Brian Castro's Fiction: The Seductive Play of Language By Bernade ...

So for Castro, fiction and theory are both subversive in their intentions, but ultimately, as Double-Wolf demonstrates clearly, fiction ‘has it over theory because it avoids the authoritarianism that inevitably attaches to theory’ (‘Fireworks’ 238). And significantly, Castro affirms that his games, no matter how abstracted or intellectual they may seem, are directed always towards an affirmation of the human subject in his work.

Castro has suggested that he does not write with a reader in mind, yet he has published a raft of critical essays that outline his literary concerns and offer valuable insights into the motivations and strategies which lie behind his writing. These essays demonstrate that Castro wants his readers to engage with the complexity of his writing. Peter Pierce has implied that these essays are a means by which Castro maintains authority over his fiction, ‘subtly influencing the climate of critical reception’ (149), but that kind of control is antithetical to Castro’s narrative project of openness, possibility, and uncertainty. I would argue that Castro offers these essays, as I offer this study of his work, as a possible guide that opens up various entries into his writing.

Castro’s writing demands a committed, intelligent, and passionate reader. He constructs narratives of absences, gaps, and multiple perspectives in the expectation that his reader will make the necessary imaginative connections and, in a sense, become the writer of his text. His etymological games emphasise the dynamic possibilities of language. He wants us not only to understand the interconnectedness of language—‘The words genius, gender, genre and eugenics are all engendered from the ancient Greek word (γιγνεσθαι) (γινομαι)’ (‘Auto/biography’ 112)—but also to appreciate the many ways in which language communicates without direct articulation. Like the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Castro celebrates the gap or the ‘abyss’ that exists between thought and word. Merleau-Ponty writes: