Writer Rachel Cusk: "Something in the writing process is shameless." | Louisiana Channel

Video Description

”For a human, an artist, to express themselves, they have to have ownership of the materials.” Writer Rachel Cusk shares how personal identity and language influence her writing process. “If writing has rules, they are exactly the same as the rules of living.” Rachel Cusk has always used her own life in her writing. In her latest novel ‘Parade’ themes of parents and origins are central. “My use of myself in my work has not been autobiographical. It’s almost been indifference to me,” she says. In writing about the death of a parent, it occurred to her that parents can be seen as the origin of language: “But also the origin of something deeper than language. The thing that needs language and forms language but almost is sort of behind language.” “The people that I admire most in the world are the people who understood very early on that they had been formed by something. And that they didn’t have to remain in that form. That they could choose.” Cusk grew up in America, but her English parents decided to move back to England when she was still in school. The cultural clash between the British and American accents made her feel vulnerable and attacked. “It was exactly at this interface of language that one was betrayed,” she says. To Cusk, the whole education system plays a central role in developing one’s identity: “Why is it that all children paint, write and make music, but hardly any adults do? The finger of suspicion has to point at this process of being educated.” “For me, there’s something in the writing process that is shameless.” Rachel Cusk argues that the difference she can find between most male and female writers is their relationship to shame: “I mean, some male writers operate through the process of shame, but I think many female writers do.” Cusk uses the writing process to search for areas of shame and then let completely go of it: “It’s allowing something to have its voice free of shame for a while and then expecting myself to take the consequences.” Rachel Cusk (b. 1967) is a Canadian-born writer who lives and works in England. Her novels include ‘Saving Agnes’ (1993), ‘The Country Life’ (1997), ‘The Lucky Ones’ (2003), ‘Arlington Park’ (2006), and the Outline Trilogy – ‘Outline’ (2014), ‘Transit’ (2017), ‘Kudos’ (2018) and ‘Parade’ (2024). Cusk is also the author of non-fiction such as ‘A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother’ (2001), ‘Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation’ (2012), and ‘Coventry: Essays’ (2019). She received the prestigious Whitbread First Novel Award (1993) and the Somerset Maugham Award (1997). Rachel Cusk was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival August 2024 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard Edited and produced by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024 Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen. Subscribe to our channel for more videos on literature: https://www.youtube.com/thelouisianachannel FOLLOW US HERE: Website: http://channel.louisiana.dk Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/louisianachannel Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LouisianaChannel