[De]constructing author, [re]defining reader, [un]mapping genre: The making of an architext

This dissertation works to challenge contemporary readers and their desire to pinpoint authorial intention by calling for a revolution in how people interact with texts. This revolution, facilitated through contemporary experimental texts, transforms readers into architexts who are no longer blinded by a singular approach. The first chapter is a book-length experimental creative work meant to facilitate such a transformation. The second chapter explores the concept of the architext and analyzes contemporary experimental texts that aid in their construction. The third chapter is the result of primary research gathered while teaching English 227: Introduction to Creative Writing at Illinois State University and discusses how experimentation with genre in the creative writing classroom can help students move past a singular lens in which they write and read familiar, comfortable, and easy texts.