Performative Materiality of Book Inserts : The Case of S. and Personal Effects

Abstract

This chapter examines fiction books that tell fictional stories through a combination of a narrative that is printed on pages of a codex with physically removable artefacts such as postcards, letters, notes, photographs, newspaper clippings, tickets, credit cards, etc. Recognizing the importance of the (inserted) artefacts in co-constructing the story, we focus on the functions and consequences of the book’s material distribution through inserts. These functions call forth the performative aspects of materiality, that is, materiality that is situated in a cultural context of “meaning-mining.” We offer close—if selective—readings of inserts in Isidore Isou’s Le grand désordre (1963), Personal Effects (2009) by J. C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman and S. (2013) by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. We show how “unbounding” the codex, the inserts furnish an unconventional reading experience by providing sensory experiences that are physically rather than linguistically staged.