Outline

One of the key ways in which Rachel Cusk tackles the theme of the self is by having the form of her novel reflect its subject. Outline may have a first-person narrator, but unlike most works featuring such a protagonist, the novel contains very few descriptions of Faye’s feelings or her own interior life. The narrative functions more in the form of Faye describing other people and, in the process, bits of herself. In undertaking this complex narrative structure, Faye explores the difficulty of defining the self. 

Faye wants to efface herself as a person and thus effaces herself on the page. Both in life and in her writing, Faye wants to wait, listen, sit back, and go with the flow. This process of self-effacement is not self-destructive but more like an experiment. Since what she created—a marriage, a nuclear-family home, and even a literary reputation—has been challenged, Faye wonders if there is any point in being a person who imposes structure on a chaotic reality. Perhaps a better approach to life is to develop a new consciousness, one that records and imbibes the experiences of others. However, because Faye’s self shines through the novel despite all her attempts at staying in the background, this indicates that the self cannot be contained as easily as she thinks.