Storytelling and Subjectivity

Storytelling constitutes not only structure of Kudos, but one of its primary themes, as well: Cusk utilizes repeated moments of verbal storytelling to comment on the revelatory nature of subjectivity and the essentially false promise of objectivity. The book relies on a hermeneutic structure, in which the characters Faye encounters relay the details of their lives and interests, with very few interruptions, corroborations, or follow-up questions, from Faye or anyone else. The stories therefore become the primary vehicle to convey the complicated phenomenon of subjectivity, as the reader, through Faye, witnesses a stream of characters make sense of their lives by assembling events they experienced into a cohesive narrative. Cusk, in a sense, is celebrating the magic of subjectivity, and the human capacity for what Faye, at one point, calls “self-creation:” the ability to generate personal meaning out of experience (101).

As a corollary to...