Narrating the Insufficiency of Narrative: A Reading of Rachel Cusk’s Work

Abstract

This essay proposes a reading of Rachel Cusk’s work, specifically the Outline trilogy and the novel Second Place, in dialogue with the work of D. H. Lawrence, a writer she greatly admires. In the trilogy Cusk gives voice to a narrator who frequently yields her place to other characters, while in Second Place she creates a narrator who has difficulties to define herself. In contrast, in Cusk’s previous books, particularly in her memories, there was a highly emphasized personal voice. It is the displacement of this voice that we attempt to explore here. We argue that Cusk strives to displace the narrator (and the structure of the novel) to address a question about the position of women both in the text and outside of it.

Keywords
Women’s literature; Narrator; Rachel Cusk; D. H. Lawrence