"Known Some Call Is Air Am" Problems with Postmodern Narrative Identities in Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves and B.S. Johnson's Albert Angelo

Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves and B.S. Johnson’s Albert Angelo both employ interesting and differing modes of narration: in House of Leaves three different levels of narration compete for attention, and in some aspects, veracity; and Albert Angelo juggles first, second and third person narration before the author himself enters as narrator. This study examines how the postmodern nature of both texts creates problematic narrative identities within them. Fittingly for a movement that is notoriously difficult to define, postmodernism seems to create problems for those seeking stable and fixed identities amongst individuals. It is this problem that this book highlights within the medium of postmodernist literature by paying particular attention to the fragmented nature of its narratorship, and examining if Jean Baudrillard’s theories on consumerism and simulations, and Jean-François Lyotard’s notions of grand and mini-narratives are to blame.