically of and spends

before in locale, the that years plague sharesa name with one of the predominanttrades during historical that the of area same era. Vaughan Hart refers to the site of Spitalfields as being "crowded with poor weavers" in a location "beyond the City's jurisdiction" (Nicholas Hawksmoor 170). In the choice of surnamefor his murderous
incorporates Ackroyd Sinclair London. the to topology protagonist returns of also a into Dyer his murderous transhistorical web (Whitechappel 70-71): he character called links the name Dyer to the Whitechapel murders, and yet no suspect of that name was interviewed, apprehended or formed one of the major suspects. As Sinclair has one of

his characterspurchasea signed edition of Hawksmoor for a fiver (12), this is perhaps into fiction history has Ackroyd's the the seeped of the extent an acknowledgmentof
its in history, Both the complicity city and memory area. writers are concerned with interests, literature their coupled with the contemporary shared and and, moreover, fictions for intertextuality to their engage with one another. play, cause and vogue

Ackroyd's depiction of Hawksmoor as a fictive characteris not the initial useof the Ackroyd directs the readerto his debt to Sinclair, figure. In his acknowledgements, iconography Heat the Lud of plays with whose strange multi-genre text buildings Hawksmoor's Sinclair that: Hawksmoor's six London churches. writes of (Lud 17). dust filled the of wooden voices" "his churches are the mediums, with intentions for and the occult The suggestion that the churches are conduits

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referencesto dust and voices are eerily reminiscent of Ackroyd's writing about the fon-ns.

Sinclair draws upon the function of the architect's churchesto executetheir purpose en masse. Moreover, T. Francis Bumpus in his survey of ancient London churches be builds "[i]t Hawksmoor's the that comments upon combined effect of must is that there acknowledged a very marked originality running through the churches [] taking them in the mass" (Ancient London Churches 16). Hawksmoor's

Gothic features inspiration English from Baroque combination of an style with and

feats ancient of architecture is indicative of a diverse and assortedfashion. Such inspiration is wide-ranging and methodology perfectly suited to Ackroyd's and
Sinclair's purposes as it facilitates the convergence of the ancient, modem and fluid frame. Despite times temporal contemporary, allowing at a or co-dependent the continuity between the London churches, built between the years 1712-31, they [ highly based ] "directly themes on antiquity ... using contain a variety of motifs and inventive adaptations" (Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner London 6, xii). The

fragmentary yet interrelated architectural paradigm augments Ackroyd's writings

idea London, of a patchwork. about sustainingan

Dyer's name would seem to correspondto the role of the dyer in the manufactureof
family's for English the trade; to trace follows the surnames propensity cloth and

Citizen baker is being father's Dyer's in of a a and position given as although the novel, London (11). In the eighteenth century, Spitalfields became synonymous with the The in industry dyeing the that city. area of recently establishedcloth, weaving and impact of these professions can still be seen in the namesof the nearby Threadneedle

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Street and Petticoat Lane. Sympathetically,the phonology of 'dyer' contains the word 'die' and so prefigures the fictional architect's macabrevocation.

Dyer's birth in 1654 is substantiallyearlier than the supposedbirth date of Nicholas Hawksmoor (6661) and so ensuresthat Dyer was old enough to witness, and be by, Great Fire, so central to the the the the affected eventsof plague and subsequent fields Dyer's The the of reconstruction of capital. quiet and rural environment is intervening development This the the youth contrastedwith rapid urban of years. is in disruption, depicted detail Dyer's the growth and engulfment memoirs which
integral his land by in to the the swallowing up of green sprawling city, a process juxtaposition history. In this the way, of Dyer's memories and experience personal

forms a demonstrativereflection of the changing statesof the city. As the urban

subsumes the pastoral outskirts the navigation of these newly-urbanised streets

is labyrinth. A transformation the the enactedupon an similar evokes passageof

increasingly insular and layered Dyer.

In accordance with Dyer's delineation of Stepney before the fire, cartographical

The land the to the depicting the city. that east of period emphasise rural specimens is in through London development the evident visibly century eighteenth of rapid later. Residual fifty place names years the comparison of this same region some these Moorfields the Spitalfields of purpose arable previous confirm and such as Conjunction Church "[m]y of Dyer a populous As above rises now confinns: areas. before in Years but People, full those Places Alleys, Courts and Passages, of poor dirty that Spittle-Fields part now by Lanes unfrequented: Fire and were the the Grass Field the Flesh-Market, with of Market, the a was Spittle-Fields or called Cows feeding on it" (13). Dyer's commentariesvisually overlay the topographies

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the pastoral, of his youth with those of his middle-age,where the urban supersedes and replaces the sparsely populated farmland with the squalor and warren of an impoverished expanse. The same prospect is surveyed in George Gissing's The Nether World (1890) where the Clerkenwell slum affirms the toil and poverty of working-class experience. The depressingand industrial nature of the slums is in evident the bodies of those encounteredin the district; as Gissing writes: "on every hand are multiform evidences of toil, intolerable as a nightmare" (Netherworld 10).

The opening chapter of the novel shows the architect working on the production of

his wooden model of Christchurch and ends with the first death at the church. Spitalfields presentsan urban topographythat, by the end of the eighteenthcentury,
66almost built was completely over" (Ackroyd, London 243). The location of the

Spitalfields' church is deliberately chosenin remembranceof his parents: "I cou'd

but in Weep I Build then that place of Memory will I fashion a not can now, and Labyrinth where the Dead can once more give Voice" (16). The building represents

it in history beginning his Dyer's to the a notch as stands as a monument personal of life as an orphan and at the commencementof his indoctrination into Mirabilis' journey. in his is faith, strange and as such a significant node

Ackroyd's exaxnination of the poor of London parallels the satirical artist William Hogarth whose engraving, Gin Lane, depicts a maelstromof drunkenness(as the name insinuates),usury and violence all tinged with the canker of death in the Bloomsbury locality. Above the desperatecaricature of human self-induced suffering in Gin Lane St. George Bloomsbury, Hawksmoor's is church, there an elevated perspective of (Hawksmoor depicts Hart this too engraving and enlarges perhapsas a spiritual marker.

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6) to indicate the moral obligation of both artists. Strildngly, this edifice is topped not by a cross as is usual, but by a human statue 30 The male figure is confirmed by Hart as . the monarch King George I (1714-1727) and is perhaps a political gesture (Nicholas
TT

hawksmoor).

--

At the time of Hawksmoor's designing and building the religious

stability of the nation was exceedingly fragile and perhapsthis monument crowned by 88) the statue of the protestant King George (Glinert, London Com was to Pendium balance the criticisms levelled at his master Wren for the popery of St. Paul's. Of Hawksmoor's churchesthere are two namedafter the monarchsunder whom he served: George and Anne. The emplacementof Hawksmoor's churcheswithin this climate of
religious controversies has not been fully investigated, possibly owing to his adaptation of ancient forms which result in his buildings achieving a type of timelessness. The

humanity intrinsic the to Dyer's philosophy, where his religious union of and church is buildings often appearto be more part of the earth than inclined to the heavens. St.
Mary Woolnoth, although primarily a repair of an existing structure, is surprisingly squat and remains a good example of a building that, though spiritual, firmly reminds

the onlooker of its terrestrial grounding.

The visual outline of the city seen in the eighteenth century is marked by both Wren's and Hawksmoor's churches: a landscapethey mastereduntil the vertical Using from 1960s the housing onwards. and places of work popular expansionof
City Churches Sir The in his Jeffrey Paul of volume prophetic ten-ninology,

Christopher Wren positions the significance of Hawksmoor's achievements: "Nicholas Hawksmoor, Robert Hooke's successor, was the man whose vision has dominated the London skyline for three centuries" (176). Accolades of such

St. in Paul's. to for Wren typically reference and mastery are generally reserved When Hawksmoor's achievementsare scrutinised, critics tend to remark on the

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influence of Wren. This is hardly surprising given the impact of Wren's designs upon the city.

Investigations in the City by the detective Hawksmoor, in St. Mary Woolnoth and Christchurch Spitalfields especially,exemplify the extent to which the churchesand in by have become architecture earlier general overshadowed the massive vertical has buildings. Experience the these perhaps structuresof of churches surrounding become a more personal occurrence and has clearly altered from the panoramic
by the effect of ecclesiastical pinnacles seen prior generations. Today, the

house blocks these the that the towering replacementsof spiritual edifices, office businessdistrict, dwarf the residualbuildings and causeAckroyd's protagonistto be by in the that, repeatedlysurprised eighteenth-century structures comparisonto the
buildings, seem to grow out of the earthly space. massive contemporary

Though Hawksmoor's buildings compete for visual parity in the present-day locale

their combination of ancient and baroque influences create a most dramatic

impression. Although until recently denigrated as Wren's apprentice, Hawksmoor

half in latter imagination his the twentieth the the of and are, of and originality beginning of the twenty-first centuries, finally being recognised and given the 31 deserves. inventiveness plaudits such

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3.4 Memories of Ancient Death: The Egyptian Labyrinth

in the City

The capacity for a geographicallocation or a particular building to act as a site for the return of the repressedis a recurrent Gothic theme. Ackroyd extendsthis usage through his systematicdeconstructionof the relationship between the building and the land upon which it stands. The ground with its stratified cultural history acts as foundation from damp, builder direct his Like the the a occultism. can which rising the dead permeateupwards through the soil, influencing and infecting those on the
32 In Dyer this surface. manner, adapts a natural cycle and so causes the physical

detritus of the corpse to become imbued with lasting emotional power. Such an becomes Caesar: homage Antony's the to action physical embodimentof words of "the evil that men do lives after them" (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar III. ii. 75). The into is force. leach Dyer's these then this earth which cadavers suffused with is in fallen his the that contentions with view of man necessarilywicked accordance
in life-force death further humanity that the persists and rises again suggests state of

as evil.

Building in these areas of squalor was a personal choice and reflected that, in involved findings, Hawksmoor the Hart's process of to was recent according 10). Hawksmoor (Nicholas for these churches choosing sites Hawksmoor's

building programme included restorations of existing buildings (St. Mary Woolnoth), the rebuilding of churchesusing new designsupon existing parish sites land destroyedby the fire (St Alfege's Greenwich) and new plots on disadvantaged St. Little Hugh, fictitious Spitalfields the Church Christ (such as church of and at Black-Step Lane, Moorfields). In the selection of these, Dyer remarks upon the (16), history his Spitalfields a plague massive to marking personal significance of

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home his from journey fictional The his pit and the slight resting place of parents. in Black-Eagle Street which borders Brick Lane, a road that had previously been a dirt track taken by the plague carts to the adjoining pit, and passing through Brownes Lane to arrive in Spitalfields, confirms that the familial dwelling lay firmly in the proximity of Spitalfields (I 1-15).

Dyer's commemorationof his initiation into Mirabilis' strangefaith is evidencedin his land Spitalfields: draws from the the the mass that choice of at a plot upon energy it. beneath The extensiveloss of life during the periods of the plague led plague grave
to large pauper graves in various parts of the capital and so provides Dyer with

his to power. concentratedareas channel

To intensify the fetid foundations of the

is driven to build "what is most Sollemn and Awefull" (7) in order to Dyer church, his intentions sinister and masked graphically produce upon the outside of the church.
On this occasion, Ackroyd is paraphrasing from one of Vanbrugh's epistles on the

have Solemn & building "the that that must most confirms a nature of architecture Awfull Appearance both without and within" (Downes, Hawksmoor
105). 33

This

his has Dyer's tongue rival's as speaking with partial and embedded repetition Wren's he distorts and others' writing. elsewhere

The church at Spitalfields is also significant amongst Dyer's constructions as it is

in The turn conceals a described with a strange secondary structure. pyramid labyrinth, built away from the church in the churchyard. The triangular edifice living between the the (23,29), "house and passageway a underground" contains a dead. The structure is reproduced from Egyptian mythology, whilst the

St. Hugh Little the the of murder and the of martyrdom undergroundaspectrecalls device familiar is The with associated Thomas. architectural a pyramid modem

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death and remembrance, "[t]he Hart pyramid was widely understoodas as concedes: funeral As ffi 56). fonn 273 in Hawksmoor England" (Nicholas an ornmental a
feature, Wren considered it to be a thoroughly appropriate motif in keeping with the baroque style of the period (Parentalia 318-21).

This architectural building is closely associated with Egyptian pyramidal structures that contained the burial chambersof pharaohs(and can still be seen intact in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens). Such monumentaledifices acted integrity to the as sites of mystification and endeavoured protect of the pharaoh's body and wealth prior to the journey of the 'soul' (ka) to the underworld. The in burial labyrinth is ironically Egyptian pyramid and contained combination of an the pyramidal rubble of the destroyedlabyrinth at Fayoum. The practice founded
P-4 th beginning Old C. dynasty) build Kingdom (2600 B. E.: the the to of with

pyramids as containers of the rulers' remains represented a mechanism of expressingthe hierarchy of kingship and marking a threshold linking the terrestrial and the celestial.

The dwelling of Dyer's devising recalls Herodotus' notations concerning the lower
labyrinth Egyptian the and also the possible subterranean arrangement of strata of

depicts Daedalus' Cretan Ayrton Cretan design. In to the the maze, reference labour as the intricate crafting of a labyrinthine warren tunnelled out of the sediment links labyrinth This 83-84). Maker the (Maze foundations association of the palace's (Maze invocation Ayrton's in Earth goddess of a maternal and the an extension of Maker 154-155,203-218), in a manner drawn from Evans' reasoning(Palace) and in Interest (Virgio. the Jackson the Knight F. by W. of phase constructive repeated E. Nyenhuis Jacob Testament) Last Maker; (Maze Ayrton labyrinth causes and

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(Myth and the Creative Process25-28) to follow the wanderingsof Daedalusand so building labyrinth Egyptian his interest in, the and evidence and mimicry of, practices.

In Hawksmoor the mantle of the architect is extended to include the craft of murderer as well as that of the author. The sketch of the architect neatly mirrors by Sherlock 70) (as Alison Lee, Realism Holmes of and noted visual representations depictions divine invincibility in his The Dyer the of of architect. of and confidence his schemeechoesthe inventivenessand fame of Daedalus' reportedprojects which inevitably led to claims regardinghis divinity.

The Egyptian design is consistent with Dyer's philosophy (45) and his fascination with death rituals which reflect the complexity and purpose of the earliest

labyrinth. fonn The this architectural ancient parallels the capture of preuse of
in classical components Hawksmoor's oeuvre (du Prey, Hawksmoor's London) and

by Sinclair (Lud). The Egyptian the archaic cults stressed of also pagan practices journey labyrinth to the the the underworld preserves as and symbol of pyramid
Egyptian mythological and cultural themes of cycle and rebirth .
34

The labyrinth as a ritualistic site of slaughterand rebirth is remarkedupon by Dyer be (23) "sepulchre" labyrinth that will the architect, who refers to the enclosureas a in his Taken (23). be totality for there" 66a Labyrinth those who may placed true death, the the delineations through biblical of use word mooted of remarkscombine usage of ancient f. menacing and the permanence underlying sepulchre', with labyrinths. His labyrinth will be 'true' in the sensethat it will evoke the rites and form. the purpose of the earliest architectural examples of Here, in this late

145

twentieth-century fiction, the Christian purposeof the labyrinth is envelopedby the

return of the labyrinth to its ancient origins.

The sacrificial function of Dyer's pyramid recalls the fate of the pharaoh's selected subjectswho might be buried with her/him:

[H]ere is the Boy who is to be Sacrificed is confin'd to the Chamberbeneath the Earth and a large Stonerolled acrossits Face; here he sits in Darknesse for seven dayes and seven nights, by which time he is presum'd to have been led past the Gatesof Death, and then on the eighth Day his Corseis led is inshrined to the out of the Cave with much rejoycing: that Chamber Lord of Death (23). The function and description of the sacrificial chamber is perhapsanalogouswith
Christ's burial in the tomb and subsequent re-birth (Matt 28: 2; Mark 15: 46), a

by correlation stressed the word 'sepulchre' and the suggestionthat the deadcan be "led out". It is Dyer's intention that the first of his victims should be entombedin the pyramid; a murder that will trigger his cycle of seven killings. However fate offers an alternative victim, the mason's son, and so Dyer's objective is not fulfilled until the modem Thomas dies in the structure. His death makes the initial cycle complete and renews the pattern of killings afresh in the contemporarytimeframe. After the discovery of the body, the cavernreturns to the earth: "when the Hill sunk down again" (23). The return into the interior of the earth puns on Thomas Hill's inescapability the surnameand so emphasises of his preordainedfate.

Thomas' death in the pit is reminiscentof young St. Hugh's martyrdom; a reflection sustainedby Thomas' readingwhich appearsto prelude his fate: [T]he first of the stories he had read was of Little St Hugh: that he was 'a One heathen, Koppin, him the ten son of of years, a widow. a enticed child to a ritual house under ground where he was tortured and scourged and

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finally strangled. Then his body was left there unknown for sevendays and sevennights. (33) The thirteenth-century Hugh of Lincoln was found in a well, his body mutilated with seven wounds. The figure seven is here emphasisedby the passageof time before Thomas' discovery.35 His murder occurs in the labyrinth under the Spitalfields' pyramid where both of these ancient figures are associatedwith ritual death. and

The assembly of the pyramid and underground labyrinth emphasise that the church

is in focus built Spitalfields Rather than the of the monument existing in at parts. the main structure alone, Dyer has constructeda seriesof other interlinked detached it became be large building "now to a number of outbuildings: ceased one and
indicator (28). 'now' The temporal and the choice of the word separate places"

intensifies an awareness &places' a of the two time-sensitivenarrativesand suggests

36 In this way, the dislocation occurring at this site: both spatially and temporally.

labyrinth functions as a thresholdconnectingthe narratives.

Theseecclesiasticalextremities have their own feeling: "some warm, some cold or damp, and some in perpetual shadow" (28). His empathyand awareness of the site implies that Thomas, the first victim in both historical narratives, is extremely familiar with the area and the structure in particular. This reading is substantiated by his impetus for seekingout the church which is to find a safe haven away from Safety his the intrusive in usual classmates. school the of attentions contemporary form in itself in the the found be of the right of ancient church sense would become but the OED), the (cf 4sanctuary' other children ecclesiasticalwalls within frightened and so "none of them would have dared to enter its grounds" (28). by housed is the juncture protected Thomas at this and safe, comparatively
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Minotaur like is his the who, architect's composition, and yet rather situation though comfortable in his mazy home, is inevitably slaughteredpartially becauseof its restrictive properties. Thomas' death is linked to the structure but in a different beast he in because his the the manner; unlike structure of injury. remains Ironically, the boy's quest for sanctuaryand safety away from the others results in his deathas predictedby the myth.

Having fallen within the labyrinth, Thomas is fearful and also knowledgeable about

the interior as he displays appropriatecare "not to disturb thosewho might dwell in this place" (40). His trepidation could refer to the idea that the dispossessed might
seek out such a shelter but equally could refer to a mythical presence. Thomas'

fearfulness is reprised in Ned's child-like remembrances:"[h]e knew from his into if forest, lying in he be the that, there childhood reading ran would a creature for is imbued holds him" (71). His the city a wait recollection with significance as legend figure his destruction like Thomas' the that of of and, reading similar augurs St. Hugh, the fable delineateshis fate. It is both the belief in thesenarratives and
the inability to heed the inherent warnings that reside in the tales that result in their deaths. Here mythology returns to one of its primary functions as a means to

circumscribesocial behaviour.

As Thomas' awarenessof Dyer's pattern develops, so too does his apprehension directed towards the sinister vestmentsof the labyrinth, representedhere by the knowledge that such a structure contains an inhabitant. The first contemporary fatality, Thomas, is versed in the danger of the labyrinth, being well-read and Spitalfields' unholy associationsare the architecture. sensitive to the principles of

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concentrated in the burning coals of an open fire where Thomas witnesses the church's apocalyptic aspect: [A]s they stirred and shifted in the heat, Thomas peered at them and imagined there the passages bum hell those are who and cavernsof where the samecolour as the flame. Here was the church of Spitalfields glowing, red hot. (37) His recognition of the hidden nature of the church is kept secret,especially from his disapprovingmother who feels the evil worked into its walls (34). His sensitivity is also evident within the church as the sound of footsteps "echoing in the half-light, [make ] him tremble with fear" (29). Despite Thomas' nervousness,the church ... has a magnetic effect upon him, and so rather than the boy fear the building itself, it
is perhaps the thought of the company that the building holds that he finds so disquieting.

Energy condensedby the ecclesiastical shrines seems to compel those who are
it, to sensitive essentially Hawksmoor and most notably the victims, drawing them towards the buildings and into fulfilling their fate. The churches become as Dyer

intended, something truly awful, as structures which connect each of the "I Signe the so that he who protagonistswith architect's macabrepurpose: put a it is Shaddowe Reality Pattem Fabrick the the the the of of which sees may seealso
in Figure" (45). Each the contemporary section sense the selected victims or of

their approachingdestiny after encounteringthe figure of one of Dyer's churches, fate. building fascinated by their that the ecclesiastical signifies each

These forgotten city churchesceaseto be merely a footnote on the distracted tour detective, in instead the (26) the London of consciousness grow and guide's of route U, is by The the victim and the reader. manipulation of occultist practices reinforced The based hidden number of the sense of a around ancient geometry. pattern, 149

churches built and the appropriate number of sacrifices to accompany their inauguration is made prominent by Dyer, who states: "[flet him that has

Understandingcount the Number: the sevenChurchesare built in conjunction with the seven Planets in the lower Orbs of Heaven, the seven Circles of the Heavens" (186). The numerology of sevenis significant in the praxis of the labyrinth as both
Pennick (Mazes) and Evans Lansing Smith (Myth) attest when they relate the figure

to sevennodes of the classic labyrinth, each signifying one of the seven days and
illustrate However, the the arbitrary usage of to of pre-Copernican one planets.

labyrinths have functioned historically numbers,most on a pattern of nine or eleven decisionpoints.

The churchescollectively act as a code, whereby their distribution around London illustrates the symbol of the pentagonwhich then combines to form a septilateral
figure. The pattern is used to disquieting effect by the contemporary Walter who Hawksmoor. By diagram to the the correspondence murder unsettle plants amongst letters both to sending Dyer and Hawksmoor, Walter is replaying the

his by Ripper' 'Jack to the goad persecutors. correspondencepurportedly sent Though Walter's knowledge of his betrayal prevents him from believing in Hawksmoor's postulations,his contarninationof the evidenceis largely irrelevant as become its itself is is integral to the manifest. and ability what cycle

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3.5 Poor Tom: Tramps, Beggars and the Chfldren of the CitY

Ackroyd's fascination with the city plays with the notion of the capital as a site of images draws 'contraries', Blake's the to terminology, and upon oppositions, or use famously by Dr holy damned infinite lauded A of a and a city. variety, city of Johnson and equally castigatedby Percy Shelley as being hellish (Peter Bell the Third), London is conversely ascribedthe status of a New Jerusalemand also the inferno. Certainly there is a sensethat the experienceof London is that of damned in is souls purgatory, which a reading sustainedby the fate of the victims that its wander streets in Hawksmoor. The spectrum that divides such apparent detective is opposites, which positions and separates and murderer, collapsed, causingresemblances and patterningto dominatethe differencesof the timeframes.

Ackroyd's loving articulation of the city displays streets littered with disease,dirt
fire in by harlotry, locale London threatened and constantly plague, and violence. a

teeterson the edge of the abyss,combining the road to redemption and the path to hell in a dichotomy that is best expressed by the vagrantswho, as the 'children' of this vast city, meander through the streets and know and understandthe city's moods. It is these dwellers of city spacethat die as sacrificial offerings in the

labyrinthine metropolis. Their suffering is a direct result of their participation in the labyrinth as eachadoptsa central role in the Daedalianmasque.

Thesenomadic wanderersseem 'out-of-time' and are not tied to either timeframe, but rather are emblematic of the city's continuity. Ackroyd's maintains the exis the the through of voices mediated consciousness whose centric nature of a city forms basis "They This the are of argument underclass,children and vagrants.

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Always with Us" (London 599-605) a chapter that examines the rapid growth Of 37 he in Chatterton His too the this poverty subject as city. muses upon character by deformed "he had heard the wanders streets: children abandoned their stories of itself left like did become And to the the they then city parentsand wander streets. brooding, invulnerable? indigent " (210). In Hawksmoor these characters secret, appearacrosstemporal sites: the tramp Ned is killed in both time zoneswhilst Dyer life. Hawksmoor to these and are related peopleof peripatetic

The image of the vagabondis prevalent: from the tramps, victims to the murderer
Dyer and detective Hawksmoor, who all ramble through the city. Although the

beggars and children appear as custodians of the city, their knowledge and life homeless The the the experienceis rarely valued. existenceof of the shadows in city, whilst rapid alterations wealth enlarge and ftu-ther separatethis disparate
inequality impoverished few These and the populace. act as a visual reminder of further. intensify impulse them the to ostracise precarious nature of society and so

Likewise, as the third-person narrator muses in a contemporary section of H'awksmoor:"[flhose who wander are always objects of suspicion and sometimes Quincey's here De is fear" (70). There to commentaryon the a resemblance even Ratcliffe Highway Murders where the immediate suspicion and anger of the ("On 84-5). dispossessed Murder" directed initially the towards populacewas

The climate of displacement from the mainstreamsocial environment is pervasive begin Hawksmoor, Dyer to exhibit to the extent that the central protagonists, and featuresof this maligned existence. Their physical alteration begun by their time inhabitants falling the leads in peripheral to the textual emphasis upon spent the city 600). (London "city focuses the the Ackroyd city" within upon of the city, as

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Dyer's synergy with the city of London is strengthenedwhen he confides that: "I before" from London been having Traveller, am no great above three miles never 38 (57). Though this circumferenceis extendedwhen Wren takes him to Salisbury,
Dyer maintains a physically introverted existence. Ironically given the regional

his his Dyer's restrictions of movements, urban walks stress nomadic existenceand his ability to be 'at home' anywherein the capital: I have so many Dwellings, Nat, that I know these streets as well as a strowling Beggar" (47). The question of
is by be to vagrancy often wrongly perceived a contemporary problem and,

living identifies Zygmunt Bauman the extension, a result of modem and society. increase that eighteenthcentury as a period witnesseda rapid in the creation of the dispossessed ("Class: Before and After" Reader). Consequently,areasof London have been associatedwith the homeless for centuries (London 603-605; cf A
Dorothy George, London Life in the Eighteenth Century qtd. Ackroyd, London 599). Certain sites have cyclically maintained this 'usage', such as St. Giles of the Fields where, since the founding of an early leper hospital, the neighbourhood has

Club; Ackroyd, Crowd" (Ackroyd, Book The its the maligned retained affinity with London). Other areas include Ackroyd's depiction of Limehouse from where a "Settlement of Beggars" (63-4) Ned is chosen as the second victim. This is

Ned in the observes when passing contemporary narrative, when mirrored Limehousethat "[flhis was an areahauntedby other vagrants" (79). The useof the is to the 'haunted' the area somehowpredestined, suggests connection supernatural live homeless The the 'out-of-time'. of outside the that vagrants are uncanny or 'rules' of the city, and like the dust and dirt createdthey are products of the city, their they with existence share the walkers perpetual and as refuge connectedwith thosewho enter the labyrinth.

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In the poorer parishesof Dyer's churches,the beggarsnaturally gravitate towards had "he knows: Ned the monumentsto receive support and sustenance come to as for during his that men and understand wanderings churches offered protection is like [him]" here (77). Ironically, to the alms provision women explicit connection homeless between link Dyer's The the the and over-lain with aura of philosophy. by the 'territories' of each the churches,specifically Dyer's creations,is accentuated individuals. the of six named This thread tying the dispossessedto place is

in by legislation Bauman, the eighteenth century that reiterated who claims punitive

based local ("Class: Before and After" the necessitatedsurvival around parish 39 Reader73). Despite my identification of the beggarsas wandererswithin the city, this is partially refuted by the text which records that certain of the city's incumbentsinhabit a specific location:

All of them led solitary lives, hardly moving from their own warren of it known buildings: whether they chose the area, or streets and is not in, but became itself had they them taken them the and called area whether the guardian spirits (as it were) of each place (82).

The beggars 'patrol' their territories and dissect the novel into six key points of implication The the from that the place calls churches. of each power radiating out if it is important is into considered an area mademore and then contains the people Hawksmoor's beggars existing churches. that thesesix with one of are all associated Consequently,the effects of thesespiritual locations are felt most by those who are beggars. fiction the in Ackroyd's the these victims and are aligned with the city, and

There is a strong sensethat is developedover the course of the novel that each of disinterested The death. inevitable is wanderingof thesecharacters steeredto their increasingly become labyrinth they the as the of experience each victim recalls

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disorientated and unable to appreciate external influences.

Accordingly, the

journey from The by, London. in, the characters appear utterly absorbed and capital, undertakenby Dyer to Salisbury or glimpsed through Ned's recollections of his former home in Bristol, appearsinsubstantial and dreamlike. Dyer refers to the his initiation into Serpent" (56) "Mazes the the the comprehensionof city and of of lost. labyrinthine This to those the the as unique who are equates navigation of narrative with a mazeof sinfulnessand damnation,and implies that the readerof the book is an initiate in Dyer's faith.

The seriesof churches,through their respectiveheight and excess,seekto connecta in knowledgeableviewer with their spiritual emplacement Ackroyd's the or, caseof
re-worked version, with their occult and mystical properties. Dyer's brand of

is knowledge his transmuted through of architecture, an understanding religion increasingly disorientated detective. to the their the murderer and restricted victims, Churchesof Dyer's design are deliberately engineeredto link the observer with a hopelessactuality and inevitability of a hellish fate through an intensification of housed is within the church. profanespace,which converselymaintainedand

Eliade's discussionof the segregationof the temple pinpoints the idealised location from darkness the the the walls, separate sacredcentre within and the protection of Reality). (Myth 'outside' the the and and chaos of Likewise, Mary Douglas

for taboo desire to so-called separate the and polarise religions construes continued The Danger). (Purity from and cleanly and spiritual arenas or unhealthy practices dark in distinctions the differentiation of these areasthrough social practice and of from the light, dirt and clean, evidence the will to expel unwanted characteristics place of worship.

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The labyrinth makes problematic such delimitations, and instead contains such dust by is In Ackroyd's that the this coats of oppositions. patina novel, maintained holy churchesand secular areasof the city alike. Dyer demonstrably subvertsthe divine sociological ordering of space and so ensures that the ecclesiastical monument is tarnished with death and 'evil': "[a) vast Mound of Death and it from [ ] Darknesse Church Nastinesse, Profit take and my call out will great will ...
for more Darknesse" (23; 22). His comments relate to an unmarked mass grave, full

of the city's poor, which presentsthe architect with an opportunity to concentrate

their energy. In doing so, Dyer is deliberately disobeying Wren's edict regarding

churchyards,voiced in the novel by his apprenticeWalter, that the burial of the dead from damp be detached the to the church avoid pews or uneven should problems of is following (Wren, he Parentalia 319; Hawksmoor 7). Instead, walking services the method described to him by his mentor in the black arts, Mirabilis, who it lives, in Ground, it dies Com "a the springs again and so, and rots when preached: in laid being buryed Earth, dead, he, Persons the there and only when are many said there is an Assembling of Powers" (23). This custom is in part taken from the belief that these souls will be reincarnatedand their energiestransformed,which like the British is His the live thrive old advice reminiscent of again. and rotted corn will folksong, John Barleycorn. The most well-known version of the ballad was

familiar be for Dyer late in 1787, to too composedby Robert Bums and published Bums' however, to Ackroyd, poem makes reference with that particular variant. his own awareness (Collection) and so demonstrates of the poem.

Given the textual prominenceof reincarnation it is surprising that Ackroyd chooses figure the "resurgam" the St. Paul's, of the with ignore carved the motto of to

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the South door. This the to of the rebuilding phoenix above aphorism relates cathedral. The founding of the motto is contained in a famous architectural (Wren; Wren in documentary both Laura Lamson's cf of anecdote,, re-enacted Jardin, On a Grander Scale 428-429) and in Ackroyd's series about London (Ackroyd'SLondon: Fire and Destiny; cf London 777). The episodewas primarily instructions bring in (292) Parentalia to to a and relates a workman's recorded stone to delineatethe centre of the domed structure. Prophetically, his choice of a
fragment of a Roman headstone clearly bore the word 'resurgam' (I will rise again/ I will arise). The coincidence and symmetry of this gesture aside, such a story

illustrates the rebirth both of the monument and the city.

Despite the

of the anecdote,combining the architect and monument with the appropriateness theme of resurrection, Ackroyd does not demonstrate his awareness by in Hawksmoor. to the event reconstructing or alluding Rebirth remains a key

theme of the novel and is affiliated to the image of the labyrinth as a method of transfonnation and renewal. Dyer's cyclical process of rebirth distorts the

from labyrinth. following the transformation expulsion expectation of positive

Transfiguration confidently identified by Helmut Jaskolski (Labyrinth 98-106) as

integral to an encounter with the maze is here evidenced, in keeping with other contemporaryvisions of the maze,as negativeaffectation.

40 The dark figure that follows eachof the victims converselyalso appearsto watch the they to correct lead enter the towards ensure them either them church, over and for be I "[flime, to on you building or that they arrive at the appropriatetime: mean, This (78). for is Individual This overcoated the you" place not your way again. functions he junctures benevolent as malevolent, other at and appearssometimes is in labyrinthine foe. The streets a both as a guide and a threatening apparition the

157

conflation of the Minotaur, Ariadne and the Daedalus: a convergence that so

fascinated Ayrton (for examples of Ayrton's art see Nyenhuis, lvtvth). The figure

his Spitalfields Ned Christchurch from the to the of place moves on vicinity of death, passing close to St. George in-the-East and through the nearby parish of St. Anne at Limehouse,where he is destinedto die many years after first encountering the figure. The identity of this directing character is ambiguous, as a perpetual
is he wanderer affiliated with the many representations of Dyer, Mirabilis and

Hawksmoor. Equally he may be some embodiment of the malevolence of place, though as a guardianof the labyrinth he is ultimately threatening.

The figure watches and approaches Thomas and Ned in the contemporary sections in the the same manner that Dyer coaxed the eighteenth-century Ned of narrative his Hayes. and colleague The man's appearance resembles the drab and non-

descript attire of Hawksmoor and once again raisesthe suspicion that the detective in Thomas' be the crimes. sighting of the man creates a may an active party is bridged in for him this the absence patriarchal and way paternalistic presence between boy His his the this and the emergence,standing guide. with man as detective both into The the the the transforms murdererand predator. church, guide tread a personal labyrinth: they becomethe followed and the follower, until through
textual symmetry they face one another.

The church's appearancebecomes transformed the nearer the observer comes to its it" (28). The he its to "[t]he structure came closer whole: church changed shape as blanketing link it both to the past and creating a physical seemsto alter the spacearound its he "as from inside the contemporary: approached stone wall, the noisesof the those fabric by being if the the diminished they of muffled were as external world were

158

building itself' (28). The labyrinth is simultaneouslyoutside of time and yet also exists in both timeframes, acting as a threshold betweenthe tWo.
41

The church functions as a

from the to the conduit enabling passage of voices, especiallychanting or singing, arrive past. Similar transmissionsof sound are replicated in the labyrinth where the partitions resonatewith noise from other walkers, or possibly the Minotaur. Here, above so much death and destruction, are channelled the rhymes, songs and emotions of those who
living. were once

is exaggerated by the commonalities and patternism The merging of time sequences

dual the conceived in narratives. In the manner of Dyer's practice of constructing

his designsfirst in wood, Thomasalso fashionsa model of the church and labyrinth
bond between Spitalfields (8,36). This the comparison, while maintaining strong at

the two characters, intimates Thomas' original life as a mason's son.

The

is by deliberately Dyer between to the who chooses alluded characters correlation the name of 'Faustus' when approachedby Mirabilis, and hence seemsto have
death: I cheated dare say, he replies, that the Devil cannot catch you" (18).

Thomas too is familiar with the text: "[he] had read on quickly, hoping to reach the

kingdoms him into Faustus the Devil the takes the of air and shows passage where Doctor Faustus Tradegie The Marlowe's (33). The to the world" of play, allusion (1616), foregroundsthe bargain of a doomedman's pact with the devil. Connection Thomas the both Dyer is Faustus consider and with, empathise to and pertinent as figure, Dyer's Renaissance Like the powerful position of, Marlowe's protagonist. in turmoil. increasingly him dark arts seem to make isolated and Also the

form in the the to internal of audience Faustus' offered wrangling, presentationof his by Dyer the is through narrative of construction early stagesoliloquy, mimicked in the first-person.

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The modem Thomas' and Dyer's fascination with the story of Faustus is in his flight. Dyer's interest by text the their of exemplified remembrance shared [ ] he Faustus "Doctor to this refers pleased me, especially when episode: ... travelled in the Air, seeing all the World" (12). It is at this moment when Faustus from the above that he relishes the power that Satan has offered perceives world him and he appearshis most free and authoritative. This airbome flight perhaps his 'twin' from Thomas' death Spitalfields' the resembles previous parapet of is Likewise, Faustus steeple. elevatedto role of creatorwhereby he can glimpse the
land. both In Dyer Thomas this the of way, cartography aspire to the role of the and

divine architect.
The eighteenth-century Thomas is the son of the church's principal mason and in a

by laying St. Paul's Wren's the top-most that parallels son's completion of moment
boy Typically, (Parentalia 293) Dyer the the tower. the to such apex of stone sends

in Ackroyd but fallen honour have the to the episode masonor architect, an would Ackroyd's In Wren this task. to the too manner, complete infirm rewrites was description of the conclusion of Christchurch is a miffor of Wren's architectural feat. The position of mason was sharedby Daedalus,inventor of the labyrinth, and in ill-fated his include Icarus, the to son, who artificer's this comparison expands from his falling the to flew sky too close to the sun and so perished, arrogance death: it his Ascent Morning Humour the and saw as a He was in great good of on Go I for Instant ] He [ cryed, and Enterprise an me at steadily gazed merry ... he just to the Moment, spiry up coming Go was this as at on!; and on! insecurely being Scaffold, plac'd or rotten, Turret, the timbers of the from fell Tower. his Footing the Boy and the missed and asunder cracked Surprize. Expression Face to but his of He did not cry out seem'd carry an (24-25)

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Dyer's imperative instruction to Thomas is a marker that is heard in subsequent different the his transcend chapters as voice and other parts of the narrative chronologies (cf 26,30,144). In the moment of death, Dyer the artist notes the

beautiful lines beauty boy's descent: "[c]urved than the are more of aesthetic Straight, I thought to my self, ashe fell away from the main Fabrick" (25). The first is inversion line from Dyer's 'heirloom' the of a edition of of sentiment an part Parentalia, where Wren discussesthe elevated position of geometry after the fifth didacticall Vitruvius. Wren's tract on architecture Y42approaches manner of includes Iine': "[s]trait the aesthetics a series of axioms architectural with which lines are more beautiful than curve" (Parentalia 351). Hollinghurst also notes the
Wren "[flew that of and claims paraphrasing manipulative ("Hieroglyph" [it]") will recognise

1049). Discussion of the curve is also addressed by Hogarth who

is found in beauty" be "shallow, "line the that the to elegant, undulating of claims
double curve" (Analysis ofBeauty qtd. Pevsner, Englishness 53).

Returning to the boy's demise, the descent suffered by the young boy evokes the

biblical falls present in Lucifer's expulsion from heaven,Adam's exile from Eden death is The Babel. threat Tower destruction of sensationand of of the and the falling, death by fears Thomas this in when also reprised the other narrativeswhere being spun by his mother: "he was surethat [ ... ] he would crashto the floor and be killed" (35). The motion of his spin is necessarilycircular and so reflects the many in the transitions temporal dances, and recursions cyclical movements and spiral

novel.

43

fate, he Thomas' is as Dyer in the eighteenth century sensitive to the present-day [II last dark Place dream'd I death: night of a too dreams of the young man's

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dream'd my self to be lying in a small place under ground, like unto a Grave, and is Body This 45). broken (43; my vision anachronistic was all while others sung" and prophetic, conflating the modem Thomas' death with an eighteenth-century dream and suggeststhat, just as the future is affected by the past, the past is in both historical future. Dyer's to the the sensitive actions of victims are mirrored settings where they recursively parallel their predestinedroles as marginal parts in his macabre ritualistic theatre. Further commonalities between the two narratives include the victims' emotional affiliation to a church, the universal appreciationof the presenceof a man in a dark overcoat, sensitivity to the sound of distant voices
dust the the that permeates the text. and experience of expanse of

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3.6 Coda This chapter has traced Ackroyd's many references to a continuous and visionary English imagination. In this, arguably his best city fiction. the idea of an English

tradition is explored through the labyrinth of London. The tight recursions of the text, both in motif and event, evoke the overabundance of repetitious curves, indicatiN c of the labyrinth. The suitability of the labyrinth to describe city space is further developed by Jeanette Winterson in her novel, The Passion. The fluidity of Winterson's Venetian identity her discussions maze complements of passion, and time.

16

1SeePeterVilhelm Glob, TheBog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved. 21 have in brief included Oscar (1984) Wilde The Testament Ackroyd's this not of discussionof London. Mainly written from Oscar's exile in France,the majority of the is firmed in his Oscar's heritage that passages are concernedwith rooted past: a his in London. Likewise, in his other fictions there is still an time memoriesof influence from the capital: Milton in America (1997) has descriptive passages that articulate the loss of London and England for the new pilgrims; ThePlato Papers (1999) incorporatesa senseof a futuristic London and even the rural expanseof First Light (1989) is infiltrated by tourists from London. 3 See"London Luminaries and Cockney Visionaries" (Collection 341-351) and "Cockney visionaries: London Calling" (Albion 307- 314). 4 The writers Gaskell, Austen, Brontd, Woolf briefly Elliot and are mentioned as Ackroyd directly surveysfemale writers in just two out of 54 chaptersin Albion. Ironically, thesechaptersare themedaround"anger" and "silence". 5 Seefor example: ThomasMore; Albion 123-129and Collection 336,366. 6 SeeBlake (37) and London: A Biography (112-122). 7 Seefor example:English Music (1992); Dan Leno Golem (1995) Limehouse the and Collection (286-288,440-447). and 8 Interestingly, a section in E.O. Gordon's Prehistoric London usesthe labyrinth to bolster Monmouth's claims of Troy-Novant (Matthews,Mazes216). 9 There were various propheciesand religious pamphletsin the early part of the decried immoral for London's that reputationand called an seventeenth century fire. Following the conflagration,one popular through eradicationof urban sin intent blamed Catholic theory conspiracy a plot on undermining CharlesII by Great fulfilment (cf. The Fire Peter Berresford Ellis, the this omen of engineering of London 92-108). 10 It is ironic given the relationship of fire and the city that the spectacleof the "river of fire", intendedto crown the millennium celebrationsin London, failed to ignite in 2000! 11 John MacLeod's Postcolonial London emphasises the extent to which changeand transfigurationare integral to depictionsof the city. 12 For Wren and John Evelyn's plans seeLisa Jardine(On a Grander Scale264-5,260) (Great 64). Ellis diagram Berresford for Hooke's Robert see and 13 Ackroyd's biographieshave developedinto a deliberateblend of imagined episodes Ackroyd's hypothesis. For historical thoughtsabout researchand combinedwith biography as a genresee"The Fine Art of Biography" (Albion 346-358). 14 The play betweenthe historic and the contemporaryis non-linear and confused,as Ackroyd commentsin his short essayaboutHawksmoor attest:"I do not know if Hawksmoor is a contemporarynovel set in the past or a historical novel set in the 379). (Collection ?resent" 5See SusanaOnegaand John Stotesbury(London esp. 19-34,221-231). 16 Pierre de la Ruffiniere Du Prey arguesthat Hawksmoor's churchesdeliberatelyevoke determined in to Christian refresh attempt and to a serious monuments a return primitive Prey Du Churches). Although London (Hawksmoor's seeksto the place of worship he into this Hawksmoor's undermines edict, an orthodox visions strange consolidate Gothic hyperbole descriptions his the intent of excess and sheer through own of serious Hawksmoor's creations(cf also Ackroyd, Collection 314-316). 17 Bede's recording of PopeGregory's letter to Abbot Mellitus (C.E. 601) concernsthe hope "'We the that through former temples cleansing ritual where pagan sanitisationof destroyed, their and, error temples may abandon their that not are people, seeing know to flocking more readily to their accustomed and adorethe true resorts,may come 164

God" (A History of the English People and Church 87). Du Prey points to Joseph Bingham's Origines Ecclesiasticaeas an important sourcefor any discussionof the early Christian conversionof pagantemples(Hawksmoor's London). 18 For example,seethe prominent reworking of Halicarnassus'mausoleumas a rirotuberanceatop of St. George's in Bloomsbury. 9 References to Parentalia are to the "Heirloom" copy housedin REBA (London) which containsadditional handwritten amendments, notes and drawings by Wren and Hawksmoor. 20On the other hand, it be hard would not to overlay previous civilisations and periods as the centre of London is so confined, especiallywithin the City. This featureof London is graphically realisedin John Stow's tracing of older London/s in his 1603 book, A SurveyofLondon. 21This process in was graphically reproduced a display at the Tate Modem (December 2004) where a cabinet of historical debris lifted from the rubble aroundthe gallery drinks positioned crushed cansalongsideRoman amphorawithout apparentprejudice. 22In keeping with Ackroyd's etymological games,the translation Mrs. West to Mrs. of Best leadsthe readerto concludethat 'West is Best'. Thesesurnames do not sharethe sameetymological root; 'Best' is a derivation of 'beast' a nameoriginally usedin a derisory mannerbut which through the connotationsof strengthand animalism has remainedpopular. 'West' on the other hand refers to the direction (cf. P. H. Reaney,A Dictionary ofBritish Surnames).It would be stretchingthe point too far to note that thesecharacterscombine the threat of the beast(Best) and also encapsulate the idea of direction. 23Significantly, despiteHolmes' prowesshe is thwarted in on occasion,most notably "A Scandalin Bohemia". 24There is some date the uncertainty regarding of Hawksmoor's birth. Thesedatesare given by VaughanHart, whoserecentcompendiumNicholas Hawksmoor: Rebuilding Ancient Wonderswill doubtlessbecomea modem architecturalclassicof its type. 25It would seemthat Yorick Hayes first his jester in Hamlet (the to the owes name demise) Hayes' the comedyof graveyardscenemirrors and also to the tragic figure from Tristram Shandy. In addition, Hayeswas the surnameof a detectivebriefly caught in investigation is fusing 'Jack Ackroyd high Ripper' the the so up perhaps again and low cultural markers. 26The Metropolitan police force took possession in Scotland in New Yard of premises 1829and moved again in 1887and 1890. 271must thank Dr. Martin Arnold for his time and effort spentdiscussingthe devil. between 'Nicholas' the the and association name 28The relationship betweennaming and power is prominent in such folktales as Winterson, Rumpelstiltskin and is evident in contemporarywriting (cf Jeanette OrangesAre Not the Only Fruit 137-144). 29Thedevil is often traditionally invoked in a churchyardat midnight or whilst looking in a mirror. This ritual summoningis completedby chanting the devil's namethree times. The figure three regularly appearsin folk mythology as three wishes,three sisters,three challengesand so on. 30It find top be the to of a church, as exemplified a cross on more commonplace would by the bulky cross at the top of St. Paul's or many of the surroundingchurches. dragon Another exception to this is St. Mary-le-Bow which has a phantasmagorical Ackroyd's fantastical to ball. This notion of appropriate creatureseems resting on a bells be bom it is the the that to London of soundof within considered visionary when St. Mary-le-Bow is to be a true cockney. Ironically, Malcolm Hough's investigationsof 1991suggestthat before the adventof the motor car the bells' soundwould havecarried 165

Glinert, The (Ed46across Highgate" London in[to] the suburbssuch as central and have birthright London Compendium63) and so the parameters this shrunk. of 31Kerry Downes Hawksmoor's in interest lack the to the effects and saleof points of the overshadowingof the architect, first by Wren and then later Vanbrugh, as a marker Hart Vaughan Hawksmoor, of neglect (Hawksmoor 10). In noting the resurgence of introduceshis book on the architect,Nicholas Hawksmoor (2002), by identifying the his from Downes' two volumes, an exhibition shown renaissance of work as stemming in London and Ackroyd's novel. 32A processwittily envisagedin the regional song On Ilkla Moor Baht 'At and in the in dead T. S. Eliot's "Burial of the Dead" (The Waste the growth and regenerationof Land, 1922). 33Significantly, lain Sinclair in Lud Heat (14) utilises the samephraseand also 'misattributes' it to Hawksmoor, and so this would appearto be the sourceof Ackroyd's (Wren (Nicholas Downes 105) Hart 158) and citation. give the quotation as Vanbrugh's designation is by the to commission:a advice which affirmed Hollinghurst ("Hieroglyph" 1049)though it transpiresthat Hart is actually citing Downes (cf Hart, Nicholas Appendix E pp. 257-8). 34In Egyptian mythology the processof resurrectionis prevalent.Each day is signified by rebirth and deathas the sun retreatsto the underworld overnight and eachnew day is This by Osiris' movementwas paralleled reborn afresh. rebirth after ritual dismemberment. 35In the thirteenth century, Hugh becamean expedientrallying call for anti-Semitic behaviouras Koppin, a Jew, was blamed for his murder. Koppin along with eighteen for death. discourse, Thomas' Hugh's In the otherswere executed contemporary leads homeless deemed behaviour to the public vigilante against who are murder for boy's death. the responsible 36As Hendia Baker ("Minotaur Lost") claims, twentieth-centurydepictionsof the labyrinth subverttime as well as space,and thesetemporal labyrinths announce the in literatures. form the adaptationof contemporary 37The tragic poet Chattertonappears to have beenthe focus of a resurgence of popular His in the ability to constructmedieval writings eighteenthcentury. artistic expression in is Ackroyd's to though passages endeavour the eighteenth-century as original similar Hawksmoor. of 38Thefascinationwith Stonehenge by Inigo Jones' readingof the ancient was awoken henge Stukley's by William in later, that the the comments eighteenthcentury, site and "may have been a druid temple" (Glinert, London Compendium94). 39AIthoughBauman's commentsare madein relation to legislation published in 1764, it follows a similar trend remarkedupon by M. Dorothy George(London Life in the Eighteenth Century). 40This figure appears 42,43,70,119,120,128,161 is pages on repeatedlyand evident descriptions Hawksmoor is the 172. His share of and position complicatedas individual. the shadowy similarities with 41A depiction of Spitalfields' fearful fagadeand ability to distort time and spaceis (see Spitalfields Christchurch in Kossoff's Leon especially studiesof portrayed Christchurch SpitafieldsMorning, 1990). 42Indeed,Hart has suggested that thesetracts recall a master's commentsand instructions to his apprentice(Nicholas). This observationis basedon the premisethat Wren likely, for Wren the Hawksmoor was still working was in residenceat or, most home during the writing of thesetreatises. Downes, in his book TheArchitecture of Wren,seemsto corroboratethis when he identifies that Hawksmoor's copy of the Christopher Wren's Sir in Hawksmoor "Nich Vitruvius Perrault edition of at was signed 166

Scotland Yard"which seemsto place Hawksmoor within the household"in the mid 1680s" (128, fn 245). This is further supportedby the presenceof a drawing (found in the 'heirloom' copy of Parentalia) of the temple of Halicamassusexecutedby the hand of Hawksmoor. The suggestionhere is that the younger man was available to complete this exercisebasedon the tract for Wren. 43There are several episodesof vagrantsand children completing a circular 'Dance of Death'. Ackroyd returns to this practice in his recent novel The Clerkenwell Tales (2003) as he remarkson a fresco createdby a thirteenth-centurycraftsmanknown as 'Peter the Painter'. Peter's macabredepiction of the danceof death servedin "impressing and terrifying generations Londoners" (Clerkenwell 209 fn 10). of

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The Passion
4 Jeanette Winterson's Encounter with the Labyrinth

Imagesof the maze and the labyrinth feature extensively in Winterson's fiction and are in in barriers deployment the the the sphere present of circle, and spiral and metonymic bodies The Passion The expose the city as a maze such maintain. urban elementsof journey. focus Winterson through to the theme the this extend central of and promotes
her intellectual in introduction film her the to of writing as a consistent engagement

Great Moments Aviation (1994, in script vii).

Typically, her narrative innovations

her theoretical preoccupationwith the nature of reading, whereby enfolded underline

don't "I that vignettes reveal an authorial position confirms: really see the point of 1 in lines" (Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, 1985 xiii). This ultimately reading straight journey for both the the accentuates process of character and reader. Highly structured interlaced stories combine to reflect a thought process that is "closer to a maze than a motorway, every turn yields another turning, not synunetrical, not obvious" (Oranges

first her her Winterson's novel emphasises attention to the antixiii). explication of
linear maze as a founding premise of textual construction predicated upon the

between relationship readerand text.

The Passion relates a series of love stories through the encounter with some peripheral

historical figures located in the Napoleonic era and thereby createsa dialogue with the
in decisive the is the Europe of power reformulation moment past. re-imagined at a boundaries of the continent. Winterson traces these enveloped and tangled stories

journey's the labyrinth the end is through the patterning of the expectation of where destabilised,causinga final transientand elliptical result.
2

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This chapterwill concentrateon the notion of journey expressed through the mechanism
of the maze. Significantly, Winterson systematically adopts the word 'maze' to

describe the city, and this convention demandsscrutiny. Possible differences between the maze and the labyrinth are surveyedto considerto what extent the 'maze' is a useful
for The Winterson's Venice Venice. exploration of realises a nomenclature realising

is dually located in leads that the the to an examinationof the real and site unreal, and
literary employment of significant engagements with the city. The relationship

Winterson draws between water, maze and text is an intriguing arrangement of

boundaries and thresholds. Despite the outlandish unreality of Winterson's Venice,

there is a strong sense of distinct location, spatial boundaries and exchange. Briefly, it

be to considerthe socio-economicsituation of the text's construction advantageous will in order to analyse the realities offered by Venice in regard to genderedspace and identity.

This chapter will approach notions of cartography and assessthe implications and
fictions. her meaning of maps across Cartography, as an ideologically saturated

by Napoleon's lead then to an examination of empire as represented medium, will Henri's the Finally, this conceptualisation as narration evaluate will chapter ambitions.

focalised his imagery his his unreliability. and use of natural of past and scrutinise Winterson's mediations of time also appearto adopt the shapeand peculiarities of the fluid maze. Through the anachronismsand literary interventions employed, there is bound. but both is time also chronologically out of createda spacethat conversely

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4.1

Maze or Labyrinth?

Unravelling Winterson's Terminology

Experience of the fluid, changeableand multiply fictionalised Venice forms a key intensifies labyrinthine feeling Winterson the the of the urban. portion of narrative, as
City as labyrinth is a recognisable trope that is increasingly prevalent in twentieth3 fiction, divulges the threatening and consuming aspect of the city. Though and century the metaphor of city as labyrinth is common enough (cf. Ackroyd London; Caws The

City), and recalls the labyrinth's function as an embodiment or signifier of the walled
it is Strikingly, Winterson to the the city, extremely rare connect city solely with maze.

labels labyrinth instead Venice to converseabout a city of mazes. a and chooses never
'Amaze', fon-ned from maze with an intensifier prefix, underlines the wonderment and for fitting by the so structure and seems a etymological root stupefying effect caused fiction. prodigious a This augments her deployment of the expression to characterise

its in introduction Oranges, her to through to extension as a reading and writing in Body (1992,88). for love Written the the on metaphor process of

Though she adopts 'maze' exclusively in The Passion to refer to the complex network in (2000,239). The PowerBook interchangeable approach of canals, she exercisesan This latter choice reflects perhapsthe generalist understandingthat the two terms are largely indivisible (Matthews, Mazes; Fisher, Art). Critical attention to her work has ignored any subtlety or distinction between maze and labyrinth, with some of
Winterson's major critics, Susana Onega ("The Passion"; .. Self and 'Other"'), Paulina Palmer ("The Passion" 114-115) and Judith Seaboyer ("Second Death"), referring

international These Passion. The labyrinth critics' in solely or predominately to the interesting is the term of 'labynnth' elevation suggests an possibly and prevalent use of

170

Cretan the the theoretical conceptualisationof as a concept; arguably as an extensionof labyrinth as a feminine space.

The nuancesbetween maze and labyrinth have become increasingly diffused causing divergent classifications to be extremely problematic. Frequently, critics who seek to
distance the two terms tend to argue that the labyrinth is unicursal; a religious symbol

denoting the progressionto God, whilst the maze is a conundrum of multiple walkways
4 that confuse. In a significant variation, Hermann Kem maintains denying the semantic

both is terms that the collusion of maze the application of the labyrinthine in literature.
He directly castigates Matthews' position (Mazes) regarding the interchangeability of the labels in his book Labyrinths: 5,000 Years of a Design and reftises to even discuss the maze, as he designates the shape as a later transmutation of the labyrinth into the literature. literary labyrinth Kern that the realm of argues mediations of are always figure is labyrinth the snarled and menacing, while as a emphatically unicursal and relatively easy to navigate. This simplistic delineation is systematically dismantled both by literary examples that follow the tight symmetry of the depictions of the

(cf. Robbe-Grillet, In Labyrinth) labyrinths turf the and the mazes ecclesiastical and intrinsic threat posed by early labyrinths, documented in both historical and in her draws Doob Indeed, article a similar conclusion archaeological research. "Contradictory Paradigms:The Labyrinth in Art and Literature". Although there is a differentiation between the labyrinth in literature and its visual representationsin imagination for there Doob the that existed no medieval concludes medieval art, Idea). (cf paradox also

An inability to successfully divorce the two ideas stems from their long and involved history. Given Winterson's exclusive use of the maze, it is necessaryto unpick the

171

its fully to figure history to and note points of usage the understand etymology and of departure from the labyrinth. Arguably, the earliest 'walkable' mazeswere utilised in fertility-based rites: these mazes were at ground level, cut into the turf and had no
its however, labyrinth, The vertical structure. was an upright physical structure and in inevitably lead in to spatial confusion ways verticality would which the early maze

is In difference the this the not. pre-medieval period, would most striking structural betweenthe two phenomena.

The different fashioning of types made it possible for walkers to infiinge the boundaries

laid down in early turf mazes in a manner inconceivable in the stone and walled demarcationsof the ancient labyrinths. Confident affirmation of this reading is offered
by Angus Fletcher who cites the labyrinth as "a term from building or architecture"' ("The Image of Lost Direction" 342, ffi. 2). Coupled with this physical difference it

between labyrinths that the mazes and was the of major variations would appear one
into in turf, their traditionally cut mazes were principally material used construction, as

built labyrinth in hedge lined the out of stone. was with pebbles whilst planted or However, the assumption that all horticultural labyrinth constructions are known as
1) Henry 11 Rosamond, fabled is by the s supposed mistress, murder of mazes undermined (Matthews, Mazes). labyrinth' bower died heart the termed the of a garden who at

Likewise the mazy garden in Rome is known as the 'Labyrinth Garden' and as such
further complicates any simple pronouncement. As the two terms have become

blurred forms have between the distinctions the two and the approximate in meaning building materials utilised have becomeconvergentwhere appropriate.
5

Mazes of ancient ritual were cut into turf and it seemsconceivable that the shapeand because Danish Viking by settlements and terminology of the maze was reinforced

172

later (Ackroyd, Scandinavian turf the examples earlier pebble mazesare congruentwith London 14-15;6 Adrian Fisher and Diana Kingham, Mazes 8-10). Despite the possible intercultural exchange there is sufficient evidence to suggest that such symbols are 7 ubiquitous and present in comparative religions globally. Expanding upon the

interchangeability of the tenns, Matthews (Mazes) argues that deviation may be linguistic is 'maze' sources,as regardedas an elaborationof generally understoodto be Northern equivalent of the Europeanword 'labyrinth". In confirmation, the used as a
OED cites the root of 'maze' as Old English, originating from earlier Norwegian and Swedish dialects specifically, from 'masa' or 'maz' which refers to toil and labour. Currently, 'mafe' still carries this meaning of difficulty (J. Brynildsen, Norsk-Engelsk). Furthermore, Fletcher locates 'maze' as being derived from the Middle English masen and compares this with the Norwegian masa-st, a tenn loosely connected with the act of disorientation dreaming ffi. ("Image" 342, 2). sleep, and Partly, the reason for the

hybridisation of these terms is the introduction of 'labyrinth' into the English lexicon.
Early usagesof labyrinth adopt the word 'maze' to elucidate the meaning of 'labyrinth',

her discussion labyrinths, define is In the to though the of other. almost as one used Doob (Idea) demonstrates the medieval positioning of the terms in this way, whilst the OED lists a lineageof writers who continuethis tTend.
8

Once the maze became part of the popular horticultural imagination, as a formal
9 it fifteenth late from for the century onwards, was garden games construction

This hedge. the to the from turf extended unicursal usage transfon-ned the prone variety for dead-ends loops decision amusement and sport. template, adding and nodes, Originally planted in yew" the extension of the height of the maze's parameters " Connections into with transformedthe structure potential clandestinemeeting places. fertility rites, bawdy games and lovers' bowers are reaffirmed in literature where the

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12 love is frequent for the progression of a affair, an association maze a metaphor heightenedin YhePassion. By solely referring to a 'maze' in ThePassion, Winterson is found English turf the mazes on village greens. making a specific acknowledgement of

Neglect of these ritualistic early mazes is recorded by William Shakespearein A Midsummer Night's Dream (IIJ) which positions the abandonmentof these traditional 3 ' innovation. into Patterns turf are difficult rites as a part of a processof changeand cut to maintain without regular walking and so, as fashion favoured formal gardendesigns,
from found (pristine be turf green mazes cut are now extremely rare examples can still in Dalby [North Yorkshire] and Alkborough [Lincolnshire] though). Later garden

from the spiritual resonancesof a unicursal track and f4brications moved anyway
become more complex and increasingly secular.

The growth of the maze from early turf examples into garden hedge varieties marked a further blurring of the distinction between the maze and the labyrinth. The raised and increasingly complex passageways of the hedge maze are in keeping with the earliest

in labyrinth, the the the the alters public of maze significance so cultural and reports of imagination and coincides with an obfuscation of the differences between the two
later designs by that is intricacy these It this causes engendered confusion and modes.

Shields to remark in her fiction that a "maze is more likely to baffle and mislead those Larry, Her 81). Party (Larry's its paraphrasingan aside protagonist, who tread paths" different ideas" "the determines two (Mazes), that by Matthews call up words made in the a (82); essentially that the maze stressescomplexity and notion of a puzzle Fletcher Likewise, labyrinth. the the confirms with mannernot immediately associated from distinctive forms bewilderment the as etymology maze that of core psychological delicately Faris however, ffi. Paradoxically, 2). 342, navigates the labyrinth ("Image"

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her leads to that differences in the forms between that the conclusion the two a manner the connotations of the labyrinth are altogether more sinister. In doing so, she draws (Faris, Borges' directly Cretan terms the mediation of more model and upon upon the Labyrinths 201-202, ffi. 2). What seems to be at the core of this inconsistency is idea is familiar labyrinths the the the with of ancient of antiquity or whether writer more if her/his knowledge is permeatedthrough the ecclesiasticalmodelling of the form from the medieval onwards. The core mythical narrative concerning the labyrinth is infused
inherent it difficulty later that complexity and with such makes analogous with versions distinctions between Though labyrinth the the the of maze. maze and are unsettled, the two terms involve a common association with passion.

The maze in The Passion functions primarily on three levels: firstly, the maze exists as the setting for the Venetian elements of the story; secondly, as a metaphor for narrative finally, the maze also mediates questions surrounding the the and reading process and, identity. fon-nulation its the of effect upon experience of space and Winterson's

description of Venice is of a partially organic and partially man-made construction that is a site of oppositions: "[t]he certainty of man-made stones contrasts the ocean's

hampers Henri's 21). The Quattro (Stokes, navigation city's changeability awfulness"
the him lost (112-113) maze and of attributions contemporary so unites and and renders its etymology.

is imagery Venice, describe the 'maze' more Despite using the term present to Venetian by the labyrinth streets contorted the reinforced and of obviously evocative Part-human labyrinth. the and part-animal that parody the man-made architecture of depictions of the woman and the cook at the centre of the maze coffespond to the disregard Napoleon's Minotaur, fate gluttony and monstrous the whilst of presenceand

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by for soldiers' lives is equally bestial. Mythic resonances type this are substantiated of Judith Seaboyerwho equatesthe cook's death with the slaying of the Minotaur as an inevitable action upon entering the labyrinth ("Second Death"). Winterson's parody of
Asterion's destruction is elevated to a mythological killing or sacrifice by Benyei

Tamas who observes that the action recalls the sacrifice of Christ and hence again
("Risking" Passion 205,207). the evokes Employment of the term 'maze' possibly

delays the comprehensionof this event's inescapability, as latterly mazes have been
in but themselves as monstrous viewed without the necessity of a predator within the

structure.

Consistent with the image of the labyrinth is the notion that the city cloaks a secret

dispossessed, interior the centre,representedas a ghetto of an which does "not lie on

14 (114). The approach to the hidden city patterns the symbol of the infinite: any map" "[w]e rowed in a shape that seemed to be a figure of eight working back on itself'

(113). Residing within this privileged site, found through instinct (53), is an exotic and
foreign milieu of starving children and political refugees. Entry into the central space is

life by the the the through or practice of everyday enabled either abandonmentof
innate Such boatmen. the and partially assistance of mysterious navigations, partly discovery knowledge. Through importance the the of a of regional observed, emphasise

deconstructed. is the city within a city urban effectively

Appropriately, within the hidden quarter there is a monstrous, namelesswoman who despatches inner the twilight sphinx-like city and who world of reigns over the Minotaur feminine functions the She to the of as guardian counterpoint a as prophecies. Elizabeth her female the The sphinx who, as riddling recall grotesque and maze. Wilson persuasivelyargues,reflects the deep-rootedmasculineanxiety that congregates

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15 In The Passion the reader is around the fear of the feminine (Sphinx in the City). presented with two such creatures, a female sphinx and a male Minotaur. Their

presencesubvertsthe idea of a single guardian and confers an ambivalent genderingof the city.

The cook especially is massively inflated and becomes the physical embodiment of the

threat he represents. Winterson's fictions are marked by similarly grotesquefigures,

female, often whose bodies and personae are exaggerated and larger than those around them. In Sexing the Cherry (1989) this is visualised in the gigantic size of the Dog

Woman, in the obesity of the seventhprincess' husbandwhose gluttony finally causes him to explode, and in the melding of the grotesquewithin the domestic sphere to
emphasise the threat of this space in Written on the Body. Winterson regularly subverts the normal demarcations and the perceived limitations of the body and chooses to inflated emphasise excessive and properties. In doing so, the text deconstructs, or The body in The Passion

indeed pressurises, the space that the body inhabits.

fragmentation disintegration the perpetuates and of the self through emphasis on the distended isolation of certain body parts. Kenner, paraphrasing Ayrton's writing about internal by body "gave labyrinths the the that external and exhibited mazes, supposes

humans their first obsession with the labyrinthine" (Mazes 246).

Such internal

labyrinths are evident in Venice, causedby the city's capacity to mimic both the body into journey labyrinth through the the the transfonns centre of city a and the which questof self.

The canals of Venice are a mazy network that Winterson describes using corporeal body Experience this stressesa network of spacesand passages urban of metaphors. isolated fragmented body; is the and that and, as parts are rather not a cohesive

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Purinton's notes ("Postmodern Romanticism" 80-81), are in a process of perpetual her home "living (113). description by Villanelle's as a city" of change underlined
Dwelling here is similarly episodic and even the action of passion is disseminated in the

Venetian carnival,,with eachbody part savouring the thrill of lust or risk. Kisses stolen from strangers swinging above the street: "fill the mouth and leave the body free-0* 16 (59). Revellers in Venice can respond to love and sex without giving the whole of heart the external pleasuresencountered their selvesbecause the that the streetensure in
is remote from the sensesof the extremities. It is not until Villanelle gambles her heart that she risks everything and allows herself to be utterly consumed by passion. Ironically, this fragmentary system of interaction that initially Villanelle finds satisfying is analogous with Napoleon Bonaparte's sentiments concerning love, as the emperor by L fall in love dissect love (H. A. I "were I to piece" my piece seriously would wrote: Fisher, Napoleon 248). Scott Wilson also quotes Napoleon's maxim to draw a

68). The ("Passion" between Villanelle the use of such an and emperor comparison

from for her difference Villanelle Henri is chooses emphaticcorrelation problematic as Napoleon (88). Passion is not the totalising and uniting force that Henri hopes for,
by body, the it the the episodes as evidenced of unnatural segregation rather encourages heart (98,109,115-116) Villanelle's in (82), Russia the capture of of cannibalism the gambler's dismemberment (91,93-94). and

be by achieved, Although love and passion representan avenue which wholenessmay in frequently result the labyrinthine journey undertakenand the realisation of passion is to achieve stability and cohesion. enough the not the understandingthat usually goal for to the of protagonists journey variety The a the opportunity through maze allows defeating by the intended her/his or metaphorical her/himself partner worthy of prove lovers For the these its the heart end of of literal monstersat the majority structure. of

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their search is signalled by failure or loss; for example, the prince beheadshis ideal found down by be (Oranges), brothers that the three which cannot woman are scythed (which ironically finds them [Sexing]), Pablo and Francescaare murdered(PoiverBook) Quests futile Winnet (Oranges). frequently Jeanette are evidencedas and and are exiled in or non-substantial,as the caseof The Passion, and yet repeatedlythese participants in dogged heart to their show a need risk again the hope that they will chanceupon a final fulfilling love.

The search for a configuration of identity forms one of the central themes contained Winterson's Thomas within work, where wounded manifestations seek wholeness.
Fahy argues that such quests act as a defining structure within The Passion ("Fractured Bodies"). In this way, her questing protagonists enact cyclical courses striving for passions to reinvent, transform and refresh themselves only to ultimately learn that "no is final is but (Oranges 48). It the the the attempt contained not goal emotion one" important. is be This journey to the that ensures recursive continuity perceived within filter for love begin labyrinth through the to their of their a quest as protagonists re-enter previous failures.

Such narrative mazes that can be navigated in the pursuit of passion promote the illuminated from love. Taken journeys manuscript, an ancient are realisation that these becomes Body the Written mazelike attributes of the of aware the protagonist of on languageand love where eventhe letter itself forms a map of a maze: The first letter a huge L ... The letter was a maze. On the outside, at the top been had letter, heart the the letter L, which of the stood a pilgrim.. -At of formed to make a rectangle out of the double of itself, was the Lamb of God. How would the pilgrim try through the maze, the maze so simple to but I for long fathom I time the birds? caught to was tried a path angelsand forgetting book, I the beaming by dead serpents. gave up and shut ends at that the first word had been Love. (88)

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Gospel This extract strongly suggests the biblical of possibly an adaptationof passage, a St. John where 'love' is a substitutefor John's 'Word'. The 'clue' to this maze is love force indicates desire the through travel that maze and acts as an motive which enables that prefigures exit and henceenlightenment. Religion, passionand the maze are again
here in The Passion. As Matthews (Mazes) (Labyrinths) Faris they as united are and

labyrinth from is be it. the to to the to above attest, view given opportunity understand
Manfred Pfister alludes to denial of this spectacle in The Passion as "we are never

from its the above; we are always in granted such a view maze and overall gestalt
("The Passion" 18). a mystery" remains

Invariably, the journey undertaken in pursuit of love is a means to discover oneself Winterson's writing advocates the pre-eminence of the love story as a means to engage in for heart "metaphors language the the the of a mazy series of with unfathomable

heart" (Sexing 80). Geographiesof love and passion reveal to the individual a true
image of themselves lying at the centre of the maze: When I fell in love it was as though I looked into a mirror for the first time felt in hand lifted I my cheeks, my wonderment and my and saw myself (154) This neck. was me.

The culmination of passionoffered by Winterson as the object of the ultimate quest is

fulfilment for for the that and self-awakening a catalyst acts as an unselfish state

individual. Moments of wholenessare fleeting gesturesas the passionate are encounters is labyrinths finite. Passage brief these limited, through elliptical and personal often and
is exemplified by the actions of Villanelle in The Passion who, upon exiting the maze,

desiresto re-enter.

Passionfunctions as an impetus to begin a journey and acts like a 'clue' through the is in its but the experience of passion various guises not vieNvedas ultimately maze,

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is love fulfilling or healthy. If the processand passage regardedas a central concern of in her work then The Passion implies, by its very title, the zenith of this experience. The text details various consuming loves and yet the passion of the title is unclear. Palmer itemises the various loves within the novel and observesthat thesepassionsare destructive "Lesbian Fiction" 165-166). In Tamas ("The 106-7; Passion" contrast, all in definite "of the article the novel's title as an echo or remembrance concentrates upon
knows "original" the as what our culture ("Risking" passion" 199). The Passion

juxtapositions between sharp spiritual passion, through the allusions to constructs

Christ's Passion, with earthly passion, epitomised by Napoleon's and the cook's lustful her lover between Villanelle the only reciprocated passion married gluttony, whilst and

is ultimately doomed.

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4.2

Venice: Winterson's Invention of the City

Located within The Passion is the depiction of an exuberant Venice whose definition facilitates dialectic conversation with other works of fiction, through intertextual 17 labyrinth, The this the the as regarding city. composite of and nuances, mercurial city
Faris notes, juxtaposes "the physical qualities of cities and the nature of the texts and

thoughts they engender"("Labyrinth as Sign" 34). Sensitive to the fluid mix of the sea blends liquid Winterson criss-cross canals, a and intertextual narrative water and detailing a similarly elusive and convolutedsenseof time and space.

Venice is a city of the imagination, the ultimate object of desire and home for Marco ' 8 Polo in Calvino's Invisible Cities, which is "like seeing an invented city rise up and in (The 109). Passion the air" quiver Winterson acknowledges the influence of

Calvino's novel in her article "Invisible Cities", whilst various critics have mentioned
Winterson's work as derivative from the earlier piece (Pearce "Emotional Politics" 30; Grice and Woods I'm Telling You Stories 2). This invocation of Calvino's novella is in distilled from fictive draws that the text are essence cities a series of noteworthy as

Marco Polo's remembranceof his Venetian home. In direct parallel with Winterson's desirable. fictional is fluid, text, the mediatedcity and

Venice has always fascinatedand enticed, uniting themes of love and loss, death and despair in literature, poetry, music and film. The fourth canto of Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage meditates upon Venice, her decay and ruination, remarking that literature iv). Indeed, (IV. literature by the is canon of the city survives and renewed Winterson's Seaboyer comments about to echoing suggest, the causes city concerning Death" 484). From it" ("Second before [Venice] her novel, that "'we know we ever visit

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the tragic passion of The Wingsof a Dove, the contamination of Death in Veniceto the disquieting cinema of Don't Look Now, Pfister proffers that the suitability and fiction localised "subtitle Winterson's title of almost any in adaptability of acts as a Venice ever since the Renaissance"("The Passion" 16). Purinton, however, identifies
the exploration of passion as a typically Romantic notion ("Postmodern Romanticism" 71). Their comments unite a crucial thread of enquiry regarding the novel; namely, that this text is an amalgamation of multiple historical and literary narratives regarding the

discourses invariably love death. Winterson's that these city and pivot around and decision not to visit Venice whilst writing The Passion, emphasises her schemeto "reit has been in imagination" Venice ("Invisible the create where always strongest -

Cities"). An emblem of Westem desire,the city becomesboth the vesseland metaphor

for a conflation of narrative explorations arranged, as Pfister argues, in a flaky is, ("The Passion"). It city, working at the palimpsest as Winterson reflects, a 66cusp

intersectionof art and life" ("Invisible Cities").

Venice is indicative of Winterson's use of a cityscape: as living backgrounds, her cities become characters within their own right as they invent and move. This magical

19 by Henri. Venice the changes enacted upon and exemplified essence is present in

Though Venice is central to The Passion there are other urban portraits drawn, albeit briefly, in the cities of Paris and Moscow. Venice is a doomed collage of opposites,
lagoon. in a swampy precariously situated The city is constantly threatened with

20 is As Byron Mediterranean. the by reasoned, city merely submersion the waters of the been bom been having its the inevitability third age, waters and out of Of waiting the both bride and lord of the ocean,Venice anticipatesits final surrenderto the sea. As a location chosen specifically for its inaccessibility and marshy location, Umberto Eco's fonning finding the (2002) the Baudolino great city. of and parodies novel

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A city glorified in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-centuries with revenue achievedthrough its trading links with the East,Venice was suffusedwith art, architectureand outlandish
pageantry. The city was also the point of departure for Marco Polo whose journeys "created Asia for the European mind" (John Masefield qtd. Davis, Venice 44). By the

former days further the the nineteenthcentury memory of city's glory exemplified the
historical As ingrained (cf Pfister, "The city's otherness.21 an reality and now an notion Passion" 18-19), Venice remains a mysterious blend of the European and Orient, the

'other' whose discontinuity lies partially within the borders of the known. Winterson
further employs this ambivalence through the creation of an 'inner' city or ghetto that

housesa foreign and impoverishedunderclass.

The real city's dualisms are epitomised through its identification with both male and female signifiers. Venice is conversely known as the 'Bride of the Ocean' (the city is in dominant has to the the married each year ocean an extravagant ceremony), and yet

its lion Childe In Byron's Harold's the emblem. as poem masculine symbol of
Pilgrimage the terminology used genders Venice as both male and female within the

foundation 'abject' 485) Seaboyer ("Second Death" (IV. the of assigns samestanza xi).
Winterson's city as a major factor in the ferninising of the city and also notes that such feminine attribution is a common manner of discussing cities. On the other hand,

Pfister ("The Passion" 21-22) makesproblematic a singular genderingof the city as he lascivious, both Venice, images female with chasteand of and representations contrasts the masculinefeaturesof the city.

The most significant external factor concerning this unusual maze is the view of a labyrinth that is simultaneouslyboth a city and a complex waterway. The meeting of

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has been labyrinth intriguing is made water and combination and one which an increasingly common in leisure mazes that use watery elements (cf Hever castle). Though rare in literature, it can be found in Pliny the Elder's writings about the river
Meander (Natural Histories Xxxxvi-xxxvii), Andrew Marvell's The Wreck of the

Bermudas(5-6) and in Milton's description of Lethe (Paradise Lost 11.582-586). The Venetian canals highlight their essential ambivalence as a devised and artificial flow they of container seawateras ebb and with the tide. Venice is, then, a dyadic
mixture of the artificial and the natural, in a synthesis of the organic and the nonfusion This land organic. of water and creates an appealing union of opposites in an unstable threshold, which simultaneously unites and separates the two forces. Its

combination or transformationof contradictory stateS22 was viewed by Percy Shelley as:

"Ocean's nursling [ a ] peopled labyrinth of walls" ("Lines Written Among the ... ... Euganean Hills" 95-96). The precarious situation of Venice is stressed by the

inevitability in it. the that paradoxical of submersion very waters sustain

23 Fluidity and water are consistently employed in Winterson's fictions to reflect the flux liquid: to transformative representnarrative properties of and to rejuvenating and 24 imply an underlying metonymic evocation of the maternal and the feminine.
Perpetual wanderings of rivers parallel the protagonists who ostensibly seek love or to

destiny. is Fascination from their the socially-ascribed with water escape confines of intensified in Winterson's recent publication Lighthousekeeping (2004), where the 25 Water for Silver the those maze. represents on watery mercurial acts as a guide freedom as an unstoppableflow away from its origin, and yet thesewatery allusionscan deposits Alluvia's (1997), Gut Symmetries In the disempower. to of name refers also inevitably, becomes flood by land the she marooned and, river's silt stranded on between the warring partnership of Jove and Stella. In this manner, naming

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26 Winterson fate their the progress. acknowledges of the person guiding and shaping directly examinesthe onomasticprocessboth through Dickensian-style naming and in a interest in is in Winterson's Adamic this tradition. rejection of nomenclature manifest Henri's refusal to name his companion bird, the mysterious Queen of Spades,and 27 in elsewhere the anonymousromancerof Written on the Body.

The naming of her key fictional protagonists demands attention; principally, the decision to adopt 'villanelle -)28 as an appellation complements the poetic texture of
Winterson's writing. Certain phrasing can be traced which is echoic of the strong fonn. Matthew Gilbert's review raises the novel's

patterning of the villanelle

29 Interestingly, the root of the villanelle resemblance to this genre of poetry.

"a form French derived from an earlier Italian folk song" composition was verse
(Ferguson et al., Norton Ixxv) which directly corresponds to Villanelle's and Henri's

nationalities. Named by her stepfather,Villanelle appearsto confin-n the Gallic root of

her name, though she appears indifferent to its origin: "He gave me a French name too. Villanelle. It's pretty enough" (53). The derivation of her name is acknowledged by

the woman in the inner city who understands that such an appellation acts as a further

her birth identity, being Venetian (54). Villanelle's at odds with obfuscationof

The verse fonn which begat her name is said to parallel a circular form of dancewhich folksong. Italian the presumably accompanied Notably the Cretan labyrinth is

VI. The Aeneid 12-52) (Virgil, dancing Ariadne's to and so place sometimesreferred as image labyrinth (Evans, level the the invocation dance this of the again recalls on of Palace 111.60-88). Moreover, Matthews (Mazes)tracesthe fertility dancesin honour of Geranos as being particularly mazy, and Plutarch also depicts the saved Athenians XXI). dancing a labyrinth rite after escapingCrete (Theseus

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The villanelle poetic form is a highly regulated and structured arrangement which 30 An hypnotic example of a villanelle contains a rigid and repetition of rhyme. in Portrait Man, found in Joyce's Artist Young be literature the of as a embedded can 31 Seaboyer Stephen Dedalus the the composes verse. specifically where protagonist for The Passion, Joyce's Villanelle that as sheclaims cites villanelle as a primary source is the developedobject of Stephen'slust: the bird-like, red-headedwoman of Portrait ("SecondDeath"). Significantly, Stephen'svillanelle is bom out of an "enchantmentof
the heart" (235), which perfectly augments Winterson's subject matter.

Whilst some passing critical attention has focused upon the poetical naming of

Villanelle, Henri's name is universally overlooked in criticism to date (up to the end of
January 2005). Clearly, Henri is the French equivalent of the English 'Henry' and as

is It such was popular and remains in common usage. valuable at this time to cite
Withycombe's entry in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, as his from Old German is Henri He the that stems writes word commentary entirely apposite.

Haimrich, a compound of the words "haimi 'house', 'home', and ric 'ruler... (Oxford
Dictionary 149). Exposed at the core of Henri's being is his association with the home leads doubling his Napoleon his that to to a ruler strong affiliations coupled with

32 betweenhimself and the emperor.

Unlike Winterson's central characters,the object of Villanelle's passion is denied a in lover by her the Villanelle to chaptershe relates. a name refers never standardname.

'The Queenof Spades'is given as the headingto the chapterand is a conflationof the
for Such label by Henri (94). in Villanelle's a story as recorded woman and the card this unknown and enigmatic woman seems appropriate, and recalls the

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Wonderland Adventures Alice's in Carroll's in Lewis anthropomorphisedsuits of cards (69-110). Onega in "History and Story-telling in Oranges" likens Jeanette'smother to Carroll's raging matriarch, whereby Mrs Winterson becomes"the "Queen of Spades"in
Alice in Wonderland' (123,144). The suit of spades props up the bottom of Carroll's

hierarchal procession and is representedby the gardeners(cf Hugh Haughton, Alice 313 fn. 1). This confirms that Onega, who works primarily with The Passion, has

Winterson's Queenof Spades Carroll's Queenof Hearts. erroneously conflated with

This slip is interesting as it accidentally re-affinns the connection between the two Winterson's characters. choice of name encourages this intertextuality as suitably the

Queenof Spadesacts also as the Queenof Hearts, as shejealously guards Villanelle's heart.

The sobriquet is given by chance as it is the lucky card of the city extracted from the deck denoting "the symbol of Venice" (59). Through its association with Villanelle's lover, the card stresses the femininity and duplicity of the city. The card is also a

33 in deck have in Tarot the to memberof pack, a considered modem originated the city
Stuart Classical R. Kaplan, Tarot 21). Venice (see Tarot; Papus, of Like Eliot's

Madame Sosostris in The WasteLand, Winterson exposes a figure of destiny at the core

her of unreal city.

The Tarot's suit of spades(or swords) symbolises "progress or accomplishmentfor Classical Tarot disaster" (Kaplan, 130). bad, and good or sometimes misforhme Alexander Pushkin's The Queenof Spades,a skilfully-crafted short story of gambling, love and malevolencewhich functions as a subtext within The Passion, suitably places indicates "[t]he the card as an unlucky one: some covert malice") queen of spades

34 The conniving attitude of Pushkin's Countessmimors (Queen of Spades 69).

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Villanelle's ]over, who seeksto imprison Villanelle forever by sewing her image and heart into a tapestry. Older and married, the Queenof Spadesappearsto be a predatory Patricia Duncker to remark upon to the seducer,able stalk streetsat night, and causes the inequality of their relationship that unites "a wealthy married woman with a handsome palace and a wandering boatman's daughter" ("Jeanette Winterson" 84).
Compounding this sense of imbalance, Carolyn Allen comments upon the control

junior by Queen her (Following Djuna 57). Indeed, the the over risk-seeking exerted between lovers is in Villanelle the secondmeeting occurswhilst soldier dressand tends to allegorisetheir relationship in tenns of a chessgame,where the Queenis able to out35 limited impulsive manoeuvre the pawn. An gambler, Villanelle risks what she values in her most and arrogant youthful relationship there is concealed a representation of the gambling mantra: "You play, you win, you play, you lose. You play" (73). As Jan Rosemergy argues ("Navigating" 261), Villanelle risks rejection as well as the catarrh

is free Queen Spades. her lover her In to the of the she sex of contrast, when reveals
intimacy disguise (71). has Villanelle's Despite with gamble as she already penetrated her married lover, Villanelle is careful to keep her feet well-hidden and so is always disguised during this relationship.

The description of their love affair is surprisingly free from fantasticalcommentand so in lesbian their a sense of reality, and also normality. grounds relationship The

Villanelle liaison this the mode as their narrative cessationof marks conclusion of in "walk (75) float to "in on water'" to masculine guise and mid-air" apparentlyseems business the (76). Such miraculous events are interspersed mundaneand routine with Indeed, in the life elements of magical realism city. a of everyday and production it "[y]ou by the must admit sardonicrefrain: which sweep the reader along are arrested is not usual" (94). There seemsto be a senseof ironic distance in the phrase,as in the

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by her Venice and condoned carnival aspect of such activities are commonplace stepfather,who claims: "[flhere are strangerthings" (61).

In this meeting of the unreal and the real the labyrinth typifies the conceit of the threshold, as Angus Fletcher argues in "Definitions of Threshold for a Theory of 36 Labyrinths"'. It is fundamentally a bridging device that simultaneouslyseparates and
labyrinthine The connects. waterways function as a gateway allowing those bom into

the ways of the boatmento access the deniedhidden interiors of Venice. Foreign poets, artists and exiles are welcomed into the cultural milieu and subsumedby the city,
fonning part of a tapestry of nationalities. By associating the labyrinthine canals with a

bridge it repels those who should not enter and imbues the city with a sense of
liminality: "[b]ridges join but they also separate" (61). As Palmer notes ("The Passion" 113), the interest in bridges recalls Calvino's "Phyllis" (Invisible Cities 90-91), a city

laced by canals and bridges. The space of the bridge can mark an end point, a beginning, or a possibility. Calvino uses the labyrinthine in a manner similar to

Winterson in that the bewilderment of thesespatial passageways makesproblematic the

easy discussions of difference (cf. Fletcher, "Image" 343-344 fh. 10).

Though the canals necessitate the building of bridges, these bridges define and differentiate the two sides of the canal. The bridge simultaneouslyjoins opposingsides liminal bridge "is The the tempting to all they space of and ensures remain separate.
it find here" (57). As lose a place of transformation the and you may your soul or

bridge is paradoxically tetheredto, and yet free from, both sides. Venice is effectively a both its dichotomies, bridge that needs as a cannot exist without city of oppositions sidesto exist.

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4.3

Sex in the City: Difference, Exchange and Gender )

In Renaissance Italy, Venice acted as a powerful economic port in the Mediterranean. in The Merchatit This legacy was alluded to by Shakespeare the where, opening of of Venice,a handful of protagonistsdiscusstrade on the city's famous Rialto Bridge. A
localised financial epicentre literally over the water, this economic locale recalls the her in district 1987 novel (The Passion), Winterson London. Reflecting on monetary

inspiration 1980s London, to the of especially towards the makes explicit reference fiscal hedonism dealings in London Arguing that time. that she of and at saturation
City, Venice Winterson effectively confirms that Venice to the as a mirror constructed is an imaginative construction tied to a reality. This recalls Palmer's argument ("The Passion" 114-5) that Winterson's city is not based solely on Calvino-esque unreality but is a shifting, complex mirror on a contemporaneous London, whose socio-economic it is insofar both like "real" "is the as gender- and classworld, environment very much 269). (Asensio Arostegui, "Subversion" specific"

Winterson's portrayal of Napoleon's military and personal actions creates a bridge from the past to the politics of the twentieth century. Napoleon displays a shocking disregard

for his soldiers and consignsthem to death in ill-judged and semi-fantastical schemes. Failing to recognise the ability and uniquenessthat surroundshim and protected and inviolable in his tent, he is disengagedfrom any common reality. A priest with

by delivered the to camp telescopic eyesight and a philosophical circus perfonner are Condensed to them but to Napoleon people. or as soldiers appearsoblivious others, This by exemplifies men. mere numbers, they are easily replaced more eager young be the lose Napoleon's belief that to channel would twenty thousand men crossing
46

(20). good odds"

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Such episodes are recorded with accountant-like precision by Henri in a manner required by historical discourse(24-25,42-43). Henri's enrolment in the army followed a period of looking for passion. Finding no solace in religion he turns, as Villanelle describes,like a duckling and alights upon Napoleon (147). Henri's aspirational love for Napoleon leads to his recruitment as his chicken chef in the army. Deemed too weak to be a drummer, he is insteadsent to tend to the broken and silent chickenswho, "beaks their with and claws cut off', stare"through the slats with dumb identical eyes" 37 (5-6). Here the emblem of France, the proud cockerel, is emasculated,bound and
in its death in mutilated cages awaiting inevitable mute acceptance. This pitiful confinement and hopelessnessparallels the ignorance of the soldiers who blindly follow Napoleon and who are drowned, frozen and slaughtered in their thousands.

It is fitting that Napoleon's emphasis of cultural difference (79,83,105), fed by inflated into leads his troops the heart of the Russian Zero Winter where they oral narratives, turned into the nation's flag: "We're white with red noses and blue fingers. The

tricolour" (5). His totalising and homogenising actions seek to construct an enforced community which Winterson suggests will difference to attempt swallow and

individuality. Trekking through the Russianfoothills, Henri's social contact promotes his identification of his own yearning for a figure of passion amongst by the locals: "[t]hey called the Czar 'the Little Father', and they worshipped him as they worshiped his he God" (81). In this manner,Henri is able to pity the naYvety of previous self after is madewiser by his first encounterwith love's maze.

Discovering commonalities betweencultures deflatesNapoleon's grand rhetoric and yet the text also stresses the difference afforded to communities and to individuals. Acting

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to resist Napoleon's totalising efforts, the Venetians intensify their particularities that become Venetian them their a stamp of their regionalism. mark eccentricities as and so Essentially,Venetian difference and resistanceunderlinestheir citizenship and it is from their nature that the city follows. This relationship evokes the meaning of dils, which before habitat to the the to the of citizen and commwriity expanding incorporate applied
these people (cf. OED etymology of 'city'). It is Villanelle's Venetian recognition of

the differences between peoples, in sharp contrast to Napoleon's disinterest, which in fall love her: Henri to with causes [T]he Russianscould hide under the snowflakes. Then she said, 'They're different. ' all 'What?' 'Snowflakes. Think of that.' (87-88) 38 Such anachronistic multiplicities are in conflict with the edict of Henri's soldiering,
in is the the conveyed where soldiers' erroneous simplistic subdivision of society

periodical allusion to good and evil:

'Will you kill people, HenriT 'Not people, Louise, just the enemy." 'What is the enemyT 'Someone who's not on your side.' (8,79)

This duplicated phraseology occurs at the beginning of the novel (8) and later after Henri's disillusionment (79), indicating in its initial occurrencethe beginning of Henri's his hero father', for his the 'little the end of worship samerefrain signals whilst search
for Napoleon. Such causality highlights the juncture of Henri's entry into, and exit (In Labyrinth) Robbe-Grillet Party) Shields (Larry'S labyrinth. Both the the and from,
P---

the the to past and presentas of renegotiation of sense use repetitious phrases create a featuresof the labyrinthine experience. The duplication or revision of the line is viewed through the futile outcomesof Napoleon's battle campaignand so exposesthe transitory is he departure is Henri findings. Just initial to Henri's about start a second as natureof first his to and this representsthe axis point where, at a moment of able reflect upon

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his In is tainted the and altered. contrast, repetition, original utterance exposed as fellow soldiers have remained in their cyclical pattern of identical drudgery, rooted in the present,neither able to exit or progressthrough the labyrinth.

Villanelle's captivating attitude towards difference, that so contrasts Napoleon's dogmatism, is aphoristic an extension of her identification with the city of her birth. The intensification of difference within the city is not consistent and leads to some
interesting repercussions for gendered space. Delineations of the Cretan labyrinth

through Evans' research communicate a female space as a sacred dancing place for
Ariadne and support Monique Wittig's and Sande Zeig's claim that the labyrinth is an

ancient matriarchal signifier, the semblance of protected and gendered space (qtd.
Palmer, "The Passion" 114). The symmetry of the labrys, that Evans found so female genitalia: the labium. After Evans'

compelling, alludes to the bi-fold

discoveries, the feminisation of the labyrinth was elaborated upon by Smith and Ayrton. However, the gendering of the maze is an increasingly fluid concern and made so by

revelations about the contrived nature of Evans' methodology articulated by Rouse ("Double Axe") and MacGillivray ("Labyrinths"). Contestationof Evans' excavation feminine lineage that threatens the of the site. createsa conceptualcontroversy

The reconstruction of Venice foregrounds chance and instability as its intangible, identity. is Yet destiny the city and not changing streets allow a malleable play of because impossibilities there are stark reminders that solely an elusive composition of Venice also behavesin a deterministic fashion. The city's watery dimensionsco-exist in difference, tension the evidenced the moments and with man-madestreetsand create Despite breaks the perceptible rejection of through. the at which rule-governedsociety

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is Napoleon to hierarchies there in overt adherence also an the established repelling of thesesystems.

The contemplation of money forms a core concern within the Venetian environment. The loss of wealth, and consequentlythe fall from power, is seenin the predicamentof the 'Woman of Means' in the hidden city and in Josephine'sabandonment.Conversely, force freedoms Villanelle's through the to available money is stressedas an enabling lover and her own later position as an heiressto her husband's fortune. The economics
integral her loses heart Villanelle to the the to of exchange are politics city, as of sexual

but her described (59-60) the rest of sexual couplings a woman, are with men who, with
the exception of Henri, are all the result of economic wagers. Palmer refers to the

instance (11), Henri's these the encountersnoting enforcedmode of mother's marriage in the brothel (13-15) and Villanelle's role as vivandiere (87) as a direct result of
is bartered her ("The A Villanelle Passion" 104). and economics product of marriage, fallen (98-99). into becomes the the and epitome of public woman sold prostitution and

The usefulnessof production is accentuated through Villanelle's prosperousstepfather fortune here... "'you there's the could make your who stresses centrality of money:
directed Henri, (117). His here for towards emphasises speech, chances a young man...

the opportunities for men to succeedin the public arena. In comparison, her mother her for Villanelle to to the consolidate remarry, ostensibly need repeatedly stresses daughter's status. Confirmation of genderedroles accounts for Villanelle's exclusion in for industry boat general: a woman and the restrictions of employment from the "[t]here aren't many jobs for a girl [ ... ] and what I would have most liked to have done, her (53). In boats, to obvious spite of was closed me on accountof my sex" worked the living her from to barred is the the Villanelle so, slip sea and on earning ability,
0--.

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her disguises her, sex and thereby achieves a she obligatory restrictions placed on in That freedom. degreeof financial independence the segregationof space the city and is under threat is apparentin Villanelle's subversiveability to slip into different gender different herself By disguising into gendered spaces. roles, which allows access Villanelle is able to accessprincipally masculine areasand roles within the city. This in durMg face frees her her to the the casino work night where elaborate masquerade boundary identities between the arbitrary gendered. and paint and costume accentuate disguise her both lure. heightens Her as a practical and as a sexual costume serve fagade her, her that those as a ambivalence, excites who encounter and registers sexual
indetenninate" "sexually (Scott 69). Wilson, "Passion" position as

The blurring of her sex, gender and sexual preferences raises concerns for The Passion for lack lesbian love leads her to criticism of a as a narrative concerned with and

39 ("Teledildomics") ("Jeanette") Moore Both Doan and claim that political agenda. through Villanelle's 'effortless' bisexuality, the 'de-sexed' narrator of Written on the Body and in the androgyny of The PowerBook there is an avoidanceof the limitations identities. While homosexual these restrictions are not enforced through placed upon threat of violence or perceived abhorrencethere is still a sense of the abnormality
concerning Villanelle's lesbian relationship. However, Villanelle's comments that

"not to her that refer equally its clandestinenature might usual" was specify relationship of a sexualnature. or the mannerof their meeting, rather than as a pronouncement

40 In her identification of Villanelle's bisexuality, Jana L. French argues that such a between' ("I'm 'in it Villanelle to is remain sexual destination subversive, as allows Winterson's determines Harris L. Andrea This 93). Stories" Telling you as recalls what [ ] between between "the object and word other, and self space of exploration ...

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"non-exclusion By feminine" Sexes 130). (Other the emphasising masculine and either of the difference or of one sex", Villanelle's sexuality exceedsthe delimiting normative practices of her society. Freedoms of this nature prompt Moore to argue that in Winterson's work lesbian space is central and as such will not be marginalized or treated as 'other': thus her charactersappearto have transcendedthe boundariesthat ("Teledildomics"). However, the apparentavoidanceor the the text restrict readersof
surpassing of such constructions is problematic and only partial.

Exploration of gendered roles in the matrix of the labyrinthine Venice becomes the exploration of a prison, not only in the sense of the lineage from the Cretan model but also as an examination of possibilities for protagonists fettered by binary

representations. As Duncker explains: "[w]e should not then be too preoccupiedwith

trying to transform or to re-configure the prison of gender, but with planning an escape'9 ("Jeanette Winterson" 78). Such a decampment is not to be attempted on the wings of Icarus but rather in the reshaping of narratives into new forrns. Kutzer ("Cartography"), Gonzalez ("Winterson's Sexing") and Nunn ("Written on the Body") suggest that

Winterson's sexlessnarrator in Written on the Body disrupts the balance of polarised

oppositions and so creates a third point of reference, that of an androgynous voice.

In a discussionof binary oppositionsit seemsappropriateto consider Villanelle, who is bears both land 'hennaphrodite' both liminal, hybrid a who and water, a creature of is her defect' 'birth This female mother, who as a a result of male and signifiers. foreigner to the ways of the Venetians, fails to execute the local pre-natal ritual 41 Villanelle's feet her Allen Carolyn that of are a precursor webbed argues correctly. fluid genderplay, as by carrying the mark of the patriarchal hierarchy she ""Isalready a border creature"'("Following Djuna" 55). Of the samedevice, Maria Del Mar Asensio

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Ar6stegui writes that it underminesthe dominanceof the patriarchy ("Subversion" 270). For the Venetian male the webbed foot is the phallocentric marker of entry into the feet hidden. is keep Similarly, Villanelle their the patriarchal order, and yet men in disguise her binds perpetually male markings. as she

Even as Winterson establishesthe gender of the web protrusions Villanelle bears she distinction by this the terminology used: "[e]nfolded between each toe were unsettles 42 (69). describing By her masculine feet using an invocation of the my own moons')')
feminine, Villanelle is again a union of oppositions. Her emphatic androgyny resists re-

definition and, in a parody of circumcision, the tiny moons repel the phallic blade (52).
Born in an apocalyptic eclipse, she is effectively part-human and part-fish: a fusion of

two entities reminiscent of the crossbredMinotaur. Villanelle's hybridity causesher to inhabit what Duncker refers to as the ...deadly spacebetween"' ("JeanetteWinterson"
43 Space 79; The Deadly Between), represented by the space of the inner maze. Despite

between Villanelle the the genderedor sexedmodesof ending exists novel as a mother, behaviour and representation,in an indeterminacy that parallels the fluidity and the
perpetual reconfiguration of the canals.

Villanelle is permanently in disguise and equally comfortable in her breeches as she is

in skirts and dresses (66). With her compromisedgenderedidentity she is able to fall in Queen love as both a woman and a man. Notably the initial courtship advances the with homosexual desire in Villanelle's is disguised Spades male attire. of occur while she infiltrates heterosexual in disguise the home, and so as she arrives enters the marital is Villanelle to By able change, the gender of outward markings unit. subverting Judith This it her. to her critics use prompts various gender as suits reconstructing

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Butler's seminal work Gender Trouble, which concernsgender as a performative act, in their reading of the text (cf. especiallyElizabeth Langland, "Sexing the Text").

Although the restrictions of city life through the designation of social boundariesand taboos explicitly encourage the marginalization of homosexuality, this practice is disrupted in The Passion as individuals wear disguisesand are able to move and shift, beyond boundaries. Villanelle's bend the to the rules of control of apparently ability
is by a residual conservative vein of thinking. Ultimately, social engagement countered Villanelle's transgression of normative sexual practices is covert and so although her lesbian relationship is disruptive of domestic space it does not impinge unduly on the

public sphere.

44

Ability to slip arbitrary gender boundaries highlights the socially constructed root of these distinctions and emphasises the fluidity and possibility open to the individual.

The mutability of the canalsparallels Villanelle's ability to adaptand accessthe core of

the city, since her decisions and destiny are fonnulated through inconstant chance and

45 Cross-dressingallows Villanelle her tendency towards risk (the crooked path) . both day loiter during Palmer increased the though, to and night as potential wander and it her her "draws time the to at same rendering genderwhile attention notes, casinowear is The 112). traverse the ("The Passion" to city streets ability wander and ambiguous" the the of prostitute, are exception possible with principally a male pastime; women, is lover Villanelle's However, liberty. from to married able this nameless excluded flaneur dons impunity the the of primary masculinerole as she walk the city streetswith 46 (71-72; 122) She also enjoys the pleasuresassociatedwith her freedom: "[s]he is . does husband] [her because the enjoy stage theatre, not to the to and much prone going Villanelle in is to Her (72). to travel whose alone set contrast ability she goes alone"

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lover bears Her the be through cross-dressing. easeof passagetends to accomplished in lives house, dresses an elegant well and accoutrementsof a moneyed existence:she herself daily her independent transforms through she change and as a woman of means in her "She dresses have for I (73 the twice" of outfit: never seen sameclothes me. but This passage reaffirms a senseof opulence also that of disguiseand renewal.
47 ).

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4.4

Finding a Path: The Intriguing

Cartography of the Maze

Winterson's fictions detail the journey towards an appreciationof selfhood and explore the tension between the impetus to record such movements, contrasted with the impossibility In The Passion, and of constructing accurate representations. unreliability the mechanismsof traditional history and cartography are thwarted and re-envisaged. Her historical writings are formulated in periods where maps are not universal or
in Sexing Cherry, fantastical the the particular, reinforces absolute. nature of early dizzying in Venice The Passion raises problems the encounter with mapmaking, whilst of navigation and cartography. The map has become an accepted ideologically

it is tool orthodox and perhaps the authenticity and 'truth' ascribed to conventional
is Winterson that cartography scrutinising.

Attention directed towards issues of cartography relates to Venice's early naval dominance which transfon-ned the city into a workshop for cartographers and as a departure point for explorers. Some of the most accurate maps of early cartography

leads Buisseret heritage in to comment that the city was that the city, a were produced
"the leading Italian state [ ] in map consciousness" (6; cf Thrower, Maps). ... In

Winterson's city, though, progressive and rational methods of cartography are halted by

the enigmatic canals which resist control and definition as evidenced by Napoleon's
inability to remodel the city.

Cartography is born of a desire to mark and apportion space,to illuminate and make known. The map seeksto transcribea representation of luiown space,in a transposition into that two-dimensional an action map: a three-dimensional reality of experienced Kathleen M. Kirby notes privileges "boundariesover sites" ("Cartographic" 46). Henn

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Lefebvre concurs and remarks that the process reveals a "dominant tendency [to fragment] space and [cut] it up into pieces" (Production of Space 89, qtd. Massey, "Masculinity" 121). Such cartographiescan be regardedas an epistemologicalemblem know the to of need sanitise,contain and space. It ostensibly makesmanifest a truthful image, and yet paradoxically is exposedas constructing the opposite. By emphasising the fictive and ideological functions of the map, Winterson is able to offer insteadthe innovative narrative necessaryto documentthe unfeasibility of the invisible or internal journey. Ironically, Venice parodiesthe segregationand dismembermentof spacethat Lefebvre alludes to and causes the city to exacerbate the process whereby comprehension might be achieved.

The urban setting of The Passion and its mazy rendition ensure that navigation functions as a key concern. Passageinto the secret heart of the city, into that which

is from hidden, by Oranges the remainsmost obscuredand reflected annotatedphrase interior do lie (Oranges The Passion "the I 11; the that and cities of not on any map"
The Passion 68; 114). This strongly implies that these journeys are non-recorded because to explore into the interior is to reject the authority of the map.
48

The

AnaYs Nin's interior the primary use of the phrase with contrasts unmappedexpanseof in the Seduction of the Minotaur where her main charactercommentsthat avenuesof the self are coming into focus, exposing"a map showing only the cities of the interior"
(80; qtd. Faris, Labyrinths 135). Winterson's rebuttal of Nin's phrasing belies their

common thematic concernwith the exploration of the self

The malleability of the city prevents mapping and suggeststhat an aerial view of the is localised Knowledge the and whole. streets would not provide comprehensionof Consequently, Napoleon"s conquests. variable, at odds with the totalising absolutismof

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in Venice we can read a history of the contestationof space,of the coloniser and the colonised, and ultimately the physical environmentas a site of resistance.

In their discussion of Luce Irigrary's work concerning space and cartography. Cathy
Stowers ("No Legitimate Place") and A Daphne Kutzer ("Cartography") identify the

drive to colonise and explore as masculine attributes and advocatethat cartography is dominant the to ascribe ownership to a site. The scope of primarily a projection of
Napoleon's empire is realised through the lines of a map; the territories, annexes and

battles he has fought document his power and are evidenced on maps and historical
Examination accounts. of these maps and the mapping process explicitly reveal the have designed that power structures and made them.

Although the explication of space is partially achieved through the process of

cartography, the resulting rendition of space is merely a representation; significantly a translation or projection of an experience. The fictional Venice's deceptive streets be by to cartography and yet, as Hugh Kenner proffers, refuse understood or restricted "[m]azes [ ] demand maps" (Mazes Preface). Paradoxically, the city that requires the ...

doing it its Venice In by nature. so reiterates an absencethat, as map also prevents very

Hubert Damisch notes,was missing in the Cretanlabyrinth, as Daedalusdoesnot create its from Knowledge furnish Ariadne the of navigation comes maze. or with a plan of the maze itself in the laying down of the clue (Damisch, "La Danse de Thes6e" qtd. Fletcher,"Image" 344-345, fh. 16). Here in this strangecity maps are uselessand quite unableto representthe morphing streetsthat confuse.

The geography of Villanelle's world is in a state of slippage formed as a site of diary Henri's Just undermines as contestation outside of the notion of cartography.

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historical fact, Villanelle's narrative directly attacks presumptionsof geographyand its imposed denies Emphatically the through elusive, city communication cartography. linearity or cognitive approachesand this results in a rapidity of urban change that definition. its Venice is the guarantees uniqueness and ensures city perpetually evading it living becomes a network: malleableshape,as
The city I come from is a changeable city. It is not always the same size. Streets appear and disappear overnight, new waterways force themselves over dry land. (97) Water appears aggressive and triumphs over the land by surging forward in an

fashion, is limited because the transforming to the and unpredictable yet effect not water
the city itself changes its boundaries, streets and overall shape. The city of mazes its is Venice but complexity stresses as not simply a maze a multitude of mazes which

intersect,mingle and keep separate: This city enfolds upon itself Canalshide other canals,alley-ways crossand know is have lived that criss-crossso you will not which which until you hereall your life. (113)
The misleading disposition of the city encourages the traveller to exhibit spontaneity

formed irregularity by be faced to the of the guided and when with uniform streetsand
implies labyrinth The that strangers to the canals. of changing streets and waterways

is its lost the embodiment of which structure, within city are often wandering or Jordan'sdream-like town, where "the number of buildings in the city is always constant
but they are never in the same place from day to day" (Sexing 42; cf The Passion 112).

Reactions of confusion and doubt are fonnulated by foreigners within these cities her/his becomes inhabitant by the own a nomad within city of whilst, contrast, the human the further the perpetualwanderer. of condition environment, emphasising

The innate ability of the locals to navigate the city and their intimate knowledge of its bends enable them accessto each of the islands. Local knowledge ensuresthat the

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internal Venice can never be capturedby Napoleon and as such remains evasiveand not invading instead inner French fluid The the the mapped in city repels and usual sense. maintains a sealedinterior spaceaway from the conquering force. Napoleon's binding and remodelling of the organic is futile, as after the capture of this fantastic city of begins Venice in its "[w]e becamean enchantedisland for to mazes revel own excesses: the mad, the rich, the bored, the perverted" (52). Strikingly, the catalyst for this fecund into hedonism is the annexationof the city, which signals a concentrationof progression Venice's 'ex-centric' aptitude as a separatecity that becomesintensified and excluded.
Winterson's layered Venice is a grotesque island of shifting streets cut off from mainland Europe and allowed to grow beyond Napoleon's overlord control. The

outward lustre of Venice's carvinalesque existence belies a deeper, darker core, beneath the veneerof the surface. glimpsedas a shadow

Napoleon's colonial advances display the practice of an invading force to conquer and land demonstrative the their rename, making of acquisition a mirror of their homeland. This process is resisted both by the people of the city and by the city itself. Knowledge

inexorably deferred the as the urban thrives upon the ambivalentand of city's mazesare
in faith, forces a citywide sensation of risk and resulting unsettling of passion and

49 force. is to the that gambling colonising resistant

Part-submergedstreets are constantly altering with daily tidal patterns, encouraging discontinuity and plurality, where the rational is quite literally lost: "Your bloodhound in fail (49). This here. Your you" course compassreading will nosewill not serve you logic instinct, that are worthless qualities when attempting to suggests education and denote in Venetian the the Henri's wanderer,a space the perambulations navigate city. figure who "lack[s] a place" (de Certeau, "Walking in the City" 103). During his

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labyrinthine trajectories, Henri repeatedlycalls for home as the place he desires. This imagined and often-thought of place is intensified through its absence. Used to Napoleon's straight roads and linear enforcement of orders, Henri is ill-prepared to let find his the this city, alone successfully shifting map and understand conceptof way: I got lost from the first. Where Bonaparte goes, straight roads follow, buildings are rationalised, street signs may changeto celebratea battle but they are always clearly marked. Here, if they bother with street signs at all, they are happy to use the sameones over again. Not even Bonapartecould Venice. rationalise This is a city of madmen.(112)
In this fictionalised Venice of uniformity and repetition, Henri is unable to differentiate from his irrelevance the another, as one street wanderings confirm of the map. The

is half-recognition the that within city sensation of and misrecognition, as an homogeneous for the the environment of signs and unfamiliar creates a site crisis
identifies Writing Kevin Lynch rational. of city space, systems, grids and networks as

determinablenodes of city orientation, and yet Henri experiencesthese signifiers in

inconstant and myriad form which leads to confusion and disorientation (Image of the City qtd. Caws 2). Such repetitious experience is evocative of ecclesiastical labyrinths 9

is in keeping the tortuous the streets nature of altering and over-stylised coils, and yet with the Egyptian and Cretanexamples.

The desire to eradicatedifference and nature is exhibited by Napoleon's creation of a fonnal garden. The futility of this contaimnentis perceivedby Villanelle: He tore them down to make a public garden. Why did we want a public it had if if had And chosen ourselveswe would never and we we garden? have filled it with hundredsof pines laid out in regimental rows. They say Josephine'sa botanist. Couldn't she have found us somethinga little more (52-3) exotic? Destruction of the four churches that dominated the islands of Venice and their forms displays formal a critique of a replacementwith an artifice of pathways and destroying By these ecclesiastical passion. without garden maze: one constructed 206

buildings Napoleon seeksto replace this semblanceof passion with the rational. The fonnalised and nouveau-landscape indicatesNapoleon's wish to force the natural into a formulations the rigidity of such parallel regulated, containable arrangement,whereby its firm hegemony, lines of command. both the social infrastructure and echoing Palpably, here is the need to control the organic, to redraw and redefine its boundaries image harmonized to the chaotic with an of and replace proportions.

The phantom of religion is important in Venice as the routine activities of the lowly fisher folk intensification through the peasants and are elevated of religious parallels.

Christ-like attributes are ascribed to sexual exchange,the execution of a soldier, the crown of rats and the episodeof walking on water amongstothers: featuresthat cause
Tamas Benyei to comment that The Passion explores a common dissemination of Christ's Passion ("Risking" 207-208). Ubiquitous miracles, religious allegories and

fantastical events amongst the common populace elevate personal suffering to Christ's Passion, so that the aura of the Passion, and hence suffering itself, pen-neates

Christ's is Individual through and associations with given voice, generically. pain factors is These are evocative sacrifice a senseof ritual, religion and repetition stressed. of the labyrinth's ancient antecedents.

Maps are physically present in The Passion where Napoleon, as coloniser and emperor,

holds the globe "tenderly with both handsas if it were a breast" (4), ferninising the lines of the spherical map.
50

WhereasNapoleon fantasisesabout being able to invade and

is Henri the passive and watches in awe and globe, capture the territories shown on This (16). folded impossibly the lying "an world" map of old and on silence, whilst French boundaries the inert the of onlooker who observes confinns his early role as an becoming truly involved. empire expandwithout

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The futility of man's wanderlust resulting in mapping is exposed in the actions of the in husbandof the Queenof Spades who pores over archaic maps searchof the mythical Holy Grail, but fails to recognisethe treasuresall around him in this magical city (67; 119). The couple's marital house is a puzzle, containing an eccentric and improbable collection of articles recalling a medieval taxonomy. Villanelle's narrative surveys a
Chinese in of ornaments catalogue another reminder of the exotic East and "also a dead insects in strange assortment of mounted cases on the wall" (66). This macabre

hobby intimates a certain embeddedsinister tendency concerning the Queenof Spades

is by her intention imprison Villanelle's heart within a tapestry, to strengthened which husband's is Her as a prize amongst many. role as a collector subtly contained within his wife's actions. Their shared trait can be viewed as an extension of Seaboyer's comments about the city that functions as a "museum" ("Second Death" 484). Henry James in his Portraits of Places also confinns that the "Venice of to-day is a vast be 157). Perhaps 'necropolis' (qtd. Davis, Venice would more accurate, as a museum"

death is always threatenedin this city in keeping with the menace of the labyrinth. Death and passionare united when Henri discoversVillanelle's fluttering heart in ajar,
he The enters also contains two coffins, possibly room resembling a pickled specimen.

to denotethe finality of death and the certainty of the heterosexualcouple's fate. The
discovery and rescue of Villanelle's heart in the partially completed tapestry suggests

Penelope'sshroud for Laertes: Why was she so upset? Becauseif the tapestry had been finished and the for been have in her heart, had ever. a prisoner she would woven woman (121) in become bound have to heart With the weaving of the and unable continue she would Villanelle This that heart her most the maze or to gamble episode emphasises again. fears stasis as the freedom to travel even internally, as epitomised.by Henri's final

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into inactivity lapses to stareat the Henri is occasionally mental wandering, paramount. 51 be (123 ). In for her but for is it "unnatural to this way she Villanelle still" stars, forms forms dynamism Such the to the of need initiate new remains always on run. be hope the that the questwill eventually successfullycompleted. passionand maintains

Henri's second cycle of maturation is linked to his time in Venice where the streets him become living lost the the to authenticity of map and cause undennine within its matrix:
'I need a map. ' 'It won't help. This is a living city. Things change.' (113)

There is an initial helplessness about Henri, a need to be guided and a singularity in his his belief in is that that there supports endeavour a sole outcome, a single (straight) path for he for through the maze. Within the evanescent to streets, appears strive a solution,
feels lives in Villanelle the the everone constant place, whilst murmurs of parallel changing "city of mazes". These oppositional forces, embodied by the two

location by the of contrasts within the novel, especially protagonists, are accentuated

betweendepictions of the city and the country.

Henri appears to find such natural parallels comforting and frequently associates the feminine with rural imagery. His descriptions of Villanelle as the sun bearer with her

fiery red hair conflict with her own delineationsof self as a lover and creatureof the is her hair the to disseminated light The through and reassurance a guide night. Frenchman, as her confident movements navigate the maze for him and act to illuminate its structure. He adoresthe manner in which her tressesenvelop him as he femininity her by wishes to be contained and surrounded such a comforting sign of hair "'Her domestic the to was matemal: and which marks a return to the safety of the he Again home" (129). leading forest in down. I was the red wishes me and she was

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inmate his home. As the be directed to to an on the is return ultimate or guided and in lagoon brilliance is the Henri Villanelle's the look as prospect of rock, at unable to her presenceseemsto bum him. He views her instead through her reflection in the for fear her directly like Medusa, Perseus to the of unable view mirror, surveying (152). petrifaction Her hair, once a reassuring forest to be lost within, is now

transformed into an aggressive and consuming entity that recalls literary descriptions

locks Gorgon (Edmund Spenser, Medusa's Epithelial, 1595 the as a maze of snakes of
cf, OED 'maze'). The significance of her hair has changed or perhaps it is Henri's

its description her hair has deal His that to of moves altered. with meaning capacity from imagesof comfort, through holy resonances to that of bewilderment. The auburn hair and Villanelle herself are variously describedas both the maze and the meansto
home. labyrinth Ariadne In Villanelle the towards the as a conflation of myth, navigate is clue-bearer combined with Henri's incarceration, which Ariadne's echoes

implication is Henri Naxos. This to travel the that unable compounds on abandonment life's maze without Villanelle's guidance or Patrick's help. His helplessnessis

idea "I he losing Patrick, to the wanted of navigation: returns evidencedwhen, after
him to see us home" (108). Henri is still searching for a guide through the maze, to

take responsibility for its navigation.

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4.5

Recalling Home: A Labyrinthine

Re-construction of Time

In The Passion elements and protagonists from canonical history co-exist with more been historical have Figures allotted gravitas are not who prodigious components. from document her is Winterson's that and so ensure work not simply an erased inversion of existing premises. Josephineand Napoleon make brief appearances at the
life Henri's they on impinge and through their manifestations outwardly moments is The the epitome of empire, an emperor valorise established gendered oppositions.

apparently rational and methodical man who, crazed with ambition, ravenously
himself is In Josephine engorges on chickens. comparison aristocratic, practical and

feminine, with a predilection for melon slices. She is remarkably resourceful and
through her gambling parallels Villanelle; and yet, unlike her counterpoint, she refutes the gambling inevitability as "[s]he never lost" (29). Josephine and Napoleon exist in a

in lie history by they preserved whilst the chance as predictable world untainted
fictional characters representing the periphery of recorded history are awash with denied The in they the a stability are past. as present initially possibility, and survive

is determinacy the the actions and contrasted with and empress emperor and of
Villanelle. Henri and representations of

Henri keeps a diary, in a pasticheof Napoleon's exiled writings, to record his feelings 52 His feminine the the is genre engages with of use childlike. or and often perceived as heightens the writer's experiences,and elevates the and that autobiographical notion 53 illuminates that which has been Mdden. Winterson employs and manoeuvresthe from diary, the the more specific adolescentquestioning the and styles of autobiography in Oranges, through Henri's authorial sophism, to the experiments of Written on the PowerBook. The (1994) Bawd for Voices Three Piece A Bodv, Art & Lies: and and a

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Revelling in the distinctions between biography and autobiography and in deconstructing its conventions and traditions, she claims: "there is no such thing as autobiographythere is only art and lies" (Art & Lies 141). This sentiment is contained in Henri's knowing remarks that permeatehis autobiography: "I'm telling you stories
[t]rust me" (5,13,160). The unreliability of narrative voice is a recurrent theme in

Winterson's writing and is perceived as crucial by Helena Grice and Tim Woods, who
Henri fictionalism the the example use of as a marker of of history, as well as using his

for title their collection (IM Telling You Stories 1). Henri's faculty for phraseologyas a openness and his apparentnaivety is contrastedto his role as the erratic narrator whose
knowing deception is also punctuated by an inability to mould language to

communicatean event. Meaning becomeslost in-betweenas: "[n]ow, words and ideas

between themselves will always slip me and the feeling" (26). When Henri attempts to

in Villanelle portray unambiguous terms she evades description and causeshim to feminine is intangible: "I wrote about her or tried to. She that the remark repeatedly eludedme the way the tarts in Boulogne had eludedme" (36). Such disarming honesty
improbity feature is Henri's later this through his masks and yet unreliable accentuated

deterioration. format Although this the the the mental madnessoccurs at end of novel, infiltrates Henri's in that the text the text ambivalence of a series of memoirs means is first than earlier recognised.

The ongoing creative processof Henri's journal, detailing his actions and emotions, is ("Subversion") Asensio Ar6stegui del Mar indeed, Mania to, strongly routinely alluded in Is Villanelle is the Henri's are oral and style that stones whilst asserts account written, by is the Such folktales. text the salient marker undermined a reading of of a seriesof from thesewritten accountsthat "I'm telling you stories [t]rust me" (spokenby Patrick both the explicitly oral quality of the record as 40; by Henri 5,13,160), which stresses

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fanciful Venice its Similarly, the of are elements magical and well as unreliability. formulation to the of normality and reality and as suchwould contrary ascribedarbitrary be erasedor distancedfrom factual discursivepractices.

Away from Venice, Henri also recounts prodigious tales of localised and fantastical dissembles invents Villanelle's Henri that complement narratives. events and routinely is initially beyond he Venice his though the and, of wonder stories comprehension,
in during his Russia France and encounters miracles and superhuman qualities Domino Patrick and relationships with .
54

Though fantasy is not restricted to Venice it

does reach an apotheosis in the city. Or rather is it that such magical realism is so often the domain of the suppressed,especially the colonised? Neither Domino nor Patrick are French, nor, obviously, is Villanelle, and each of these characters are active participants in exceptional events, whilst Henri as voyeur of their enterprises denigrates myth into

55 reality with the bloody dissectionof the cook.

As a collector of these magical stories, Henri seems to hold these vignettes at some

distance with scepticism as though he distrusts them or is fearful of their power. intends he Domino to Henri's disagreement that record an emotive narrative attests with ratherthan a factual account:
'What makes you think you can see anything clearly? What gives you the if in it thirty years, we're still right to make a notebook and shake at me alive, and say you've got the truthT feel feel. I how How I I facts, Domino, 'I don't care about will care about (28-9) ' I that. to change, want remember

future, the dispensing the in Domino lives and only possibility of the present, with [t1he "[t]here's his into way only now lapses past: colourful about stories occasionally 56 Usually (29-28). the then" is the it than see it you'll way you see now no more real them to the themselves around build world and characters up complex narratives about

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in is but Domino marginalized. this way and remains on the articulate their experiences, 57 in Domino Wounded Henri's scratches the and voiceless, periphery of narrative. it... Future. Crossed (86). As line "FUTURE. he And through then out" snow: put a 58 Domino demonstrates the future is glimpsed only in a stateof erasure(29,86). In the Zero Winter the past is reshaped and rewritten whilst the future is out of reach by superseded the present.

Wearing the mantle of a soldier, Henri engages in a routine of daily existence bound to

ferocity However, Napoleon's the the survival. of realisation and rejection of of notions
him future from battle's to the seek a perpetual present and personality cause away

in from he his Alienated he that past. a senseof self, recognises remains reconsider disguise (100) and so begins to searchfor home, for a place of permanencethat will for further Following Villanelle performative roles obsolete. partly as a need renderany is far from her love, his the city removed a guide and also out of encounter with
his comparable certainties of pastoral upbringing.

As David Lodge pointed out in his early and sensitive review of The Passion ("Outrageous Things"), the text is specifically located within the period of high 59 Romanticism and Franceis in a stageof post-revolution transformation,specifically at
60 ideas keeping (32). In in different of the cusp of welcoming a monarchy with guise a

his his is through Henri pastoral childhood, the Romantic, closely aligned with nature feminised inclinations and his innocence. The appropriation of seasonalchange and in in his in descriPtions the his imagery and writing women of agrarian are evident discourse Henri's four into his elementally-inspired chapters. assembly of memoirs his Through linked in to writings, the nature. vocabulary events consistently records imagery in brothel the the he likens natural the is with episode as prostitution elevated

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dandelions like like living his home hair "[h]er domestic: the and a of was yellow and brutal (13). Henri's the the rug" actuality of the place prostitutes contrasts portrayal of with the narratives he had been told. In the unfamiliar starknessof the brothel he into from home: "I retreats rememberingsmells was thinking about porridge" (14). The images the two causesa conflation of homely and commonplacepleasurewith union of
femininity. a gigantic vision of

Home in the country is elevated through its contrasts with the war to an Edenic
After deserting in Russia, Henri is the troops an ultimate paradise, point of return. doomed never to return and through his disillusionment recognises the illusory

'fashion' home: that narratives Home became the focus of joy and sense... To keep home safe, to keep home as we started to imagine it And the heaviest lie? That we could go ... home and pick up where we had left off. That our heartswould be waiting behind the door with the dog. Not all men are as fortunate as Ulysses.(83)
Henri's reference to Odysseus by the Roman name 'Ulysses' creates an amount of textual play. The setting of The Passion easily predates Joyce and yet there would seem to be a deliberate allusion to Ulysses (both Tennyson and Joyce). The nomenclature of 'Ulysses' also forms a closer alliance with the writing of Virgil, whose work The Aeneid

draws prolonged and derogatory commenton the Greek hero (Book II). Both Homer's in labyrinthine Joyce's Ulysses denoting Odysseus' are order adventuresand epic poem to accentuate the central protagonist's elliptical wanderings. Odysseus' return to reclaim his home, throne and wife, the paradigm of the successftil quest narrative, is inevitably tinged with concernsover the finite nature of such stability. Dependingon the reading of The Odyssey, Henri's adventure is either tinged with possibility, both between balance delicate of theseoutcomes. pessimismor a

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The possibilities inherent in the narrative's construction, the faltering threads of discourse and the stories that remain untold are reflected in Winterson's discussionsof time. Spiralling and agitated depictions of time result in multi-layered representations of past, present and future which parallel the torturous runs of the maze. Her desire to intermingled later textual re-workings createsa continuum through re-examinepersonae of narrative concerns, enabling the reader to trace the tangential evolution of a definite Without protagonist. moulding anything as as a serial, Winterson reintroduces, flame-haired lover, the hopelesstraveller buffeted by time and the the amongstothers,
61 grotesque woman, all recursively reprising their pursuit of love. The accumulation of time is represented in many existences compressed into one body, the stardust in our gut in infinite" "we (PowerBook the the and re-emergence of utterance are multiple and 103). The action results in a sense of cyclical temporality; of time without end going beyond in Gut Symmetries and The PowerBook the distinctions of past, present and

future. The essenceof these two souls are felt in her other fictions where similar flits between different the time schemataand characters are a-temporal as narrative periods.

An apparently linear narrative is made problematic by the interspersion of Henri's

persistent phrase: I'm telling you stories. Trust me. (5,13,160; spoken by Patrick 40)

This discursive marker associatedwith Henri is primarily spoken by Patrick (40) and (69) in Villanelle's and so contorts the expected chronology and story also appears line to trace the Scott Wilson this to a means as refers narrative progression. Villanelle's 68). Likewise, ("Passion" interwoven someof narratives complexity of the "You Henri before infiltrates you play. text meet: the she and apparently phraseology These (43). the You lose. constructed accentuate moments play" win, you play, you

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his the Henri's extent of authorial and opaque nature of writing, and expose intrudes Henri's in on earlier autobiographysubtlety manipulation over events the past. fabrication in the that constructed of the sections a manner outwardly emphasises
journal whilst simultaneously engaging in a technique of prolepsis (cf 24-25).

Henri's initial intention to keep a diary to remind him of his feelings is perhaps
is latterly he by his lives He the as routinely unnecessary visited ghosts of journey. in a in the past, a shell that encourages the repetition of events to play out from mimesis of his memory, "in eternity because time has stopped" (134). Meanwhile, Villanelle has

her finally Queen Spades the maze exited after re-visiting of and standson the threshold
to await the lure of the gamble to re-enter. Though Henri and Villanelle appear to have

different is is by Villanelle her this chosen outcomes, also altered experiencesand demonstratedby her refusal to dress up. In this topography of love, both have made
their existence into a personal labyrinth.

Ayrton's writing regarding the trans-temporality of the maze is useful here as "in a

in (qtd. Kenner, lives Mazes time time another" maze, crossesand recrosses,and one
250). Although he is discussing the representations of Jerusalem in ecclesiastical

link past and future eventsin the labyrinths, this holds true for the text, as anachronisms Foucault's to the zone akin now of reader and create a semi-real, semi-mythical definitions of the 'heterotopic'. In this way, slivers of different sites co-exist in Venice both them that simultaneously makes operating as a "system of opening and closing isolatedand penetrable"(Edward Soja.,"Heterotopologies" 16).

his home his illusory of as Henri is acutely aware of the romanticised vision nature of
in himself lose deliberate is to the Servelo62 San interiority into method a on retreat

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twilight of his memories rather than seek an inconstant outcome. His nostalgia for the is, Langland Arcadia his as writes, a remembrance past contained within musingsof an [ "stability is life flux, in of which] never paradise existed; embodied a pastoral quest, ... and challenge" ("Sexing the Text" 102). Appropriately, Henri has already exposedthe home is his that a myth of own and others making; rather than discounting realisation instead he to embroider upon them and so lose himself in a such constructions chooses cloak of narratives.

The final chapter of The Passion is mostly located in the 'mad house', which sits isolated and set apart from the Rivo Alto on an island in the lagoon. There is a senseof destruction and of the futility of unreturned passion in this barren setting which is by Villanelle's former island, her lover. On desolate Henri the paralleled meeting with tends his sparsegarden like Candide and spendshis time rewriting incidents from his
in his daily here by lot "I That to past order explicate experience: stay choice. means a

to me" (152). This marks a consciousdecision to live in a temporal limbo. In the house his family, ffiends his from his he and enemies of memory and notebooks reconstructs
in is leave" home, I (149), him: "[t]his can't a manner that my whose presence comforts

bridge forming his At his him the the to present. enables point of origin and reform he is at his intersectionbetweentime past, presentand future and in a stateof madness, Christy destiny. L. Bums, Venetian time Villanelle's and understandingof closest to instinctive is it Henri's a consciouschoice or an sanity, wonders whether writing about Certainly, Henri 290-291). Language" ("Fantastic linger Henri to reaction that causes futile island, however he this the to to the on remain chooses emphasises extent which decision might be considered. It forms a moment in which Henri controls his destiny as he deliberately rejects chance.

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Henri's recognition of himself is achievedthrough Villanelle and the power of her body to "[w]ordlessly [explain] me to myself' (122). Her ability to uncover and elucidatehis for love: "I'm looking, found his I've the not what own experiencemarks pursuit end of it is I want and I can't have it" (122). Being no longer willing to accept a relationship basedon chancehe escapesinto the past, into a state that denies the future and which him his history. to retell, re-experienceand reformulate allows

In the barren setting of San Servelo there is a convergenceof intertextual patterning from Voltaire's Candide (1759), Eliot's Four Quartets and, as Pfister speculates, Percy
Shelley's poem "Julian and Maddalo" (composed 1818, published 1824). Pfister

identifies the narrator of Shelley's poem as a resident in the madhouse of San Servolo/Serveloand so construesthe possibility that he and Henri "might have told
[ their stories] to each other" ("The Passion" 15; Pfister and Schaff, Venetian Views

1). The significance and presence of Eliot's Four Quartets is intensified by the
(cf Seaboyer, it lends "Second Death" The Passion that structuring principles perhaps

492-493). The intolerable 'Zero Winter' of the Russianplains is a pun upon the name
of Eliot's 'Zero Summer' (Helene Bengtson, "Vast" 18 fn. 2) while temporal

insistent intertextual bear Winterson's the the to echo of protagonists opportunities open

both Quartets: "[flime time from Four drawn Eliot's perhaps past/Are presentand motif
/And future, time present in 63 (1 ). time future contained in time past" -3 T11is

interconnected cycle of time allows the possibility of multiple destinies to run concurrently and cyclically.

Winterson's he berates Passion The in his as David Lodge sees what review of her intertextual taking adoption of example an as antecedents, apparentlyrandom use of "[h]uman Pruftock: Aed Song Love The voices wake us and from Eliot's the line ofJ

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74). However, Passion drown" The 13 1; ("Outrageous Things" such anachronistic we labyrinthine Henn is it time. appreciation of is a ventriloquism essentialas signifies immediately present in a variety of different pasts and in the now of the reading, is foretold future from "the the that the past and the future is only reinforcing motif because (62). This confirms that the relationship betweenthe past, the of possible past" future is co-dependant. presentand

Fluid temporality is emphatically Venetian, a factor that underlies Henri's inculcation

into the culture. This temporal flux is conspicuousin the threshold of the labyrinth, in
an environment that opens up an exploration of chance and flux in contrast to the

logocentric the space of sphere: regulated

This morning I smell the oats and I see a little boy watching his reflection in in he's father laughs him His a copper pot polished. comes and and offers his shaving mirror instead. But in the shaving mirror the boy can only see face. face. he distortions his He seesmany In the the can see all of one pot faces he he become. (26) and so sees what might possible In this reconstructed incident from his past, Henri's time in Venice appears to have

is his in him then the superimposedupon childhood plural which awoken a senseof distorted In this recopition of self a multitude of possible outcomes, memories. destinies and identities are made manifest in the feminised copper pot before being imposed figure by the singular whose mocking patriarchal restricted and replaced in image. Reflections homogeneous form the pot signify multiple the of a meaningis in labyrinth. Venetian the the effect of ephemeraloutcomesand act as an analogyof

The taut surface water of the Venetian canal makes a thin boundary between the intersection between fluid time At time lives. the place, and these plural parametersof is treatedas a sinuousmazeor a river that "can flow in circles, its eddiesand whirlpools There 104). Syminetries (Gut forward" its are multiple break press strong up regularly

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is The History is not unalterable. choices and chancesas "[s]pace not simply connected. in labyrinth, Like 160). itself Symmetries the the turn is forked" (Gut gyre universe facilitates beginning [ "a in that turn new and] continually opensonto an advancement ... different (PowerBook 4). a end"

Villanelle takes the past with her as a constantcompanion and can sensein the watery
for destinies her. Such that paths or may open mirror possible existences are multiple

because interconnected differing the outcomes,madepossible of natureof the and offer

future. is Villanelle the sensitive to this type of experience: past with

I have caught myself in that other life, touchedit, seenit to be as real as my if in first her? had lived house And I that own. she alone elegant when met PerhapsI would never have sensedother lives of mine, having no need of them. (144) Theselives touch at points of decision where a choice made or chanceencounterleads inexorably down a different path. In a parody of the fortune teller, Villanelle examines but the faint her handsto seeif there is a physical echo of her lives' multiple presence,
in in is lives the the these canal water: rippled reflection only seen glimmer of other "[p]erhaps our lives spread out around us like a fan and we can only know one life, but by mistake sense others" (144). Knowledge of these contemporaneous existences is

in her boots hides fan in her body, the through and etchedonto of webs she contained the lines on her palms.

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4.6

Coda

Winterson's application of the mazeunites the pursuit of passionwith the discovery and transfonnation of the self. This investigation of the journey towards love is a constant theme in her writing and so too is the examination and re-evaluation of the body. Winterson's interest in the maze is elsewhereextendedin her discussionof the Internet in forms the the sublimation of maze narrative, a malleable ex-centric space which, identities be flux. The transforined can created, and envisaged where in a state of freeing and idealistic properties of the web contrastwith this earlier fiction as the maze
both The Passion contains the over-structuring of systems of control and the within in be Ultimately, Henri the space whereby such practice may subverted. remains labyrinthine prison of his mind and in a state of near madness that is comparable to

Danielewski's character Truant and his collection of coded letters from his mother.
Danielewski extends the discussion of the labyrinth and maze through the express

incorporation of source material and influences, whilst Winterson's text is more its in suggestiveness. reservedand subtle

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Young Author", "Hubris the and examinesthe essay intentions laid down by the through problems of reading a novel manifesto of authorial Winterson in her introduction. 2 This can be seenin the ideal for (Oranges 58-65), Henn's an search woman prince's in in wanderings, the reconstructionof Louise's body in Written on the Bo4y, and in Ali(x)'s virtual storiesin ThePowerBook. 3 PeterSmith (Syntax Cities) addresses directly. this metaphor of 4 For example,seeJim Buchanan(qtd. Tim Richardson,"Earth Works"), Bord (Mazes) (Through). Kem deny For and writers who such a rigid division between'maze' and 'labyrinth' seeMatthews (Mazes),Doob ("Contradictory Paradigms"76 ffi. 2) and Fisher (Art). 5 It follows that early labyrinths and mazes were madeout of available and affordable for hot dry SouthernMediterraneancould scarcelysupport the materials; example, and turf or hedgemazes. Likewise, Scandinaviancostal labyrinths were constructedout of convenientpebbles. Consequently,large and expensivehousesor prisons constructed labyrinthine upon plans would tend to use stone. 6 Ackroyd arguesthat theseLondon mazeswere "the sacred equivalentof the oak grove" (London 14-15). Whilst thesemazesare clearly ritualistic, it seemsunlikely that they are maturewooded structuresas early mazeswere invariably madeof turf (cf Fisher and Kingham, Mazes 8-10). 7 Labyrinths appearin Indian mythology and as the South American 'Man in the Maze'. SeeBord (Mazes)and Matthews (Mazes)for reviews of suchrepresentations. 8 This can be observedin Richard Whitlock's Zootomia (1654), William Falconer's Shipwreck(1762,11.207)and ConnopThirlwall's A History of Greece(1835, v.l. 133). 9 SeeFisher and Kingham (Mazes)and also Umberto Eco (Reflections)who discussthe famous The Renaissance the gardenmazesof onwards. most exampleof sucha garden is by Court Maze (date Hampton 1690 the planted cited maze seventeenth-century Kenner,Mazes245). 10 Shields' novel Larry's Party offers an insight into a mazedesigner'spsycheincluding (92-93,153). in-depth to the organic materialsneeded plant a maze an examinationof 11 known Thesepartitioned passageways the to of maze appear as causeda sub-genre betweenlabyrinth and bower the bower. Matthews (Mazes)exploresthe associations ftirther. 12 Andrea L. Harris (Other Sexes174 ffi. 10) briefly makesnote of the connection betweenthe maze and the love affair in referenceto Written on the Body. 13 Kenner usesthis instanceto mark the connectionbetweendanceand the maze(Mazes 250). 14 "SecondDeath"' Winterson's writing often adoptsinternal retroversions(cf, Seaboyer, for thesemomentsin ThePassion). Shealso reusesand revisessomekey lines from her other fictions. 15See Women" Disorder Control Life, the "Urban which also appears and of especially in JaneRendell, BarbaraPennerand Ian Borden, Gender,Space,Architecture. 16 lithe the SeePalmer's descriptionsof theseillicit encounters acrobats("The with Passion" I 11). 17 Seaboyeridentifies Venice as a city remodelledby writers in the late twentiethlineage to Pfister 483). Death" of writers attracted ("Second a produces also century Venice, stretching back to the Romantics("The Passion" 15). 27 18 1) ("'Subversion" Ar6stegui to Asensio 112-115) refer Passion" Palmer ("The and Invisible Cities when discussingThePassion.

1GeorgeLainsbury, in his brief

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19The is New through the these sustained spirit of active and aggressive aspect of cities York, a city associated by Winterson with the alchemist, after Angela Carter's The Passion ofNew Eve (Gut Symmetries 25). 20For in Venice Stokes Adrian (The the see an evocative account of play of oppositions qattro Cento). i 2 John Ruskin's The Stones of Venice is perhaps the most infamous record of the city's disintegration. 22This transformation is in maintained microcosm as the marble used to construct Venice is formed from limestone beds (sedimentary rock) that has been acted upon by (creating is in metamorphic activity metamorphic rock) and as such a modified state. (cf Stokes, Quattro for the relationship of stone to the city) 23Helene Bengston notes the persistence of rivers in Winterson's fictions and the between flow the of water and the construction of self ("The Vast, connection Uninappable Cities of the Interior" 19 fn. 3). 24See Lisa Moore's essay "Teledildomics" for its critique of clich6 in the lesbian romance novel. 25This method of detailing the movement of rivers and naming characters after various bodies of water recalls Joyce's Finnegans Wake. 26See Mark Wormald "The Uses Impurity" of who examines water and naming in Sexing Cherry. to the relation 27Critics engaging with Written invariably Body the on use the gendering of the narrator issue. See for ("Teledildomics") her Moore a central especially as close textual reading (in Subjects "Colliding Textual Fusions"). For the text of sub-heading and a contrasted (Other Sexes) female Harris the argument see who uses pronoun 'she' to refer to the based her hints female the text's towards narrator a upon analysis of gender. Despite adopting a gendered pronoun, Harris confirms that the mystery of the narrator's sex and fender remain. 8 It follows that Villanelle's divided 'elle', the suffix name when reveals which femininity, least her 'she', French to the underlying, at partially corresponds pronoun impression 'villain'. first her the the of name almost confers whilst portion of 29See ("Fantastic 272), Language" 28 ("Subversion" Bums 1) Ar6stegui Asensio also 493-494). Seaboyer ("Second Death" and 30The final ABAA five ABA tercets and a quatrain of rhyme of villanelle consists of first is first line interwoven. The is the The tercet the of rhyme. rhyme pattern strictly last line of the second and fourth tercets. The third rhyme of the first tercet is repeated forms fifth last line the this tercets, the the third also concluding refrain and and as of Ixxv-lxxvi). Anthology Norton The (Ferguson ofPoetry et al, rhyming couplet 31The Greek from letter is the the 'Dedalus' architect of removed one only name labyrinth, 'Daedalus', who briefly became the prisoner of his creation. For a detailed discussion of Joyce's riddles and labyrinthine allusions see Diane Fortuna ("The Labyrinth") and Faris (Labyrinths). 32Seaboyer Death"). ("Second in her doubling essay examines such 33See Onega ("The Passion") for her examination of the Tarot in The Passion and its Land. Waste The Tarot Eliot's in comparison to use of the 34Onega in "Self Passion" The Winterson's the in Jeanette Other notes influence of and Pushkin's short story and so too does Julie Ellam ("Representations of Love"). 35Gillian Beer iternises a number of nineteenth-century books that incorporate a female Wager"'). Reader's ("The fambler fh. 23) ffi. 345-346, 6 See 14; (344, Direction Image The Fletcher Angus ofLost also 37Scott Wilson ("'Passion at the End of History"' 64) briefly mentions the commonality Other"). ("Self Onega too and of the men and chickens, and so

224

38Thoughthe it historic been long has the speculation, was not subject of snowflake Bentley A. Wilson the that twentieth conclusively evidencedthe until early century individuality of snowflakes(cf. J.A. Martin, Snowflake).Villanelle is here refuting Henri's earlier commentsthat no-oneknows whether snowflakesare all dissimilar (8 1). 39One key idea that hasconsumedacademictime, especially in response to Written oil the Body, is whether Winterson's work can be effectively categorisedas lesbian. See (Heterosexual Plots "Lesbian Gabriel Marilyn Farwell Narrative"), and especially Griffin (Outwrite) and Patricia Duncker ("JeanetteWinterson"). Orangesin its treatmentof burgeoninghomosexualityis perhapsWinterson's only explicitly lesbian Asensio ("Subversion") Ar6stegui novel. refers to the polemical propertiesof Winterson's narrative,whilst Nunn ("Written on the Body"), Gonzalez("Winterson's Sexing the Cherry") and Kutzer ("Cartography of Passion")explicitly chastise Winterson for her implicit or absence of radical rhetoric. 40Cathy Stowers("Journeying with Jeanette"142) also refers to Villanelle as bisexual, is is ("Jeanette Ursula K. Heise Winterson" 548) "Villanelle a more undecided: while lesbian,or is perhapsbisexual". Clearly, the notion of bisexually is potentially disquieting in Kutzer her discussion as assesses politically of Palmer's writing about (Kutzer, "Cartography of Passion" 144). androgyny 41AsensioArostegui notesthis mistake in the ritual ("Subversion" 269). 42Henri also describesher feet in an ambivalentway: "[s]he unfolds them like a fan and folds them in on themselves"(136). Despitethe masculinity of the webbing, the fan is feminine has been the and regardedas a prop to communicatesexual associated with availability. 43In her novel TheDeadly SpaceBetween(2002), Patricia Duncker equates this space in-betweenwith the hybrid, partially achievedthrough intertextuality (especially nineteenth-century narrativessuchasJekyll and Hyde, Dr. Monrow's Island and Frankensteinall of which signify transformation).In keepingwith this liminal narrative, the hyper-masculineprotagonist,Roehm,is referredto as the Minotaur. 44For an examinationof homosexualactivity and spaceseeNancy Duncan "Renegotiating". 45Critical engagements George The Passion the theorist the notion of risk use and with Bataille. Theseinclude Tamas("Risking the Tex") and Scott Wilson ("Passion"). 46Walter Benjamin's identification of the fflneur is that of the male bourgeoisin Paris (CharlesBaudelaire). Seealso ElizabethWilson's discussionof the flaneur and femininity ("The Invisible Flaneur"). Winterson recalls her navigation of Amsterdamas (3-2 Effrontery 1). Ecstasy Objects: Essays in Art flaneur and on a performanceof the 47Swansonarguesthat the frivolity of women's clothing in the nineteenthcentury, fallen be the in thought to symptomaticof especially examplesof public women,was Glitter"). ("Drunk the woman with 48Foran examination of bodily cartographyseeRosalyn Diprose and Robyn Ferrell (Cartographies) and also Written on the Body. 49Winterson's fiction containsfrequentreferences to gambling and risk, especiallyin a dialectic relationship with religion. This is evident in Orangeswhere Elsie usesdice to selecther bible passages. 50Fahy usesthis exampleto combine the feminisation of spaceand the threat of female Bodies"). invasion ("Fractured violation through male violence and 51Seethe gypsy's prophesyin Oranges(7). Tamis ("Risking" 203) also makesthis connectionbetweenthe two texts. 5. ) Purinton notes that Henri's sectioncombinesthe masculinity of the emperorwith the femininity of the diary form ("PostmodemRomanticism" 7 1). For other critics who Ar6stegui Asensio 104), Passion" ("The Palmer femininity see engagewith Henri's 225

("Subversion" 266-268), Helga Quadfleg ("Feminist Stories" 101), and Kutzer 3 Cartography" 138).

SeeElizabeth Wilson (Mirror Writing) and FlorenceHowe (qtd. Moi Sexuall1extual Politics, 255) identify the centrality of the diary and autobiographyto elucidatefemale experience. 54Thesesuperhumanabilities areprominently seenin Winterson's female communities display few Grice these the traits. explicitly abnormal and of male protagonists while in Woods claim Patrick is the sole male characterof superhuman ability Winterson's fictions (I'M Telling YouStories 7). In ThePassion,the superhuman qualities exhibited b Patrick and Villanelle arepartially disguised. 57 5, The labyrinth frequently occursin post-colonial narratives,for example,in the work Salman Rushdie. Marquez Borges, and of 56Through Domino's namethere are obvious parallels to gaming and also, given the text's exploration of Europeanhegemony,to the susceptibility of WesternEuropeto the 'domino effect'. 57Purinton briefly commentsthat both Domino and Patrick are figures at the cuspof Winterson's narrative ("PostmodernRomanticism" 86-87). 58Domino's script recalls the striking through of 'being' suggested by Heidegger (Question80-83) and a similar occurrencecan be found in Danielewski's House of Leaves(I 11). "The significance of ThePassion's setting in the Romantic era is commentedon by ("SecondDeath") and the text's Romanticism fon-nsthe thesisof Purinton's Seaboyer Romanticism"'. "Postmodern essay, 60Therewould seemto be a distinction betweenthe Frenchdesireevidencedby dynasty Venetian Georgette'scommentsfor the re-establishment the sentiment of a and dispossessed VenetianRepublic. the regarding recently 61There is a suggestionin ThePowerBookthat ultimately there arejust two personae is tracked through time. relationship whose 62The nameof the island that housedVenice's lunatic asylum is San Servolo. It may be fiction boundary between is the that this and reality. of argued an addedmanipulation Winterson's "San Servelo" could be viewed As Onega(...Self' and 'Other"') suggests, brain "cervello" Italian deliberate the which would meaning word as a pun with be final this or could consideredas a passage, complementthe reflective mood of Ellarn 15) ("The Passion" by Pfister and spelling mistake, as posited 491). "Second Death" (Seaboyer, "typographical ("Representations"), error" or as a Incidentally, the Venice InternationalUniversity now standson the site of this old I). Views Venetian Schaff, (Pfister asylum and 63Winterson's useof Eliot's poem as a meansof articulating ideasabout time is noted by Onega("Self and Other").

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House ofLeaves 5

Gathering Scattered Leaves: Mark Z. Danielewski's Overwhelming

Textual Labyrinths Perhapsthe most striking featureof House of Leaves,Danielewski's debut novel, is its playful and innovative discoursethat draws heavily upon the labyrinth and the labyrinthine. The composition of narratives insists upon an attention to

intertextuality, authorial manipulation and woven dialogueswhich makesprominent

the materiality of the text. The voices interact and negotiate page space, resulting in distinctive typographical patterning that makes the reading process precarious and

journey interpretation is hindered. This that the ensures reader's of massive intersperses ideas in labyrinth the the undertaking numerous of made overt investigations at Ash Tree Lane and in the academic research that augments it,
whilst the taxonomy of competing genres and narrative voices emphasise the

labyrinthine tendenciesof the text.

House of Leaves createsan excessof authorial and editorial voices and comment
that create a pastiche of narrative authority. One of the core narratives, the

Navidson Record, forms the mediation of an encounter with a physical labyrinth. A

is through the and mediated a represented encounter purportedly multi-media event, its both The by Zaxnpano. the event and validity of critical narrative produced Johnny frame: ftu-ther by the editorship of narrative a commentary are probed death, Zampano"s finder Truant who, as commentson and of the paperwork after found by Truant Crucially, discourse. the eclectic and are writings the recasts hands. by (xxii), dictations transcribed various unfinished The validity of

from him blindness, his by further Zampano"'swords is tested which prevented Truant's Beyond (xxi). helpers female his by reading the notes produced focalisation are the intrusions of a seriesof reticent "editors", the transcriptionsof
227

Karen Navidson's investigations as well as various eclectic collections of material in contained a seriesof appendices.

This chapter will engagewith the labyrinth's effects of the unheimlich, a sensation that makes dwelling within the structure an uncomfortable experience.Monstrous labyrinth those the negatively affect who enter whilst such and protean passages transfonnation witnessed in the physical labyrinth is suggestivelyparalleled in the labyrinthine encounters with the book, as the labyrinth threatens to escapethe boundsof the text and affect the reader(513).

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5.1

Get out of the House: The Role of the Uncanny and the Threat of the Void

The Navidson footage cinematically captures five expeditions into a maze and is

represented as the mediated transcript of a collection of video diaries and into house. is is Will Navidson, Record the the explorations after whom named, a
Ash Tree Lane to photographer who relocated prize-winning as an appeasementto

his frayed is Marital by the mend marriage. reconciliation rapidly undermined discovery of a hallway complete with a door which materialisesduring a weekend is be Its to away. mysterious appearance shortly compoundedby the knowledge
that the hallway is erratically but rapidly growing, stretching into inconceivable beyond house. through the reaches and

The colossal size of the labyrinth, improbably contained within an under stairs
' cupboard, heightens the persuasive atmosphere of the uncanny. From quite

innocuous beginnings the hallway contorts and becomes a labyrinthine area of

instability whose confines stretch and shrink without warning, but which produces Consistency house. little discernible changein the outward measurements the of of known spaceis irrevocably damagedthrough the discovery of a quarter of an inch discrepancy between the inside and outside of the house; a small deviation that flaunts the physics of the known universe. hmediately the labyrinth is perceived law. Though functions to by connected of universal as supra-natural,unconstrained labyrinth the the house, and sheer the the of properties unreal and contained within incorporate it the of elements nonetheless the engenders magnitude of unheindich

outside.

29 2)

Regardless of the abnormalities in the hallway, the facade of a normal familial house remains and ensures that despite the rapid turnover of owners the house "always sells" (409). Though the labyrinth is initially containedbeyond a seriesof doors leading from the known house, the final confrontations with the structure building house Ash Tree the that the and ensure at manipulateother surfaceswithin Lane becomesindivisible from the labyrinth.

There are several factors to consider when examining the location of the labyrinth: fundamentally, the relationship between the labyrinth and the home raises the between known, labyrinth The transitions marginal and unknown areas. questionof
hallway through the transfonnation of a effectively creates a contestation of space

inside is "separates that and simultaneouslyunites an outside and an which an area

[from] what is alien and what is habitual" (Norberg-Schulz, Architecture Meaning

idea is here Christian 46). Although Norberg-Schulz Place the contemplating and is for is house into true that the there the same a sense of a porch as an entry point the labyrinth, as it forms a bridge betweenthe known and unknown, the inside and the outside. Indeed, Eliade arguesthat the labyrinth is a union of the inside and the
(Idea; "Contradictory") Doob (Encyclopaedia) makes a similar claim whilst outside

dichotomy is This is both labyrinth orderedand chaotic. when she remarks that the household incorporation labyrinth's by of recognisable systematic exaggerated the familiar These doors hallways, include markers of and stairs. paraphernaliawhich like features the the by the apparent house wind, outside the of are accompanied limitless beast seemingly into the passageways of extension and growls of a expanses.

230

The equation of the labyrinth with the home is made in Chaucer's descriptionsof its chambers as "Domus Dedali" (House of Fame 1920), a connection that is from Doob by Danielewski's choice of quotations, especially accentuated (Danielewski, House 107; Doob, Idea 95-100). Accordingly, the mythical delineations of the labyrinth emphasise the correlation of a structure that is home both home. Such a and not a observations ambivalently juxtapose the idea of the building as the Minotaur's dwelling place and as Daedalus' construction. It is
fear both the the the monster and creator, afraid participants in maze significant as

that the charactersare really synonymouswith eachother.

The description of the labyrinth as a houseechoesits birth and subsequent meteoric

from family home. Navidson the within growth Encounter with the labyrinth

labyrinth, that the the the pervades unheimlich, an emotion exacerbates sensationof the house, the narrators and ultimately the reader of the book. Translation of the
German word 'unheimlich' is supplied by Heidegger as the state of "not-being-athome" (Being 233; qtd. Danielewski 25). This determination is reiterated by Freud in his languages definitions essay of unheimlich across various who also explores "The Uncanny" (154-167 esp. 154-157).

labyrinthine the The expeditions which seek to explain and understand spaceare forced back by the unheimlich as they are unable to dwell within the structure or is to unable Technologically woefully equipment advanced map its parameters. because both the the labyrinth, of aspect shifting of the measurethe enormity of that such its emphasises which normality, physical of maze and repudiation home the The of and safety inadequate. is stability represents scientific enquiry It belonging. includes is a senseof known spaceand, more than the word 'house',

231

discontinuity, irony Danielewski of not-beingthen that with much entertainssuch is home. The this to turn the the the effect of at-home, within of exploration domestic, the stable epitome of security, into a threatening, warped entity whose defies known. the the of comfortable and astronomicalgrowth all parameters

Those who encounterthe extremities of the house are all physically affected, from death frostbite through to ailments niggling and extreme suffered on Navidson's
final return to the labyrinth and dissolution of the house (523). The labyrinthine intensifies it space also existing medical conditions: affects Tom through an his claustrophobia whilst Karen's agoraphobia precludes her entry exacerbation of in to the maze until it becomes essential. There is a hypothesis put forward by

(21-23) and reaffirmed by his fictitious critical engagements Zampano' (165) that the labyrinth transformsitself in relation to the mental stateof thosewho enter it and so the angst-riddenadults are under threat whilst the relatively innocent children and
animals remain largely unaffected.

Within the labyrinth there is an over-implementationof such boundariesleading to dwelling familiar In disorientationthrough the abundance the of a case markers. of dividing identified the through the spacesare separatedand walls; a process use of intended to create a protected locale at odds with the turbulent outside. The changing shape of the structure prevents a usable cartography and ensures,as Zampano'notes, that "no one ever seesthat labyrinth in its entirety" (114), and so disorientation that confusion. and human the of the remains maze of experience by disingenuous and recognised The confines and the grounding of the margins are Truant as impinging upon his environment: "You'll
longer trust the very walls you always

discover
took for

you
granted"

no

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(xxiii). Discussion of the mutability of architectureis extendedto the experienceof the text which as Michael Silverblatt's interview with the author reveals: "[the] book is architecture" (qtd. Martin Brick, "Blueprint(s): Rubric for a Deconstructed Age" 8).

The establishmentof layers of critical commentary enablesDanielewski to educate his idea to of the uncanny. Though Freud usesthe term 'uncanny' and attune reader interchangeablywith the German unheimlich, Zampano'illustrates the root of both terms and surveys the derivation of 'uncanny' from the Old English cunnan: "unliterally breaks down disassembles into is full that cann-y or which not of knowing
full knowing" ignorance (359). The of not or conversely central at the core of his

definition forms a suitable analogy for the expedition into the labyrinth, where its dimensions very prevent an overview of the structure and so withhold
comprehension of its design. The inability to witness the labyrinth in its totality

inhibits understandingof its maker or the practice undertakento constructthe maze. Instead, the inexplicable and expansive dimensions of the house cause the house becomes, Jacob divine. The it in the terms to to as of protagonists refer Genesis 28: God" (121; 17). "house describes, immense terrifying of and an

Zampano' highlights three possibleusesof the labyrinth: as a prison, a mortuary or a Faris" in that (I 11), with correspond a series of conclusions place of amusement idea that the labyrinth is a place of "play and terror" (Labyrinths 1). The maze functions three Lane to Tree Ash house as all incorporate appear the would at within to innocence explicit sinister initial more way gives rapidly exploration and an air of house between deftly the and These connection three underline uses overtones. ftin house. death house detention, labyrinth: as houseof and of

233

The trope of the houseas a metaphorfor bloodline (The Fall of the House of Usher) fiction in Gothic is in (Jane Eyre) the and as a prison of sustained the repressed both Danielewski's lineages. The tradition. cinematic novel adoptsand plays with frequency of the house as site of the uncanny in nineteenth-century fiction is by (qtd. Anthony Vidler Bemong, "Uncanny" 3). An underlying menace outlined home is in horror the the theme perceivedsafety of within a common cinematic and the Gothic canon, whilst reluctance to flee the house and the boundaries of the 3 in known often results the death of peripheral figures. The excessive labyrinth into lower dimensions building, location the the that of extendsinto a subterranean labyrinth descent into the the terrestrial the hellish, whereby connects with a out of function as a conduit betweenthe earthly and the divine. the passageways

The house remains without a number or a nomenclatureand so becomesaffiliated

is isolation building importance its location Ash Tree The Lane. the or of on with

discussing house. Its Navidson's definite by the to the article when alluded use of image is by divine domestic the the of repeated and reaffirmed and site unites the final in (709). Yggdrasil is finally it the Norse the tree, poem namedas until world

The meeting of the celestial and the domesticis replicated in the early labyrinths in Egypt and Crete. The Egyptian edifice was thought to be both houseand heavenly (Herodotus), his III Amenemhet Pharaoh government and seat of palace of the Minotaur (Ayrton, is home labyrinth the to Cretan semi-divine whilst the defensive labyrinth's The Labyrinths). Asterion" House Minotaur!; Borges, "The of the of a notions with disorientating odds semantic at appear properties would and

234

house or a place of dwelling and it is this fundamentalanomaly that is explored in Danielewski's novel.

The ability to remain is the capability to sanitise and articulate space,as NorbergSchulz claims: "only when man has taken possessionof space, defining what is inside and what remains outside, may we say that he dwells" (Architecture, Meaning and Place 33). The actions of the groups which infiltrate the labyrinth are fulfil Norberg-Schulz's indeed, it in to utterly unable premise: would appear each labyrinth invasion that the repels each case at will. Their expeditions appearfutile dimensions labyrinth be it the the as of can not approximated: remains profoundly enigmatic.

Although the origin of Navidson's labyrinth is a mystery, its impossible dimensions

and the control it appears to exert over those who enter it, suggest a sentient Zampano' "the As the construes, question presence which overreaches structure.

if " house. it is Though so whose? and, more soon ariseswhether or not someone's " (121). Navidson addresses this threateningly, "could the owner still be there? Pelafina's in final letter Karen, his type the to setting as same which uses concern letters: "God's a house[ w]hat I mean to say is that our house is God" (390). ... Perhapsit is not surprising that Navidson reachessuch a conclusion, as the houseis Rather his limits the totally understanding. of at massivelypowerful, enigmatic and itself has labyrinth Navidson 'other', the that for than searching an esoteric confinns become the personification of the Minotaur or God. The entity appearsnot to human it influences human presence: tolerate as removesany residueof or external "[t]here was very little evidenceof the first team's descentremaining on the stairs, days last fishing line at most six Navidson determines that the neon markers and

235

before they are entirely consumedby the house" (182). This animalism is supported further by the presenceof the roar which Holloway recognises as "an utterance by made somedefinitive creature"(123).

Paradoxically, despite Navidson's ownership of the house, there is a sense of trespasswhereby infiltration of the labyrinth is reminiscent of the transgressionin fairytales. The fear that there is something lurking in the labyrinth is maintained
by the underlying threat of the Minotaur who, as guardian of the building, legitimates the need for the labyrinth: "[the] Minotaur [ ] watches within ...
4

Daedalus' palace [

] the palace which imprisons him, protects him, was built for ...

him, manifests externally his mixed monstrous nature" (Foucault, Death and the Labyrinth 80). Borges reiterates this correlation between beast and building and
5 labyrinth" ffi. "justifies (qtd. Faris, 217 3). Labyrinths that the the affirms monster

in its absence The beasttherefore gives the labyrinth meaningbecause the labyrinth
is little more than an empty house. The conceptualisation of a labyrinth without a

Minotaur or a creator appearssinister and perhapsexplains why Zampan6soughtto Danielewski from In the this the text. these plays with manner, erase elements
implies Truant Minotaur that to the the that ties will encounter maze and necessity into (70-72,496-497). beast transform the or Though the mythological beast never

labyrinth's its the nonarrival coupled with physically materialises, the threat of linger to that the expeditions are unable conformity to conceptionsof spaceensure within the structure.

In his essay"The Uncanny", Freud notes the extent to which an appreciationof the discovery from or derive events the of repetitious apparent uncanny may (165), accidentally system clandestine a reveals which reoccurring numbers

236

in different 'house' by individual. The a uncovered the perpetual reinforcement of colour setting incorporates the notion of an underlying scheme and maintains a languages This alike. use consistencyacrosspublishing conventions,narrators and indicative is Martin Brick of the practice of coloured of colour, as argues, hypertext in "suggests of a an computer which annotation medieval codicesand also ("Blueprint" 8). unseennetwork"

The excessof the labyrinth inspiresnotions of the Gothic: [Lnheimfich when used as an adverb means"dreadfully," awfully, " "heaps of," and "an awful lot of." Largenesshas always been a condition of the it is big. (28) too too overwhelming, weird and unsafe; much or Zampan6's fabricated definition of unheimlich is engineered to incorporate the
fictive, By the the the the extremes of void. connecting authentic etymology with text interweaves ideas of the home with unsettling concerns of enlarged space and

theseideas expediently combined to create"the perfect description of the houseon Ash Tree Lane" (28). The confusing labyrinthine passagewaysexplored by

Navidson are reminiscentof a houseof vast proportions: Navidson pushesahead,moving deeperand deeperinto the house, into leading doorways alternate off eventually passing a number of ] or chambers[ passageways ... His flashlight finds the floor but no walls and, for the first time, no ceiling. Only now do we begin to seehow big Navidson's housereally is. (64) innumerable the is The enormity of the house repeatedlystressed and so emphasises is labyrinth. Although the be the an maze direction that within made can choicesof intensely changing and fluid entity there are seemingly two constants:the presence the Hall connects Great which the massive spiral staircase and of an enon-nous Great Hall link the The the labyrinth. with stairs the lower aspectsof upper and

237

labyrinthine basementsof the lower levels and function as a threshold which both is from below. is that that which connectsand separates which above

The expeditions leave the apparentsafety of the explored regions of the labyrinth to lower hidden depths the encounter at the base of the staircase. Entry into this instils Gothic fear it subterraneanenvironment as signals the encounter with that
lies beneath. Distinctions between lower the which upper and portions of the maze

increased by the exponential growth of the staircase, which and marked are
from liminality hallway. The the the the severs expedition gateway seemingly of

further the expansion of stairs underlines the awesomepower of the labyrinth to its dimensions. transmogrify alter and

Though the labyrinth has walls, a residual space narned (perhaps as an aside to the

Norse tradition) the Great Hall and a staircaseas constant 'homely' features,there does items An 'house' that the eclectic not contain. are a plethora of materialistic is in lacking labyrinth's list the contained paraphernalia and comprehensive of
footnote 144, a compressed box that falls through some twenty-six pages (119-144). This graphic footnote causes N. Katherine Hayles to remark upon the cinematic

linguistic into "to the this space project quality of the square that endeavours in House Remediation Subject: ("Saving in the for signifiers everything the world" of Leaves" 792). it items disparate is It contain a senseof what as though these

documents footnote the Notably, dwell. the physical accoutrements to same means large "risers, two treads, one at posts, newel the to contains which staircase afforded banister the top and one at the bottom, cappedand connectedwith a single, curved in labyrinth, list As the (133). balusters" this by signifies, supported countless functional ("Saving"'), and recognisable Hayles' combines to reasoning antithesis

238

household items within the disquieting and enormous space. The ambivalenceof the situation is further underscoredby the occasional absenceof a ceiling or the immeasurable distances to the walls which, instead of offering freedom, fearful. paradoxically appear more confining and The importance of the

is issue between labyrinth the the the and abyss of crisis and unrestthat comparison it raises,reflecting the significance of the labyrinth as a site of change. Navidson's final encounterwith the labyrinth results in the structure's disintegration into void him into to plunge, spiralling, nothingness. which causes

239

5.2

Listening for Echo: Myth, Repetition and Narrative Difference

The origins of the labyrinthine house are innocuous enough, beginning with an internal growth of one quarter of an inch, undetectableto the eye, and the discovery improbability, is initially hallway is It though terrifying. a physical which, not of a the deeperimplicit inferenceof this growth that the reader,along with the Navidson brothers, does not yet fully anticipate which is altogether more sinister. The discrepancy its that the to expose physical mathematicequations are unable reason cause:
No matter how many legal pads, napkins, or newspaper margins they fill in for fraction. One that they with notes or equations, cannot account incontrovertible fact stands in their way: the exterior measurement must infinitely internal depends Physics the on a universe measurement. equal centred on an equal sign. (32)

The labyrinth overtly challenges scientific rule which makes any scientific for lack its form The the to of a rational explanation problematic. approaches labyrinth is contained within the erasure of the scientific study, which is both
labyrinth The inconclusive (372-377). as a site of crisis visually and semantically

by in instability an event anticipated and causes the misadventure of science Nietzsche,who lyrically writes that "logic curls up around itself at theselimits and imbues finally bites its own tail" (Nietzsche,Birth of Tragedy 75). Zampano', who directly theme: to the alludes myth with an overtly sinister aspect,
if Reason Myth known she Except the Vandal as always slaughters

falters. [ ]r. Monster. is Tom's Myth herd. the is Myth the tiger stalking I] (335) is Myth beast. ]y's the is Hol[ Myth . lvaj%&&&"Awmifleta its discussing Echo application as a Zampano'spithy description of the myth, whilst birth discussion the Nietzsche's of science and of law in physics, neatly inverts 240

death-of-myth motif.- 66restlessly advancing spirit of science will recognize at once how myth was destroyedby it" (Birth of Tragedy 82).

The foundations of contemporarythought are also perceived to be inadequateand

lacking as the reassuring physical properties of the echo are subverted. The

fallibility of scienceis exposedthrough the inadequacies of the echo formula when labyrinth. Lack labyrinth's the the of encountering an echo suggests spaceand size is unknowable and that it does not conform to notions of physics, as a site "'unshaped' by human perceptions" (173). Startling noises and silenced echoes fearfully indistinct construct a structure. This eerie quiet, except for the noise by idea halls 'beast', the the the rapidly changing of trespass or caused underlies into a forbidden area. The fundamentalrubric that underpins dwelling cannot be fulfilled in the labyrinth and as such there can be no relationship, no dwelling of in man the maze.

Earlier encounterswith the maze stressits inherent complexity, intensified by the

highlights, in its fractured through that passageways, an envirorunent enomlity of

Within difficulty intricacy the the the the apparent of return. continual route, of his disorientated becomes to labyrinth, Navidson create an attempts and changing futile hallway the in locate his the to as a exercise, are to relation echo position is There levels floor of velocity. walls, and ceiling move sporadically with varied in too times, many obstacles,resulting nothing to bounce the sound-waveoff or, at uncertainty.

is by his Navidson labyrinth, into journey saved the During one clandestine hallway: the that liminal the in connects an act daughterDaisy's crying the of space

241

in instances Though there are multiple mythology of virgins maze and the outside.
in heroes from it danger, this contemporary adventure to saving seems surprising

in female household locate the the witness youngest,apparentlypowerless, and save her father from the confusion of the maze. In general the male protagonists, in of Theseus' quest,primarily explore the spaceof the labyrinth, as the remembrance
fictitious representation of Camille Paglia wittily attests (357-358). In contrast,

Karen's rescueforges a path towards Will, causedby her determinationto asserthis (524), presence whilst her predisposition to ignore the structure leads to the disintegrationof the shape. Ignoring her fear, Karen finally entersthe void with the intention specific of guiding Will back: an intention that Zampano'notes signals
"her love for Navidson" (522). Difficult though her entry into the labyrinth was, her route to Will is direct and non-digressive, resulting in an anti- labyrinthine

her internal the movement: singularity and concentration models space in a manner

loving her husband Her embrace with causesthe collapse of not previously seen. the maze as, ironically, the nightmarish experienceforces them to transcendtheir
marital grievances. This is achieved through the articulation and expulsion of

Navidson's terrible secret which serves as another marker that the labyrinth to mood and to the subconscious. responds

Though they escape from the labyrinth the structure remains a threat, as Karen states: There is nothing there. Be wafned-.Be careful. (550) Exit from the labyrinth is at a cost: Karen suffers from a progressivecancerwhich become has Navidson house, in her the linked be whilst to to experiences appears been has life Their to devastating normal return the cold. crippled as a result of

242

elliptical and fraught with danger: a cyclical journey which, although they appear cleansedand rejuvenated,hasterrible consequences.

The transformative qualities of the labyrinth are intrinsic to its history and are
intensified in the contemporary spiritual resurgence of the design. The process of

by be the changeelicited structure can understoodthrough the elliptical nature of the echo that retums the sameyet altered. The dichotomy that Echo embodies,as the figure from mythology and from science, is that of emotion and rationality.
When Echo answers Narcissus' call with the same language she translates and imbues his words with a different poignant meaning, thereby illustrating the transformative effect of repetition. In a similar manner, Danielewski plays with the nuancesof reiteration, especially through translation:

This exquisite variation on the passageby the "ingenious layman" is far too dense to unpick here. Suffice it to say Menard's nuances are so fine they are nearly undetectable, though talk with the Framer and you will immediately see how haunted they are by sorrow, accusation, and sarcasm. fuck do Exactly! How the you about write both "exquisite passages are when variation" (42) the same? exactly

The echo presentedof Don Quixote is itself a translation transferredfrom Borges' 69) (Labyrinths Quixote" Author Menard, "Pierre the and servesto of short story The Argentinean Zampano' the aloof and writer. with connect the missing author be Borges' it is that intertextuality level noted impressive and should complex of be identical text deals of a can replication text with the principle that seemingly infinitely richer given its broader textual network. The passagemanipulates the different displayed the infonnation page on places at the when same reflection of from different the meaning deals a the gains repetition as s/he with and the reader instances. the two readingof

243

This textual game suggeststhe uniquenessof any utterance, for as Alan Megill writes: "no thing, no occurrence, is exactly the same as any other thing or As Truant's 49). (Prophets Extremity readers, we empathise with occurrence" of frustrations and yet theoretically thesetwo instancescan never be the sameas they
in different By is the text. this stipulation, at moments reoccurrence always occur

different and determined through minute variations. With the spoken word the listener is normally able to determine subtle differences through such variables as intonation, accent and inflection, and so demonstrates that the spokenword can be
information. viewed as a more subtle purveyor of The echo motif forms a pithy

her has "To life. It this of process: repeat: voice possessesa quality not example

in different how the original, revealing a nymph can return a and more present
in functions like (42). The telling the echo a spite of same story meaningful story,

feature is by in but the that tested a modified state:a original verbal mirror returning the text's many narrative repetitions.

Danielewski's novel surveys and engages with studies about the labyrinth. During

the examination of the Navidson labyrinth he draws heavily upon Borges as a key his him footnotes Borges, He labyrinth. and also parodies quotes writer about the forms in discourse the his that physical accumulation work and methodsof writing a [which] the "displaced poor pittance were of others, of. and mutilated words, words left him by the hours and the centuries" (Borges,"The hmortal Words" Labyrinths 147). This sentiment encapsulatesTruant's experience of Zampano"s prolific writings. include Danielewski the aggressive Borges Themes common to and

fabricated to intrusions validate fictional citations language, and editorial nature of Danielewski At labyrinth. times, playful makes the and, of course, critical passages footnote (133). 167 inverted in be the warped and Borges, seen to can as reference

244

House of Leaves recreates Borges' vision of a book that is simultaneously a narrative and a labyrinth:
I am withdrawing to write a book. And another time: I am withdrawing to it did book labyrinth... that the to occur and the maze no one construct a Garden ("The Forking Paths" Labyrinths thing. the of same were one and 50)6

The labyrinthine is inherent in every thematic attribute of the text and evident in the is flow The the the typographical aspect of novel. of written page syntax and distorted by the movement in the labyrinth whereby the distinctive typographical
layout that Danielewski employs arrests and recasts the conventional descent of The English the contorted and rotated course of the text parallels on page. written

the effects that the Navidson labyrinth exertson scientific law, where the rudiments of gravity are unconditionally altered.

Conventionally rigid typographical systems are made liquid in a process that textual units. or vanishing stretched spiralled, generates Suitably, the labyrinth

follow. laborious is to Record Navidson twisted and extremely segmentwithin the This episode requires the reader to enter a ftu-thertypographical labyrinth which the the through readingprocess slows and the maze emphasises shapeand progress
(423-489). accordingly The reader advances with Navidson along massive

through down claustrophobic the meanders and staircase corridors, vertically

passageways.

typological discards traditional labyrinthine many The disfigured, narrative into computer on discourse encountered usually the shapes attributes and contorts Martin by identified is influence critic technological Confinnation this of screens. I 'house denote the blue to word discussion the applied his Brick where, in colour of hypertextuality to he the on-line script different compares narratives, across the 245

("Blueprint" 3). Narrative performance, that adapts cinematic and technological in familiar the yet unfamiliar context, and the a methods, presents written word helps foregrounds both text technology typesetting create a which union of and its
7 own materiality and novelty.

Text as a riddle to be solved is initiated by Zampano'who refers to the etymology that connects 'reading' to 'riddle' (33), and in so doing emphasises the effort and
in Evidence Appendix Il would seem to the of reading complexity process. collated has Truant his that to, suggest responded and evolved, mother's narrative style. The

ludic nature of the text and the choreographedmoments of interaction between the earlier text offer moments of revelation, but when these endices and ap Ip
instances are unnecessarily gimmicky or complex they tend to jar. These flippant it is the the text gestures contrast with serious complexities of and perhaps this incongruity marked which creates the sensation of contesting genres.

The danceof writing, through techniquessuch as the manipulative useof depth and
footnotes disappearing through or the contorting of passageways of movement,

labyrinthine text, revels in subversive techniqueswhich affect and challenge the

These textual two-dimensional experiments manipulate reality. plane of restricting

layout font to types that convey traditions and page of certain use publishing innovative Danielewski's narratives subvert publishing conventionsand meaning. 8 insteadadopt elementsthat suggesta hand-written account.

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5.3

Everything Falls Apart: The De(con)struction of Memory

Truant's partial agoraphobiaimplies he only feels at easewithin the regulated and known boundaries of the house, and yet his domestic space through comparison labyrinth is imbued becomes fundamentally the the chaotic and so with with limits In his home to the confirm an attempt of challenging. space, Truant his for his and measures validates surroundings, obsessively waiting pronounced fears to be realised by any discernible change in its dimensions. The compulsive internal he dimensions his be the of apartmentcannot extended actions exhibits over
to the outside which is altogether larger and more ftightening. When Truant

he fears the external occasionally suffers associatedwith the encounters world Truant literally the the placementof within with uncanny or more unheimlich, and
the contesting boundaries of the labyrinth leads inevitably to an overwhelming feeling of the unheimlich and the threat of the 'other'.

A note of caution is generatedby the authoritative beginningsof Truant's narrative

"[tI the where preface states: hi sis not f or (viii). you" A dramatic and

follows introduction toil the of collating and physical records which emotive has book. The the the of edition completion within readingthe material represented left Truant weak and fearful, on the cusp of sleepand waking:
I still get nightmares. be I used should often No one ever really gets I get them so In fact I'm not. to them by now. used to nightmares(xi)

The cause of Truant's paranoia is clearly equated with the actual creation and Zampan6's he to the book makes alterations around the especially and reading of text, where he reinstateserasedsegments.

247

The struck-throughpassages directly referring to the Minotaur and consequentlythe Cretan labyrinth convey an attitude towards spaceand emplacement,which makesa forces is intennitted. thereby that the reader to play of or silent, and which just ignore the phrases. The motif of the stalker within the labyrinth contemplateor in is hidden the the text to that patrols space and gaps akin who which remains or obscuredat the cusp of the narrative. The prominent figures of Truant and Zampan6 by is haunted felt, third are a who periodically suggestingthe 'other' felt in Eliot's
9 (V. 359-265). The WasteLand

The erasureof textual passages concerningthe Minotaur is partial as theseretrieved degree legibility. The extent of the elementsare only struck-throughand allow a of
intended erasure is highlighted by the reconstruction of these elements, as Truant
attests: "Note: Struck passages indicate what Zampano' tried

to

get

rid

of, and (111). a

but

which

I,

with

a glass

little

bit managed

of to

turpentine resurrect"

good

magnifying

The striking out of elements of the text directed links to

Heidegger's discussion of 'being' (Question 80-83) where he uses this struckthrough font to indicate the partial effacement of the concept, in a process of both

is There tenn. the a sense same construction and erasure clearly visible within is throughout the text that the missing and obliterated that which is crucial, as
Truant states: "what matters most here is unspoken" (56). The

feels by Truant is who appreciated the material removed of significance Minotaur the and concerning the passages struck-through uncomfortable about between interplay the In in reader and of recognition the general. about omissions by in blockages the text to creating text, Iser arguesthat the readerrespondsactively Leaves, House the Within and erasure filling the of gaps. connections and 248

it the that is makes act of reading to text taken such an extreme emplacementof increasingly problematical.

The alienating typology forces an intensive and proactive responsefrom the reader in order to navigate the text and by so doing create the potential for a range of These readings are rich with "adjustments and revisions" personalisedmeanings. fonnulate interactive the to reader an which causes relationship with the narrative (Iser qtd. Raman Seldenand Peter Widdowson, A Reader'SGuide to Contemporaty
Literary Theory 55). Purposefully created blanks and omissions tend to degrade the

flow involve her/himself in the to the crafting narrative and prompt reader actively in Such is by his Truant through the to of a path narrative. practice alluded
discussion of digression (3 1) when he argues that it is the wandering and apparently extraneous material that contains the essenceof the writer. The textual structure

is free decide the the to reader whether to embodies author-architect'smodel, where

is further fragility in The this the textual of relationship participate perambulations.

lacunae innovative by the of the text. and eroded shapes

The prominence of these effaced passagesand absencesof text would seem to labyrinth. The in Navidson the and that spaces the strange confronts represent abyss blanks mediated are threateningboth to Truant and, it is implied, to the reader. The influence instances the that narrative: some of gaps novel contains excessive deliberately created by narrators, others offered as accidental or as an attempt to by is demonstrated The labyrinth. text document the experienceof the as a puzzle the deleted and the anonymity ensures material the portions of missing text where identifies Zampano' the of such Truant architect as knowledge. expressly control of
passages: "Zampano provided the blanks but never filled

249

them

in" (63). These absences from Truant the and prevent reader achieving Glaring

verification of source material or even identifying the participants.

omissions are obvious in burnt passages, struck-through sectionsand in Zampan6's method of obliterating elements of the text by inking out portions of his writing. The deliberate creation of blanks has the effect of taxing the reader to make meaning with scant or reduced information as such portions of missing data are often extensive. In so doing, the text disruptsthe infrastructurenecessary to achieve meaning and sustain meaning. Although the omissions make problematic the fluidity of movement from one sentence to another these elements are not insunnountable. Experienceof the narrative in chaptersLX and XX accentuates the rhythm of reading in harmony with the tension of the episode: a correlation
confirmed by Danielewski (Hayles, "Saving" 796). These stylised chapters evoke the impression of navigating a labyrinth.

During Truant's decline at the hands of language, the hub of his being, his accumulation of stories, begins to unravel. It is suggestedthat this is the same
disintegration that befell Zampano. Truant's collapse is accelerated when the

labyrinth returns him to that which he has been trying to repress:his memoriesof his mother. Nightmarish visions combine the violence of his mother with the beast images indistinct both labyrinth heart though the the they are are at and of but in his lies The through the reawakeningof memory persuasive. past, monster future. in his by his presentand activated writing reappears

Consistently delineated throughout the novel is the concept of a monster either in the fon-n of a mythological beast or as a psychological danger. Ultimately, the depths her/his forced the the to of self within own confront separate protagonistsare

250

labyrinth, to assimilate or be destroyedby a representationof their repressedpast. These skirmishes with their internal monsters and the overwhelming feeling of disorientation thoroughly unwind the psychesof the first expedition. Holloway's he deteriorates to the that mental state extent perceiveshis two friends as enemiesto be eradicated. After escaping the maze and locking Holloway deep within its folds into labyrinth the an abyss. structure An identification between the

his flat home Navidsons' that the of and environment of causesTruant to read
his fears to voraciously as a means allay of the appearance of the labyrinth (498). His methodology is only partially successful, as the progress causes him to

disharmonious his a past remember which converges on own story-telling and

initiates feelings of fracture.

The language of Zampano"s manuscript impinges upon Truant's narrative voice and

it he him distress Personal to together. metamorphosis seeks piece causes much as

is "D]ust language to: to remember words can repeatedly alluded upon exposure

few fatal. be For blows. In the they the rare can some cases exceed might of all form Heidegger's is immortal" (595). This premise of the of an extreme even
57). Prophets Megill, language (cf. transformative properties of His mother's

him letters her him through to solace, offers vocabulary which reaches out from him his Pelafina the in elevates past, reconfiguring protection and guidance. During fall later, Icarus-like, fly to him to to earth. only shadowsand encourages Truant's suffering at the hands of an abusive carer she recites from the "Battle of Maldon" (11.112-13): Hige sceal pe heardra,heorte pe cenre, mod sceal pe mare, pe ure maegen lytlad. (601) fill harden diminish, our our minds, we will By as much as our might may hearts,and increaseour courage.(653)

251

This quotation is encodedin its original form,, as it seemsunlikely that her young by Byrhtwold, Spoken English. the these be familiar wise reader would old with forces final depleted English his to to prior a attack. words were rallying cry Conversely,the English standwas entirely unsuccessfuland the "Battle of Maldon" forces by in English in Vikings Essex 991AD. the the of massacre actually recounts
Despite its rousing nature the quotation appears to offer instruction only to those

fail fitting forms for Truant and subsequently perish, and a message who will whose defencesbegin to disintegrate. The line appearsin the original in Pelafina's letters by in is footnoted by is Truant F the translation appendix where and also collated the editors (see above). In a celebratory mood, Pelafina also quotes from "The
Seafarer", possibly to denote Truant's on-goingjoumey (595).

Truant acknowledgesthe power of his mother's languageas its force provides the
impetus to escape his domestic nightmare: "I succeeded later, catching focusing finally lift had words my my I to not find received me, in a and give that still would never only have weeks

September, words,

my mother's the voice me the gaps,

tenderly and to

history direction, my wing

encouraging enough to

powerful strength

go"(325).

inscribed from free the be to In referenceto the flight that must undertaken oneself individual to the instructions ordering constitute a refrain and regulated path, these labyrinth that between the The of 326). 324; and (323; "fly from the path" union for twentieththe Ayrton by identified reason flight is a designation as a suitable Myth). Nyenhuis, ("Meaning"; labyrinth the in of interest century resurgence through that, in the symbols series of Aeronautical plans are even present investigations in one of Truant's collages (582), correspond to ground-to-air

252

emergencycodes. Such ciphers are repeatedin the footnotes to detail the route of the narrative as a labyrinth of pathwaysthat are broken, in a manner that reinforces the tension betweenthe terrestrial and the airborne. The overt referenceto the trail directs the reader again to the processof reading and the walker to the nature of the labyrinth. The aircraft codes reiterate the litany of broken paths and call for the need to transcendthe labyrinth (cf 151). In contrast, Zampan6 refutes Pelafina's advice to exceedthe narrative, perhapsalluding insteadto the fate of Icarus:

Shy ffem the sky. No answer-lies theFe[ ] Yeu alefie imust fifid the way, ... Ne ene else ean help yeti. Every way is differ-ent. And if yett de lese least take selaee in the abselute eei4ainty that yeu will per-ish-. yeuFself a4 (115)

In this passage denoting the influence of the Minotaur, the outsideof the labyrinth is longer no a viable method of escape. Unlike Theseus who had the help and guidancefrom Ariadne and her ball of threadto navigatethe Cretan labyrinth, each is maze-walker absolutely isolated and alone within Danielewski's maze. The
freedom to discover one's own route is representative of a journey through a

labyrinth, where the act of traversing is inextricably bound to the narrative process. The journey is unique to each explorer as "all solutions then are necessarily personal"(115).

Zampano"s reference to perishing also applies to the incomprehension experienced

labyrinth difficult through is lost, the segments or within when meaning especially the destruction of crucial components. The mutilation of referencesto the myth of footnotes destruction through lengthy and passages the Minotaur, the often of some damage to the paper, ftulher hamper narrative progression. Such effaced

being threatening Cretan and more somehow the as maze paragraphsemphasise personal to the writer. It also forms a link between the Minotaur as Minos" 253

defonned offspring, as argued by Zampano'(I 10-111), and Truant as the divinely given yet irrevocably scarredson of Pelafinawho is also absent.

Truant is emphatically recognisedas Pelafina's son and her repeatedcall for him to fly equateshim with a modem-day Icarus, in a genetic lineage from his one-time father (585). pilot His mother's desire to inspire him to fly is extended in Letters where the additional correspondence

Danielewski's The "alestoe

10 (Whalestoe 37). Despite the enthusiasmand this senseof aviation exaggerates

from his P-uidance mother Truant again appears to be on the verge of a fall, in a destiny that suggests Icarus' hubris and ignorance. A loose connection between Icarus and Truant is maintained in the intricate word play that ensues between the

'son' and 'sun':

(9)

(a)

A stm to read the dark. (542)

A range of interchangeable meanings co-exist through this partial erasure. The

but illuminates dark, light the thus that allowing cognition, sentence could suggest intricate These to the riddles underlie the massive could also refer reading process. infrastructureof the labyrinth and also draw the attention of the readerfrom the vast to the micro and back again.

The precarious nature of Icarus' and Truant's position is evidenced by their fluctuations: to susceptibility aerodynamic
[. through It [A] cold you. right cut wind .I tissue, like feel they of made were Your clothes instantly lashes tearing, lips eyes cracking, your know You the you to freezing salt. mind no pay inside, fast, or there get have to of out get (493) last. not you will there's no question,

254

The wind forms an incremental image throughout the novel that is perceived as intimidating and able to shift or obliterate the house of leaves. The growl and approachingrush of the wind is a precursor to the rapidly changing dimensionsof the labyrinth within Ash Tree Lane and as such appearsthreatening and ultimately powerful. The breezeis also associated with the menacingmusic of the Minotaur's in labyrinth. Navidson's is The threat the of growl wind interwoven throughout the various strands of the convoluted narrative and evokes the original labyrinth in Egypt which, as recountedby Pliny, conveyed an internal elementalpower: "when the doors open there is a terrifying rumble of thunder within" (123; see Natural
History XXXVI. xix. 88-89). Pelafina in her poem about Truant describes his son (63 father's 46gone 1) boy his to the the to wind" and also compares as power of

flight (599). This connection is extendedin The Whalestoe Letters to Pelafina as her breathing is describedas "the wind in her throat" (xii). The implication is that
Truant is maintained or threatened by the howling and swirling wind, which also

denotesthe fragility of the houseof leaves: As walls keep shifting And this great blue world of ours Seemsa houseof leaves Moments before the wind. (563) House of Leaves is a curious title that unites the man-madeand the natural. The definite boundaries implies structure. 'house' of term a composition of perceived house Navidson's that denote The text uses the title to the world and suggests for intended building 'House' to the physicality of a refers contains everything. in the from of ties is meaning the domestic use, but overt emotional removed the dwelling through and impressions novel Accordingly, contested 'home'. are of so too are presuppositionsconcerningspace.

255

The word 'leaves' is also ambiguous;primarilY, it links the housewith imagesof a tree where the leaf s natural embodimentcontrastswith the man-madestructure of the house. The term could denotea seriesof exits which would imply a colossalor intricate structure to allow this amount of activity. 'Leaves' is further developedby the disparatevoices which interweave and disappearwithin the text. Furthermore, 'leaves' can also refer to the pages of a book: a conjunction that becomes an important textual motif, and when combined with the architectureof the title, give the impressionthat the book and houseare inseparable.

The metaphor of a tree connecting these leaves becomes important as the labyrinthine branches and roots join and separateallowing paths to be forged through the text. Quite literally, the textual labyrinth can be perceivedas a 'house
insides from is leaves' tangled the the the of exit significance placed on of where

the house. Emphasis here is placed upon the plural nature of these exits, on
house implies layered instability. The the title structuring of a also multiplicity and

its house fragile. intricate This is both of cards clearly exhibits and of cardswhich its delicate by level, level built whilst retaining up structuredcomposition of strata, hint insubstantial to the of wind or movement. merest nature, susceptible and

Truant describeshis altering identity as a threat affiliated to the readingprocessand fragmentation is readers: book likely subsequent the over to the same exert so
Beyond realize at all. person trace,, suddenly you'll can you cause any be to them how you perceived things are not be longer the no will you For some reason, (xxii) believed were. once you you

labyrinth investigations the within The shift of perception is marked and mirrors the Truant The dismantled. is experiences changes know to an area where the ability

256

illusory highlight beginnings his the are negative as the exposition of nature of a fixed identity. Fear also residesin the nature of Zampano"sdeath as Truant ponders whether his immortal destroyeris pursuing him:
I'm not alone. ... behind Something's me. Of course, I deny it. impossible It's to deny.

(26)

Despite the threat of the stalking beast in Truant's rumination of a dream, his is he is that the monster he most fears (403-404). In this ultimate apprehension
dreads Truant Navidson's discovery way, whereby the photographer's nightmares 'Delial', conceming he a girl chose to photograph rather than save, fonn the

labyrinth's central absence. Navidson's desireto purge himself of his guilt leadsto his physical break-down in the maze before he confronts his monstrous act and identifies himself as the beast. The motif of the lurking Cother'is presentin both the
Record and in Truant's commentary. It is senseof being followed that is reiterated by Holloway Roberts:

There's something here. It's following me. No, it's stalking me. I've been it's It's it for by for days but waiting, not attacking. some reason stalked Roberts. Menomonie, know Holloway for don't I what. waiting something. Wiscousin. I'm not alone here.I'm not alone.(5; cf 335) Holloway stresseshis name and origins like a mantra, lest they be forgotten.
'Menomonie' implies the mother of the muses Memory or Mnemosyne and so

highlights the importance of memory within the labyrinth.

When items are

forgotten in the labyrinth they ceaseto exist; for example, both Jed and Wax lose " from buttons and shoe lacesduring an expedition (126). Navidson's reappearance Expedition Five seemsto have been achieved through his focused thinking about his family (321) and suggests that the labyrinth is reacting to each of the loss his labyrinth, into journey final his the of During individuals' mental states. destruction: in death located firmly is and memory 257

Memories ceaseto surface. Soffow threatensto no longer matter. Navidson is forgetting. Navidson is dying. (483) His act of remembranceis mirrored by Truant's eventual method of finding solace in the concentratedrecollections of his mother. It is the repressionof her memory in her his that the place perpetuates wanderingsaround creation of an absence and the labyrinth and leadsto the probable creation of the labyrinth at Ash Tree Lane as
hoax. The repetition of converging stories prevents a psychological an elaborate

is from Instead, the truth the surfacing. narrative suffusedwith singular rendition of
Truant "memory truths, explains: of as a myriad retellings and explanations I heard mixes with all the

later"(505).

Truanthasno

fictions his his from factual the the mother's and of own, swirling way of separating Zampano"smaking.

258

5.4

Encountering

the Textual Labyrinth:

Truth, Unreliability

Missing and

Narrators

House of Leaves is the embodiment of Ts'ui Pen's masterpiecewhere "the novel to me that it was the maze" (Borges, "The Gardenof the Forking Paths" suggested 12 51). The narrative play between different voices is intricately managedby the
typesetting which reveals and reflects the labyrinth. An immense project, the

knotted discourseis imbued with cyclical trends and self-awareinterconnectivity as images are repeated,refracted and inked out. Footnotesdance through pages,are inverted, in a manner which servesto undermine the intendedclarity reversedand traditionally revere. and accessibility such academicmechanisms

The overall effect of the novel is that of high artifice which ensuresthat the reader's deft invented is The in fashioning the through narrative. active a route part in their teasing references and misappropriations of sources are overwhelming footnotes in Portions text the causethe are written code while elusive entirety. of intangible In direction back, double to clues. or seek connect change reader to 13 it is book the complex and unusual as adoptsnumerous addition, the typesettingof techniquesthat impinge on the narrative flow and so forces the reading processto is the incongruent following reader and non-cohesivepathways often meander. By by Ariadne's The labyrinth. clue singular path offered enthralled within a narrative is illusionary and causes the reader to experience disorientation within the is the In discourse. duplicitous corridors of this reading envirorunent, reader becomes from the increasingly alienated excessivelyarduous. the text as process

259

14 Truant collates and critiques Zampan6's labyrinthine writings into a manuscript. The young raconteur's discourseis presentedas an extensiveseriesof footnotesthat Navidson Record. These dwarf Zampan6's the times, critique of augment and, at footnotes detail his on-going editorial scheme, his personal history and his forming Truant's insights into the personal of narrative. asides experience and Is work are reminiscent of the excessive and inflated commentary-style Zampano
in Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire: Hayles that a comparison also annotations ("Saving" 780; see also Doug Nufer, "House of Leaves" 1). Unlike comments upon

Nabokov's work, the extraneouscomment is not contained in a remote endnote

fully impinges its but on and repeatedly privileges rather position over the scheme

body of the Navidson Record.

The narratives overlap and envelop one another to the extent that the authority and

the relationship between sourcesof commentbecomeincreasingly blurred and their

it Though discourse become the progresses. more multifarious as associations

its Zampano"s be that academic vocabulary and voice with might considered idea the be the text, thought of a central of as a crucial portion of credencecould Truant's Zampano"s initially is Positioned text subverted. script, as commentaryon textured is episodes whose vignettes street-wise narrative a vivid collection of witty, His by Zampan6. counterpoint the predominately staid erudite observationsmade is Record Navidson filters the through the which main narrative acts as one of his improbity, the inherent Truant's is or voice It vernacular perhaps perceived. improbability of his continuation of Zampan6's script that gives his narrative a sense of unreliability. Truant's voice dramatically alters the way in which the

his discourses, of overlapping interacts the whilst discovers other with and reader his trustworthiness. fundamentally leads to fiction question the truth and reader

260

Reliability and authenticity are probed throughout the text, principally through inquiry into the dependability of Truant's and Zampano"snarrative voices. As the involves fictions, novel multiple someof which purport to be factual and authentic, it becomes increasingly problematic to gauge the input of each one of these
indicates "[p]resumably "Original" 6 authors': an entry written in Zampan6's own

hand while "A" "B" "C" etc., etc. indicate entries written by someoneelse. "O -Ed. (542). This editorial note implies that even the editor with the experienceof the is unable to confidently assign authorship of portions of the whole narrative
is fact in Fiction the reporting of scientific endeavours material. represented as

Navidson the expedition and Zampano"sanalysis of their recordings. On a within

level, both Truant and Zampano' question the validity of the Navidson primary

Recordbut Danielewski manipulatesthis further by introducing a wealth of contrary illusions Such his latter through and game-playingoriginate appendices. evidence from the first page as Danielewski extends conventional notions of discourse. Indeed, the title of the book appearsto be more accurately renderedas Mark Z Danielewski's House of Leaves,which both turns the author into part of the fiction Truant Johnny Zampano, to the providing the with narrative and cedesownership of introduction and notes (ii-iii). In keepingwith this fictional play, the disclaimer that identifies the accompanyingtext as fictional and standardin many works of fiction is attributed to another of these fictionalised editors (iv). Moreover, the flyleaf in Pantheon by later full-colour fictive published edition was allusion to a then 15 2002, two years after its reportedexistence,and so extendsthis play with reality.

These ideas of narrative ownership are an elaboration of the network of translators by Rose to taken Name extremes The Eco's the in Umberto and of present

261

Danielewski, who disturbs the traditional boundaries of where fictions begin and where they end. The proliferation of narrativesof questionableauthenticity reflects its threatens to transgress the excessiveness a core conceit of novel whereby delay digressions boundaries. Lengthy to serve readercomprehensionand physical distancethe proximity to the criticism of the Navidson Record, a technical decision that Nufer defines as "risky" as "Truant is a lot less interesting than the core story house" ("House" 1). the about Marked by his typing errors, humour and

digressions,Truant influences and interrupts Zampano"sproject whilst his active dissembling accentuateshis unreliability. Truant weaves elaborate allegorical

fictions that paradoxically seemto complementand at times contradict stories and Zampan6's narrative. Occasionally, teasing semantic meanders undermine the
interpretive process and cause a degree of confusion and irritation:
Is something. sure you're wondering it this that cold water coincidence in this chapter? appears of mine also predicament "heater". Zampan6 Not only wrote at all. back there-I "water" The word added that. Now there's eh? an admission, fair Hey, you cry. not (16) fuck I hey, Hey, say. you, Now just I'm

This episodedeftly highlights Truant's vernacularvoice, his authorial influence and his The he the editorial multiple narratives. exerts over ability to changemeaning, which New in 'Times Zampan"s the is 0 words encountering confidence that the reader Roman' script is here refuted. The slightest adjustmentand choice of wording critically is Truant's this point of awareness the text perceptions. the reader's alters as well as his deliberated word selection. the natureof also evident and emphasises

he to is claims as observed The framework of Truant's unreliability repeatedly the to in reader allow from attempt distancehimself the reading process an apparent [t] he I intrusion: "' way to engagewith the narrative without figure it, 262

if it.

there's I

something care

you less

find

irksome-go read

ahead any of

and this"(3

skip 16 1).

couldn't

how you

Again the statement is confrontational and somewhat fractious and epitomises Truant's desire to manipulate the text whilst conversely appearing to release authorial control. Truant's sentiments underscore the reader's task to create a his flippancy belies his mediation of the text through the text, personalroute whilst for intensify the to textual abnormalities. The detoursthat most part appears which
allay meaning are systematically made prominent by the complex typography,

by dense the calligraphic elementsand narrative voices.

Truant's attitude towards missing portions of dialogue and deletedmaterial leadsto

an approximate representation of the physical space taken up by the letters. The

left by for js Zampano "It[ the to; example, absences elusive are rigidly adhered is q]r ]asis" (331) added em[ where partial meaning preferredto the guessworkof a 17 Guy is by This technique utilised method of parenthesis a reconstitutedphrase.
Davenport in his translation and reconstructions of Sappho's poetry (Peter Jay and Caroline Lewis, Sappho: Through English Poetry). The painstaking representation

highlight his Zampano"s a pedantic quality silences words and and recovery of
Although there Truant's the can manuscript. original within role as a preserver of

be little doubt about the intendedmeaning of the phrase,presumably 'italics added for emphasis', the use of bracketsservesto delay the reader'scomprehension. The italicisation to the act of brackets the as purpose same also serves adoption of accentuate a part of the text.

intermittently text cover whole words and Truant's record of erased portions of Zampan6's As letter. the of custodian times single a merely sentences and at other

263

Truant in his than claims to preserve the manuscript rather own right, a creator
charred remains of some phrases: "[flather what was destroyed I decided to than just try to reconstruct the gaps-[

bracket

I.

(323)

Difficulties in reading such partially destroyed or partly realised

Perhaps the most oblique of these

elements are evident throughout the novel.

is description detailing the composition of the labyrinth wall. Some the sections
twenty-three pages in total are largely erased by Truant as the result of an accident

inkwell broken for his inability to effect written a with which servesas a metaphor
(372-377). communication Though the trace of technical jargon remains, the

structure of possible sentencesor words are obliterated. As a result the rescued footnotes scientific are strandedwithout the report, which renders the annotations disparateand complex (372-376). The lack of information precludes a scientific documents instance is explanation and so another where science unable to offer an elucidation of the labyrinth to the reader.

in Truant's both Zampano"s Effaced, censoredand deconstructed and exist passages

between the two men. the commonalities writing as another of Focus of the

from to between the intermittently their academic shifts and voices, narrativemoves The disorientation increased tension. textual and the vernacular,causingan senseof
highly structured patterning of these opposing discourses is clearly labyrinthine, as

Zampan6's Truant between differences digression the and explores obvious visual narrative voices. Despite these narratives' contrasted tone and approach, the

distinguish is the two to different type indicate needed setting that a editors' Zampan6's font Courier in will footnotes while Truant's "Mr appear will narratives: between differentiate the determinations These (4). typographical appearin Times" In information. contrast, Truant of carrier a as the two charactersand echo motif of
264

by the useof the Zampan. 6 remainsthe giver of more erudite material, supplemented 'Times' font common to academicpublishing. Martin Brick discounts this ready distinction and argues that the courier font has more pressing and embedded economic application ("Blueprint" 6-7). Despite Brick's reticence to consider the fonts he does these note that the editors' script appearsin Bookman(6) suitability of in doing so, would seem to support the relation of characters and their and, typological constructions.

Whilst the reader is repeatedly made aware of, and so is reasonably alert to, Truant's glib mistruths, Zampano"s conflations are less obvious as they are inserted

Zampano'"s the camouflage of a narrative within within narratives. academicvoice lends his critique credence,whilst Truant's vernacularbanter is more readily open to scrutiny. At the core of this debateis the reliability of the Navidson expedition a
is into Contrary (658-662). "Appendix III: Evidence" The that concern continued is fictive is Navidson Zampano' the to the record nature of aware of extent which its foregrounds he it does that unreliability along appear playfully unclear, although

I introduction: in "[t]hey his tests time. the truth the of can stands say with own (xix). It failed document knowing test" this than think of no greatercomfort such a follows that Zampano"s confidence that the narrative will perish is based on his 8 knowledgeof its fabrication. He also seemsto take pleasurein the annihilation' of his palimpsest as though time is able to destroy the narrative in a process of The is Truant he to questionable complete. able nor eradication that neither failed have Truant is highlighted to discourse claims as authenticity of Zampano"s invented "false fully stones" in his task of dealing quotes or with the old man's blind him "as disability as a (xx). To compound this, Zampano"s which rendered film. Navidson have the bat" (xxi) implies that he could never seen Crucially,

265

though Truant identifies Zarnpano"s capriciousness,he also highlights his own inability to weed out or accentuateall of these instances. Tr-uant's exposition of Zampano' and his manuscript is compounded by the unreliability of his own factor that perpetuates the untrustworthy determinations of narrative voice: a Zampano"sinfluence.

As an active though absentnarrator, Truant perpetually interweavesthe dichotomy of

truth and fiction, causing a distortion at the boundaries of each. Despite the abundance of discursive practice there is crucially a lack of a residual authoritative figure, which is

by clearly emphasised Truant's name which implies absenceand the destiny of the The by Pelafina,who ties Johnny wanderer. suitability of this correlation is accentuated
to the meanings of his surname when she states: 'JOHNNY IS TRUANV' (63 1).

'Truancy' is a word commonly used in conjunction with a child's absence from school, link he is Truant's to that too and such a applied position emphasises missing without

leave from the systemof the text. This idea of absence is documented is pervasiveand in the commentary from the disembodied editors, the dead Zampano, Truant's dead labyrinth The Record. from in Navidson dialogue the the also represents an mother and by 'eaten' the the space, whilst are as protagonists ultimate embodiment of void in down break is to times resulting an absence caused meaning also pressurisedand at of meaning.

Although Truant's first-person narrative engagesthe reader,he is ultimately missing, a " [t] he his by child concluding words: realisation accentuated has gone"(521).

depicts the that power and This line marks the cessation of an anecdote graphically Truant's the her of primary surrender signals also and son ownership of a mother over Truant's this words, parting Although text as his the phrase offers mother. narrative to

266

by tracing back through the chronological contortions of his diary it becomesclear that his final lines are more hopeful and mark the end of his journey: "I
leave somehow alright. yet. I Not know It's yet. it"s going There's going to be time to be now. okay. Plenty It's

don't
of

need to
time. to And be

going

alright"(515).

The disintegration

of the

book causedby the remembranceof his past results in a transformationthat is hopeful Although is this and complete. rebirth also utterly appropriateto the spiritual notions of the labyrinth's restorative powers, such a positive result is largely absent from late
twentieth-century mediations of the trope.

Truant's absence does not negate the power he exerts over the narrative. As interpreter of Zarnpano"stext, he fails on occasionto locate quotations and offers
little in the way of explanation: "no idea" (87). 19 In this instance the accompanying footnote results in a four-page digression until the editor offers a reading. Physically reticent, in keeping with his increasing agoraphobic tendencies, Truant

from feature is in that the evidenced afar, a participates protracted printed process Mr. have here in "[w]e that to the text: never actually met we early also wish note in letters or in rare Truant. All matters regarding the publication were addressed is in his (4). While instances Editors" The with accordance action over the phone. it by his the text, disorientation his the strange effects of encounterswith caused him identity his appeareven more enigmatic. also shields and makes

There are certain inconsistencies that point to Truant as a project of anotherwriter's denote that a because fabrications, not least there are submergednarrative pointers disturbs This Zampano. his between connection unlikely and mother relationship further the concerning questions the apparentpassage of the manuscript and effects

267

20 Letters extend this notion as Pelafina The R%alestoe narrative's construction. Zampan"s appearsto make a playful referenceto the disappearance of 0 cats (56). There are instanceswhere the use of a misspelt or deliberately manipulated word transcendthe disparatenarratives; for example,Zarnpano"s(41; 552) and Pelafina's (599) use of the word 'pisces', presumablyin place of 'pieces', appears to denotean between in 'Pisces' Zampano-sdiscussionof the tie the anachronistic protagonists. Echo myth is reproducedfrom his application of the term in a scribbled annotation (552). Both of the episodesin Zampano"sscript relate to the dismembennentof the 21 body, female where the term 'pieces' would be semantically appropriate. In Pelafina's letter, she uses 'pisces' as a metaphor for her disintegrated state after hearing the terrible news contained in Truant's letter (599). Truant as editor of Zampano"swriting had the opportunity to correct the old man's 'mistake' from his notes and so too would the editors; however, none of these participants comment its incongruence. have 'pisces' been The that upon suggestion over-looked might by the collator of Zampano"swords seemsunlikely as, spelt without a capitalised
first letter, 'pisces' would be corrected by a computer spellchecker.
22

By

incorporating 'Pisces' in a collage of Zampan6's further writings in appendix C,

Danielewski ensuresthat the use of the term at least had a precedentin ZampanO"s his duplicating is improbable Truant it is that mother's usage. merely writing and so The emplacementof 'pisces' in a collage of Zampano"sscribbled notations implies that it functions as one of the many instances of codedmeaning.

The appendicesserve as a useful referencepoint from which to view the preceding body. the but to main narrative text and allow quick, prejudiced, means re-enter index, discovery by is the of an The accessibility of these latter sections eased in do 99 the incorporates that appear list not words some purportedly although the

268

Navidson Record. impaired.

23

Accordingly, textual navigation by means of the index is

269

5.5

"Strange colored words" (380): The Alienating Effect of Madness

Appendix H prefaced by the editors of the collection and not by the perennially in footnotes Truant, to the and photographs alluded of the contains sketches absent Navidson Record. Within this assortment there is a compilation of letters written by
Truant's mother, Pelafina, during her final incarceration in the mental asylum known as the Whalestoe Institute. These final poems, letters and word games

imply labyrinth Navidson Record the that the the and should chronology of unsettle be consideredfiguratively.

The slide into madnessis examinedwithin each of the main segmentsof the text,
from the Navidson Report which details Holloway's insanity, Truant's dialectic imprisonment. Pelafina's text the and angst with instability, both textual and mental. All of these journeys explore

Madness appears as a recurrent theme as

Holloway acts with increasing irrationality within the labyrinth, Truant wrestles

told that heritage his the are and we manuscript, oppressive as as well genetic with
91 is doubt, ill: "and now, without a mad Pelafina is mentally you see your mother

(597). These instancesof madnessare affiliated to the labyrinth as the structure detrimentally influencesthe protagonists'mental states.

from deduced death, the his In his later journal, the anniversary of mother's is the (643), Pelafina's with resplendent Director's letter that concludes narrative home family from Her the ensnares (503). labyrinth removal the numerology of Zampan6's he is It claims not until Truant in a labyrinth of repressedmemories. him the history to his enter forced is causing to Truant retrace that manuscript his labyrinthine to This is past heritage. his return labyrinth and to rediscover 270

(15,35-38,55-56). Letters in R%alestoe The by Pelafina predicted more explicitly Within the maze, Truant searchesfor his absent origin which he seemsunable to locate. In his cyclical quests for a beginning, he acts as a metaphor for the lack functions for language: which a quest within an origin that is forgotten or lacking. Truant stressesthe loss of original meaning through a process of inscription and forgetting that occurswith the adventof the written word:
It's It
As

not cannot
soon

me. be.
as I write I've already forgotten.

I must I must

remember. (498) read.

As the characterof Truant becomesmore indistinct, he appearsunableto remember instancesthat locate him and mark him as an individual; he forgets his birthda/ loses is forced his Truant track time. to of re-readsectionsof writing and generally
in an attempt to recall events and instances which have been utterly erased from his his fall The or explaining past: short of expressing memory. collated writings begin I to see I'm this A quick and of all re-read following history.. I'm the tracing wrong Possibly Maybe parallel. else. something it A harmonic. Certainly of vein personal. (502) inhabiting every place.

Truant's navigation of a network of stories has inadvertently allowed him to travel impresses the that process of re-reading alters and along an alternative path by loss, is defined heritage his home his a Even trace to mother's return meaning. Navidson's childhood (22-23): featurethat Zampano'arguescharacterises
Following a bunch of lefts [I The house gone.

bunch

of

houses

gone.

(505)

271

The combination of left turns is indicative of the passage taken by a walker Truant's 248-249). "Mazes" (Kenner, adherenceto the confronted with a maze implies failure its labyrinth the to the that the object reveal of quest and system of there is no central spaceor resolution. The labyrinth in which Truant finds himself is a complex multicursal one which is mirrored by the intricacy of the textual path. The stable remembrance of his childhood house is corrupted, revealing the disguisedvoid that lurked out of sight.

The more he becomesembroiled within the densely written narrative, partially of

his own making, he becomes increasingly dislocated from his previous known reality:
Something's Everything leaving falls me. apart. Parts of me.

Stories Letters

heard too.

but

not

recalled.

filling Words shells. everywhere.

like head. Fragmenting my like Shrapnel, syllables, Sharp. Terrible syllables.

artillary flying (71)

his from Zampan&'s horror delusional taken In this episode of the words and The him. in his to acts vocabulary attack seem and mind mother's writing circulate [flor fatal be "can the his that rare like weaponsand echoes mother's advice words few, even immortal" (595). The power of the labyrinthine text createsa potent is it. What into evident discoursethat seemsto affect thosewho come contact with him. is fearful is truly within hereis his inability to escape, as that which

fragmentary his the and Truant's dread is compounded through recognition of by is discovery enormous an being, that his accompanied a own splintered nature of 172

feeling

Of

25 IOSS.

The perception of his identity is pennanently unstable, like the

languagehe usesand encounters. The creation of the subject through a composite of histories and stories is examined,and reveals illusionary foundationsof stability and singularity which give way to plurality and chaos. As Truant shapes an found from the of meanings assemblage manuscriptshe begins to lose his tenuous before Like Zampano' him, Truant becomesa prisoner of the book. grip on reality. Again this shows Danielewski's indebtednessto Borges, as Truant's journey into bookish the madnessparallels obsessionsof the main character of the "Book of Sand": "I felt that the book was a nightmarish object, an obscene thing that itself' (91). At the root of Truant's angst is his tainted affronted and reality his forcible from the home and her body repressedmemory of mother's removal torn from his. The trauma of this five and a half minute event is significant as
Truant suppresses and forgets the recollection, only later to wander through the

houseof his memory until he arrives at what he once knew. Also, the duration of in Navidson's labyrinth, where the five and a her removal is physically encountered half minute hallway is a crucial component of the video documentation of the labyrinth (60). Perhaps Truant has incorporated the tenninology of ZampanO"s its labyrinth, his the complete with script onto personal record, or maybe
is here The discovery his is that the suggestion of self. of commentary, projection

by is imagined, fake documentation, which a means the or not, real or whether from Truant can unlock his history. Consequently,it is Truant's initial severance his past that has to be remedied. To compoundthis, Truant explicitly plays with the by the fact idea that he is in than reinforced narrative, nothing more [sic]" (643), that Livre "Ms. his surname a mother's name as mispronunciation of ftwslates as 'book' from the French.

273

Labyrinths have historically depicted a journey into wholeness through digressive Hermann Kern (Carl Jung Jaskolski, that and qtd. pathways ultimately unite Labyrinth 77-80). However, what happensto individuals who becomelost along its fail House Leaves, In by those to return are abandoned who of multiple corridors? be by society, as can evidenced Pelafina's mental wanderingsand anti-social actions that ostracise her from her family and her social sphere. Her distinctivenessand deviation from within social limitations leads to her segregationand removal from
intensifies her insanity Her is equated with society and so sense of uniqueness. labyrinthine passageways because as a woman lost to society and her son she

"live[s] at the end of some interminable corridor" (624).

This is a fitting

26 brain has been depicted long connection, as the as a labyrinthine matrix. In The "alestoe Letters, Pelafina's descriptionsof anguish and unresolvedtrauma depict
hundreds her labyrinth "[flooms (19), of of rooms" and predict a upon rooms upon

imprisonment in his the of making. son9s maze

Pelafina's correspondenceis placed reportedly after the fictitious first edition to into history Truant's (567), "additional the and probe and so provide material" influence his traurnatised past had on his annotations of Zampan6's manuscript. There is also createda strangelink betweenNavidson's final letter in the labyrinth (389-393) and Pelafina's system of code (625): both correspondence use the same font and have the same'check' mark. Theseunexplainedsimilarities againquestion The discourse. correspondences the validity, authorship and chronology of every detenoration by followed lucidity the increased into to trace of a period appear from their duration the letters the section: of dementia. The form of the alters over dated and written beginnings within the structure of epistolary convention, each indicatIve type of from left to nght, through to a highly manipulated and stylised
274

Truant's writing. This fluid transition coincides with Pelafina's descentinto near incoherentmadness.

The mental asylum into which Pelafina is forcibly taken performs an important function sociological as the imprisoned, confined nature of such an institution disconnectsthe patient from the nub of society and, in this instance, between a her The mother and son. stigma of madness fimctions as a classification of otherness,as that which is separateor made so by the expedient needs of the individual the to be ostracised,revoking their right to belong society, and causes
homogeneous the within core of society. Michel Foucault describes these sites of

incarceration as places where those "deviant in relation to the required mean or norm are placed" ("Of Other Places"25). Within such 'treatment' centres,Foucault
locate to the voice of madness and repeatedly states that such experience attempts

be cannot describedthrough the ordered,rational voice of the sane(Mental Illness

Civilisation). he identifies Psychology Madness Accordingly, the need and and and

to create, find or validate a languagewhich is able to articulate madness. This linguistic quest is reiteratedby Derrida who claims that in order to grant access to the voice of the mad the individual should "follow the madmandown the road of his
Pelafina's innovation, ("Cogito" 26). The vocabulary of and erudition exile" codes

arepossibly a meansto constructsucha voice.

As an intellectual and cultured individual, Pelafina appearsaware of her statusas ] [ "distraught herself tearful describes low: and and wrecked as one made she ... terribly confused" (612,606). Her intelligence is re-emphasisedby Walden D.

brighter "few letters, her get Wyrhta, the holder and publisher of who claims: other than [her]" (Nales xi). Explicit within these letters is a tone of excessiveness

275

her from is intensified by son and the paranoiaof a the anguishof separation which love, her The which underpins these motherly perceived conspiracy. extent of letters, appears abnormally intense and extreme, and would seem to indicate an An lover than a mother. unpleasanteffect of this surplus of rather unbalanced intimation is in is improper; that their the relationship strong someway an emotion 27 is incestuous tension that comparable with the yearnings suffered by Phaedra. Both the narrator and his mother suffer a descentinto mental psychosisin a fate that humiliating house doom Minos Pasiphad's the the and of of whereby echoes
in for is her daughter's her desire Hippolypus replicated passion step-son monstrous

(Euripides, Phaedra) and so results in disharmony and death. Minos' dynasty infatuation, inappropriate for limitless doomed whilst a and propensity maintains a
in The familial love Pelafina's strong narrative. simmers similar strain of excessive bond between mother and child is repeatedly destructive, as Pelafina reports her

be he belief in her delusional her that to grateful. would child attempts murder Truant eventually refutes this act as a fabrication; a myth intendedto easethe pain (517). her of removal

The beauty of the young child is illustrated by Pelafina, who refers to the texture in the face, the his of young luminosity elevation culminating and skin of and "there dreamlike her deity. In were some Truant to the statusof state she recounts deification The (592). but I of them jealous away" shooed of you, gods who were
Christ: "I likeness the by Pelafina's to remain her son is accompanied mother of

accentuate These (611). articulations Mary,, religious and mythical your only Similarly, hence worthy of veneration. Pelafina's place as the mother of a God and function around Pasiphad'sprotestationsabout the Minotaur's abhorrentconception

276

28 the premise of his divinity. Like Pelafina, she too is contained within a bestial structure,albeit willingly.

There is no releasefor Pelafina, as she finally dies, as did the Minotaur, within the her internment Her confines of prison. physical within a maze of bureaucracyand by Zampano' to the fate of Jonah(406): no return is compared An atrocity sinking into the waters of darkness;without order or bars of earth; where light must meanshadowand reasondies in the hold:
((((((((((((Jonah in the belly of the beast)))))))))))) (545) Through the use of brackets Zampan6 is able to physically illustrate a sense of

captivity as well as intimate the thicknessof the whale"s body. Truant also makes explicit reference to the whale when he describes Pelafina's incarceration:
ISIhe's in The Whale. That's where she lives now. She

lives

in

The Whale" (503). The mental asylum bears the improbable name

its fabrication. Although the of the "Whalestoe Institute" which further accentuates biblical Jonahis allowed a secondchanceto reform and carry on God's will (Jonah
2: 10), Pelafina dies within her 'Whale'. The utter despondency she experiences in

the asylum is comparable to the unhappy Minotaur's extended incarceration in the

labyrinth (Borges, "House of Asterion").

The words and stories which define Truant seemelusive, beyond his mental recall, hence himselflose begin him these the to to narratives and power over and cause
"there are so many stories ( ... I but I can't remember my

own beginnings"

built (180-181). Truant appearslost in labyrinthine passages,

him have bound and through the accumulation of stories and coincidence, which

277

blinded him to his origins. This later disquiet is not apparentin Truant's initial zeal obvious in his creation of storiesand fictions:
Made-up stories. ducked, I dodged, acquired a whole bending, for for hiding, new vocabulary all while beyond the gaze of them all. (325)

We all

create

stories

to

protect

ourselves.

(20)

Although Truant uses fiction to conceal and to safeguardhimself, the fiction he

is creates playful and knowing, continually undermining the perceptions of what is

truthful (509). In doing so, his flippant narrative voice belies the more serious
repercussions of the labyrinthine.

The fear that Truant suffers is exacerbated by the alienation and unfamiliarity of the
language which fills his head as it becomes increasingly apparent to him that his memories have been contaminated: "the memories are not my own"

(499). Seeminglyhis thoughtshave beeninfiltrated by another,as he suggests:

[I My memory though not the same, a completely different built story after all, upon story after how many?, high, but story, so many, stories building And why? (297-298) what?

The motif of building reiteratesthe many constructionswithin the text from house to labyrinth, script to film, through to identity, personalhistory and the fabrication idea The that memory and story can overlap the the of novel. quotation advances labyrinth and assemble of meaning. a

Zampano"slabyrinthine writings ensnareTruant and begin to affect his health. The Is insti fear (179) insatiable instigates the need which the an recovery of manuscript in Truant to document and record his surroundingsto ensurethere is no traceof the labyrinth. His feverish annotations and observations accompany his downward 278

health In into drug dependency problems. accordancewith the spiral and mental idea that the labyrinth is both the physical entity documentedin the house and a for language bodily the the text, the perpetuates effects metaphor of sensations of the maze. The language of the manuscript has the ability to physically move
Truant: "the seemed more I focused in on the words the farther I

f rom my room" (43). The capacity of a 'good book' to transport the

into her/his reality a world of the author's making is here mutated reader out of

through the control attributed to language. As Truant makes prominent, words individual: the shape

I I've grew up on certain words, never words [I mentioned orbiting words around my mother in sometimes mainly, whispered, more often written I these letters[ letters, hand written always and (379-380). full of strange colored words

The overt fabrication and manipulation of Zampano"s text and of his own is idea he histories that the nothing more than a seriesof experienceand reinforce its deconstructive into The the text that and constructionof stories. words combine begin being his discourses to unravel. to the the core of at propertiescause

Truant's identity and emotional journey are described in labyrinth terminology disonentation 'clue' to and labyrinth's reveal unwinds guiding whereby the "I'm loss by Truant the is to the yam: of confusion. The residual turmoil compared
certain sound nothing's even to mark left. the The breaking thread let has alone snapped. the fall"(327). No

The reader drops with the rope and experiencesthe slowing spacing of phrases the Hall Great the as explorers, with denoting the void and enormity of the the of experience typography graphically impresses the physical and emotional
279

labyrinth. The reader becomeslost like the protagonist in this "labyrinth without end" (Edgar M. Bacon qtd. Danielewski, House 136). The snapping thread representsthe umbilicus, central to early readings of primitive labyrinths (Knight, Virgio, and is felt in the connectionbetweenTruant and his mother. The cord could has become increasingly knotted and complex, to the reading process, refer which Truant's affecting senseof cohesion.

The dissolving of his outer defences breached by his contact with the Navidson Record,

his loss signal of control over his own dissemblanceand by implication his own histories:
What scenes. Atrocities. scenes? but I've unspeakable still mine[ ... What what's real and what's not. what has made me. (497) What are sense of made up, They

lost I've

He documents a cyclical threat causedby the narrative of the labyrinth and, like Zarnpano'before him, he alludes to the power of languageto create and also to destroy. The command of linguistics to forge identities is made overt as is the
defining these to continuum of and modifying the circulate, continually words

individual. This highlights the influential nature of languagethat has the ability to language, transform an identity. Despite the often positive accoutrements which of is Truant in her discussions by Pelafina their potent powers, of are emphasised ultimately affected by their negative trappings. The accumulated effects of

languageupon Truant create a splintered definition of identity, achievedthrough a history of multiple, layerednarratives. However, thesepersonalnarrativesappearto his is longer havebeen infiltrated and transgressed, own sacredright: as memory no
"[tlhe are or memories even are not they my own. I've idea no whose they

where

become has he Afraid (499). that f rom" came

280

transformed into, or has always been, a product of the document's inventions (326) is deconstructedthrough a peeling unfastened self and sense of '29Truant's taxonomy of stories that once combined to give a semblanceof unity. The fissures within the text profoundly affect Truant and illustrate a fractured and tonnented identity, whilst his Mother's voice capWres the basis of his history, of a life lived in the margins. As Truant explores the elusivenessof language to articulate his
transformation he claims he is "not what I used to be" (72). Change is

imposed upon Truant's once cohesive sense of being and consigns him to a transitional stateof becoming undone. It is unclearwhetherhis mental deterioration is a result of his geneticheritage,the exploration of the manuscriptor a combination of the two.

Truant's propensity to be overly influenced by Zampano"s narrative is evidenced in a short passagerelating to the history of the house. The digression into a recovered diary from the seventeenth-century complete with historical publishing conventions

(409-414) leads to the affectation of Truant's footnote 398 (410-413) and the report
from the editors that he "has mistaken the long 's' for an T" (413). His misreading

of the publishing tradition is interesting as it implies that his adoption of the T is not as a result of the capacity of languageto alter him; rather it is an extensionof the meaning that he believes the manuscriptto hold. In this way, power lies not in the symbol but in the interpretative act. Either his use of the T is anotherplayful joke at the expenseof the readeror is indicative of how enmeshed he hasbecomein the narrative.

The journal details a game trip from a settlement at Jamestown where three food bog are in activity animal of sign or without protagonistsstranded a marshy
281

faced with a silent environment that is given to occasional roars of wind in a , predicament that is eerily reminiscent of the exploration of Navidson's labyrinth. From the midst of the wilderness the three discover "[fltaires" (414), later dementia be to (414). However, under extreme circumstances a sign of considered their accountwith its isolation and alienation carries meaningfor the Navidsonsand the holders of the book. The paradoxical encounterwith the stairs would seemto history the pennanence and of the house and possibly also its establish indestructibility. The presenceof stairs without the senseof being inside is uncanny house, they emphasisethe size of the the a extension as metonymic of whilst,
labyrinth. Here, as in The Name of the Rose, the labyrinth appearsto be a means to

After Truant's consider a world view. strangesubstitution of 'f' for 's' there is a
in he his cessation narrative until reports the news of his friend Lude's death (491).

Truant's absenceensuresthat the reader navigatesthe contorted textual layout of Navidson's labyrinth alonewithout his guidanceor presence.

The re-emergence of Truant's voice is stylistically altered as it returns to mimic a

journal with its use of dates and entries, possibly as a belated responseto the historical narrative. The material is repetitious, out of chronological order and no longer constrainedto the footnotesof Zampano"stext. Thesediary entries form an final his entire chapter (XXI) and are coded, recursive and, significantly, represent in 30 line be fly-cover by implied the to important the In only aside, utterances. an
lasting his Truant (iV)3,31 in story, only the collection to appear purple remarks upon the memory of "whM 1' ber-ingnew" (518). The narrative that he claims to

is (509), his as be recounting is fictitious, told to him by a characterof own making indicated by its partial erasurein a manner congruent with Zampano"scensorship. (336) that Minotaur suggests the The correlation of struck-through passages with 282

the fabled creature is in fact the beast of personal memory. Truant appearsto contaminatehis own reality with both his mother's experienceinside the Whalestoe Institution and the imprisonment of the Cretan Minotaur, as he slowly transforms into the "Beast" (324,497,601).

Engagement with the struck-through passagesconcerning the Minotaur affect

Truant negatively, possibly resulting from his identification with the beast (403404), a correlation that N. Katherine Hayles concludes stems from an anagram of his name: "the phrase 'The Minotaur' is the anagram '0 Im he Truant"' ("Saving" 798). In the manner of cryptic crosswords the footnote points to the anagram

through the use of the word "turn". Truant's close work with the passages aboutthe
Minotaur implies this discovery, as he writes obliquely: "that's what you get for wanting to tum The Minotaur into a homie" (337).

The reading and presentationof his journal accentuate Truant's movementtowards the confrontation of his own past, evidencedthrough his dreamsand his journey home. The self-destructionof the book, probably an invocation of the ash found in Truant's Zampano"sflat, signalsthe disintegrationof the labyrinth and subsequently Record Navidson from history. After his the the the angstof exit prison of personal in is is found Truant's and a sense of calm and peace, which suffering there Ultimately, labyrinth. the destruction to the to the attributed antithesis previous Truant to labyrinths both allowing are suppressed, negative attributes of ancient Truant's that fate his proclamation the through escape act of remembrance. everything will be "alright" (515), the subsequent line break and the

be to dealt they have perceive person a the with that editors acknowledgement Truant all emphasisethe survival of the protagonist.
283

5.6

Coda

House of Leavesparallels the contorted passageways of the labyrinth and intimates follow in for to the twisted reader a movement that createsa further pathway a labyrinthine trail. The woven layout repeatedlyexposesits intrinsic constructionas
importance highly the structured artifice and so suggests a of a creator, as architect

labyrinth. Functioning labyrinth becomesa mechanism the the a as site of crisis, of

for extreme transformation. Themes of fragmentation and repetition are

foreground the negative attributions of the labyrinth: those of emphasised,and

destruction, However, complexity and perpetual ellipsis. crisis, close decoding of the text discloses resolution and positive transformation, apparently at odds with the brought textual together in this study. examples other

284

1This passage is reminiscentof the wardrobeportal in C.S. Lewis' TheLion, 77ieWitch Wardrobe. the and 2 SeeHarold Bloom's TheAnxiety ofInfluence (qtd. Danielewski 359) for a reiteration of Freud's definition of the unheimlich. 3 Seefor examplesuch films asHalloween, Aliens 3, House HauntedHill on and the in Scream the the trilogy. motif satireof 4 Seefor example"Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and "Hansel and Gretel". 5Seealso "Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari" (Aleph 123; qtd. Faris Labyrinths, 102). 6 Faris identifies when discussingBorgesthat his writing though centredupon the idea is labyrinth the not constructedin a labyrinthine fashion. It is this featuresheclaims of that preventshim from being considereda postmodemwriter (Labyrinths I 10-114). 7N. Katherine Hayles ("Saving" 795) footnote 182(Danielewski 139-144) that notes usesthe page as though it were a semi-translucent projection screen,which causes the next pageto display the back of the words written on the previous layer. 8William Faulkner and latterly PeterCarey have beenthwarted in their useof typographyto better illustrate their work, on economicand technologicalgrounds. Martin Brick notesFaulkner's desireto adopt different font techniquescoupledwith his musingsabout coloured script ("Blueprint" 13 ffi. 1). 9Although thematically this sectionof The Waste Land is strongly linked to the roadto Emmaus,Eliot stipulatesthat the lines refer to Shackleton'sarctic expedition,which would seemto parallel Navidson's explorations. 10The "alestoe Letters Pelafina's from the appendixof contains correspondence HouseofLeaves with someelevenadditional letters. The volume is introducedby a from institute the worker and so reprisesDanielewski's useof fictional editors from his first novel. 11 This happeningrecurs in Truant's reality as he becomesincreasinglyconcerned about his own disappearingbuttons (150). 12 The translation (here taken from the Penguinedition) usesthe term 'maze' as indivisible with 'labyrinth', as I have arguedthroughout.However, Borgeshas that the commentedupon his personaldistinctions betweenthe two terms, and considers is labyrinth fun "toy be labyrinth" tends the to maze proper a constructionof or a whilst fn. 2). Cretan (qtd. 119,202 Faris, Labyrinths to the type an related 13 After securingthe publication of the manuscriptfor HouseofLeaves, Danielewski (cf. Brick, in his the to typesetting compromise participated novel avoid artistic of "Blueprint" 13 ffi. 3). 14 Truant's annotationsare later parodiedby his surprisediscoveryof a downloaded been have This his (513-514). could apparentanachronism copy of manuscript (cf book history Danielewski's the of physically possible given strangepublishing Wittershaus,"Profile" 5). 15 Seethe flyleaf of the Anchor secondedition (2000) for details and also Hayles been have ("Saving" 805 fn. 13) who identifies that subsequent not publications hampered by financial restrictions, resulting in a 2002 'red' edition. It is this copy that intended the colour scheme. sheclaims reproduces author's 16 This mannerof instruction and undermining authorial interruption can alsobe found on pages92 and 100. " Truant's useof bracketsin this mannerand the text's strangetypographicallayout leavesthe critic of the text with a dilemma as to how best and most accuratelyrepresent been have it without imposing different meanings.Whereverpossible,quotations layout. textual typeface and reproducedusing the same 18 518. 467 fire This is physically realisedthrough and on pages 285

19The inadequacies Truant's translation and collating of can also be found in Zampan6's Errors 252,305 388. text which have been on pages and found be by Truant on pages 105,151,205,252,305, commented on can 373 and 401. 20Using a code that Pelafina identifies in her letter (27h April, 1987) an oblique fragment of a previous epistolary which reads "zealous accommodations, medical & however prescriptions, needless other wonders, obvious - debilitating in deed; you letting occur such evil? " (615) may be deciphered as "zampano who ought understand did you lose?" (if it is given the symbol W is pronounced as 'and'). Hayles incorporates the words "many years destroyed. Endless arrangements re." which deciphered 11hence establishing a would preface my phrase with the words "my dearest , intimacy between ("Saving" 802, cf also her debt to Erin the two acute more Templeton, whom she acknowledges "pointed out this encoding and its implications" (805 ffi 16)). 21One of Truant's failed translations is from Rilke (87) although the editors a quotation intervene (90). Given that Truant tends to be affected only by the phraseshe ultimately in instance the understands,as of the unheimlich (25), the delaying of the translation him he meets with Kyrie's edited translation, "utter dismemben-nent"or protects until "dejected member" (404), which appropriately results in a spurned sexual advanceand a dream of his dismantled body (405). 22Suitably, the spellchecker Office Microsoft XP (2004) offers 'Pisces' or 'pieces' on as alternatives to the misspelt word. 23This is based upon the premise that "DNE" stands for 'does not exist'. However, it becomes apparent that some of these terms do appear in the text and so the glossary can be viewed as another fiction. 24Truant's birthday falls final 2l't June his diary (503), to though on according entries earlier he remarks that he failed to celebrate the date altogether having spent the evening in Hayley's arms (181). Perhaps this gives an indication of the level of time spent on the document (also evidenced by the two years of his diary entries). 21" June is a day it date is longest denotes hence the the significant of the as summer equinox and divine birth hours daylight, Truant's the that year with most of a correlation reinforces his light by the and association with expressed the clue-giver. 25This disintegration is it, describe to the terminology used of self, and hold" "things fall lines: Yeats' W. B. the apart; centre cannot reminiscent of ("The Second Coming" 3). Yeats' interpretation of the Second Coming is a rtesque and elliptical parody of the original. 6 6 Ayrton's ("Meaning") lecture ("Mazes") his discussion the Kenner's unite of and labyrinth and the body. See Doob for medieval examples (Idea 84-85). 27David Berry's Sylvia Plath's Ted Hughes' relationship achieved and analysis of through the filter of Hughes's Phaedra, a translation of Racine's play, stressesthe Through family fixation Sylvia's Phaedra's member. with a comparability of and labyrinth, the Cretan the Minotaur the emphasises play and repetitious references to the dynasty. Minoan the continued monstrosity within 28Ayrton Maker. in Maze The this addresses 29A in his by Wyrhta is of invention to remembrance textual alluded similar manner of Pelafina: "somehow she managed to make you feel as if she had invented you" (Whalestoe xv). 30Crucially, the final is the (Later)" 31,1998 "October after written entry marked hysterical his frame the of (515) introduction of outside stands the so and completion of (xi, book the the xxii-xxiii). overview of effect of

286

31From the index it would appearthat although the copy usedis the black and white flyleaf (iv), is box indicated by the the text the on consideredto be the two version, as black index that the the versionsof the words 'Minotaur' (686) reports colour version as (680,685,678). With "DME" Minotaur 'house/masion/haus' in the reportedly and red implies in blue, house it is fictional this (at the time that the the edition of variations and full-colour in 2000) version, which again reaffirms the text's playful layersof of press fabrication.

287

Conclusion 6.1 A Node in the Journey

The late nineteenth and early twentieth-century investigations at Knossos relabyrinth in the as enlivened a physical entity the public imagination, and affirmed
that the mythological narrative had a firm basis in archaeological 'fact'. Evans'

impacted certainly research upon modernist writers and is most apparentin Joyce's manipulation of the myth. These literary usagesreconceptionalised the labyrinth's
metaphorical potential (Portrait, Ulysses). Ironically, close scrutiny of Evans'

the misplacednatureof his interpretationsand refuted the methodologyemphasised

determined etymology of the labyrinth (from labrys).

There are two substantive implications resulting from Evans' application of his

firstly, is there the residual resistanceof the form to definitive preconceptions:

explanation; and secondly, the excavated site at Knossos appears incompatible with

the purposeand intricacies of the labyrinth as describedby ancient chroniclersand dramatists. Interestingly, Evans' use of narrative to confin-n archaeological is by is inverted in truth the these unsettled contemporarynovels where processes
adoption of mythology. The complexity and threat inherent in each of these

determinable labyrinth to the shift towards is mark a contemporarynovelists' use of 'factual' dependence the labyrinths; the than of mediation upon archetypal rather fonn by Evans. Therefore, thesepostmodernauthors' appropriationof the labyrinth demonstrates,as I have argued, a return to the early complexity of the ancient

forms.

The idea of the labyrinth and its conceptualapplicationsare central to thesechosen difficulties are intrinsically whose These novels complex are authors' novels.

288

deployment further by the accentuated of the rich trope of the labyrinth. The from Eco's proclamation of the birth of contemporary the novels range concernsof in Ackroyd's the to middle ages, man experienceof English culture as bound to Catholic ritual, to Winterson's enduring senseof Romanticism and modemism and
through to Danielewski's examination of living space and identity. Fragmentation,

intertextuality and repetition are paramount in these fictions and foreground the labyrinth: the those of crisis, destruction, complexity and negative attributions of
perpetual ellipsis. The ritualised space that the labyrinth contains in its meeting of

the mythical and the actual, results in a blurred movementbetweenthe fictive and the real, betweenthe historic and the present.

The labyrinth as a metaphor for narrative construction and strategies is so apposite a it is that vehicle unsurprising that it has been employed so extensively. In

key labyrinth Issues the engages all areas of postmodern concern. particular, with identity, to relating subjectivity, gender construction, uncertainty, reliability,

inextricably become indeterminacy, history with the enmeshed and space polysemy, Passion The Hawksmoor From the texts' narrative possibilities. and repetitions of Leaves, House Rose Name The the and of to the entangled narrative garnesof of is ludic labyrinths texts these that act. a reading confirms experienceof thesetextual Ackroyd and Winterson utilise the labyrinth to convey the textualisedcity, a spatial himself Ackroyd is fluidly confirms re-written and re-envisaged. palimpsest that describes he the London biography in his city as an unknown this reading where of fragments Re-appropnated 2). textual (London labyrinth and perpetually changing the through movement linear elliptical chronology and suggest an unsettle a labyrinth resulting in a transformativeimperative.

289

Ackroyd and Danielewski both draw upon the mythological charactersconnected in labyrinth the a manner that tends to unsettle the roles of each. Ackroyd's with depictions of an architect combine the role of designerwith that of the Minotaur, is Danielewski's Truant variously cast as Theseus,Icarus and the Minotaur whilst itself before he is finally exposedas the maze's architect. Eco's and Winterson's use of mythological parallels are apparentlymore straightforward as guide, invader behave is in It to type. the use of the architect that Winterson and monster all differs from the other writers because, although there are significant absences
in Winterson's the the other novels, architect city-labyrinth profoundly concerning

deniesthe role of the architect. Here as in the other fictions, the labyrinth engenders figure. beyond Daedalian the the control of a monstrous a senseof

The labyrinth's exaggeration of borders is reflected in narrative over-structuring. Danielewski's threatened disintegration of discourse reveals the importance of the

Daedalian both is creator and monstrous paradoxically at once author who Minotaur. The organic and fantasticalmazeof Winterson's invention contrastswith Eco's, Ackroyd's and Danielewski's application of the labyrinth where the role of in investigated, the that is designer suggests manner a the the structure repeatedly of dogmatic Winterson's Eco's Both the and the author. of position re-evaluation of hybrid has this them cast as desireto engagewith their work after publication seen beast. divine between halfway architectand character,

'labyrinth' denote the as unicursal and so a to Despite the desire of recent critics Works"), 'Earth these Richardson, Through; (Kern, structurethat is easyto navigate Cretan Egyptian from drawn the and fictional encounters with the labyrinth are labyrinth, the of detective of distinctive qualities labyrinths, which document the 290

identity and doubling, of love and monstrosity, but which most importantly its The prominenceof the Egyptian origins of the mazein emphasise very structure. Ackroyd's and Danielewski's novels partially unsettlesthe Cretan example as the labyrinth. A return to the Egyptian labyrinth is to envisagenotions of archetypal in rebirth, especially pertinent Ackroyd's reincamating victims, to emphasisethe complexity and size of the structure and to imply its multiple uses. Explicit use of
the Egyptian and Cretan models utterly refute the notion that the labyrinth was not a threatening structure. In these renewals of the classical examples, the novels

highlight the threat of the structureas equalto the threat of the beast.

Despite referring to the city solely as a 'maze', The Passion utilises the overtones of the Cretan myth. Winterson's consistent terminology connects her work with an

increased sense of the pastoral, through historical representations of the maze. At

the core of her and Danielewski's narrative is the journey to discover the self. For both Winterson.and Danielewski, this quest cuhninatesin the ability to recognise
in oneself a return to an origin. This transformation is achieved in The Passion

inspires Leaves labyrinth House to the love the a through a return of in affair, whilst

Ackroyd Eco history. are also and maternal through a remediation of personal labyrinth: Ackroyd's the novel concerned with the transformative properties of Eco theological and deals explores change. personal and especially with narrative he from labyrinths; definitions his what through of transition mediated cultural the Eco Ultimately, the of simplicity rejects terms 'classical' through to rhizome. dominant demonstrated, has the of model thesis labyrinth this and, as ecclesiastical form. Cretan is the to the labyrinth that remains akin

291

from the experienceof the labyrinth appearsto be that of The enduring consequence negative transformation. This final transformation is seen in William's

disillusionment in the existence of God, Hawksmoor's decline into despair and Henri's acceptance of madness. In comparison,Danielewski's text appearsto offer Truant, though exhaustedand riddled with guilt, finally, reading: positive a more through the processof the labyrinth, remembershis mother, suggestinga return to
his infant origins. This transformative power is portrayed in the ecclesiastical floor

facet labyrinth the the that remains popular in present-day mosaics and is of
spiritual usages. His journey through the labyrinth results in a sense of

Cretan Egyptian the threatening where completeness and examples are superseded

by the 'Christian' version. Resolution and positive transformation suggeststhat

Danielewski's novel is, despite its gimmicky typography, rather conservative. This in its in labyrinth House Leaves the results near self-conscious re-investigation of of

itself it be labyrinth follows Danielewski's that text the will after exhaustion,and so transformed.

6.2

Transforming

the Labyrinth

The early electronic disseminationof parts of Danielewski's script on the Internet by the transforming novel, and points towards this electronic medium as a meansof further Internet the The labyrinth. the a offers novel and meeting of extensionthe fantastical Such labyrinth. dimension for the discussionof the creative spaceis a is reidentity experience and reality of and notions recast medium whereby deployed. textual the of increased possibilities new With an awareness of

Winterson Eco, is it that notable by advancements, electronic production afforded book the possibilities future the explore and the of Danielewski investigate and the are novel technologies and The new by of meeting cyberspace. offered 292

in Winterson's The PowerBook. These in House and narratives addressed ofLeaves journey labyrinthine to and modesof representation speculateabout guidance, adopt lost direction. From within this new medium, the labyrinth is set to continue as a in topographical theme the twenty-first century. prominent narratological and

' SeeRouse("Double Axe") and MacGillivray (Minotaur). 2 Two recentnovels published after House ofLeaves that draw upon the labyrinth do so in a markedly less substantialway. Despitetheir titles, Ruth Rendell's TheMinotaur idea labyrinth fearful lightly. Lab Rendell Mosse's Kate the the subverts Yrinth use and is instead Minotaur, the a misunderstoodautistic protagonistwho wrenched recasting of from the sanctuaryof the labyrinth, whilst Mosseusesthe labyrinth as a symbol of bloodline and reincarnation. There is nothing to suggestthat either author is familiar Danielewski's work. with

293

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