A Study of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves

Abstract

The current study is an analysis of Mark. Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves in terms of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Heisenberg states the position and the velocity of a particle could not be measured simultaneously and the electron is in an indefinite state. Through the uncertainty principle perspective, this study attempts to examine how postmodern techniques create uncertainty and lie the reader in superposition, ambivalent feelings, and indefinite states. In consequence of the uncertainty principle, the quantum parallel worlds appear in each part of the novel for the reader’s mind. Both post-structuralism and quantum physics rejected reality, but what was important was the role of the reader and the observer who by his or her decision created a single reality. In parallel worlds, from a frog viewpoint, there was only the reader’s reality, but from a bird viewpoint, multiple realities emerged which should not be ignored these two viewpoints in the study of the ontology of the House of Leaves. With the help of these theories mentioned, it is proved there is a close relationship between postmodern literature and physics. In the twentieth century, discoveries in science have affected literature, and House of Leaves, like other postmodern works, was influenced by quantum physics.