The Problem of Writing and Representations of Modernity, Postmodernism and Beyond: A Critical Reading in the Novel “Mao II” by Don DeLillo

The American novelist, Don DeLillo, wrote the novel, Mao II (1991), which uses selfhood and identity to foreground the modern/postmodern vision of human nature as a tabula rasa that is constructed by language, society, and culture. This study argues that while the novel’s protagonist, Bill Gray, represents DeLillo’s modernist tendencies, as the character desires to maintain authentic individualism during a fierce struggle with his culture’s collective mindlessness, DeLillo also describes an ambiguous character, whose life and works complexly exhibit and engage with postmodernist features. Jeffry Nealon’s approach to post-postmodernist literature and post-humanist scholarship are utilized in this analysis to provide a clearer understanding on the convergence of these components. Gray is examined as a manifestation of post-postmodernist tendencies, who ultimately reflects the emerging role of embodiment in contemporary cultural discourse. This study not only elucidates the fundamental changes that society currently faces but also provides a closer reading of the novel and its protagonist by incorporating forms of selfhood and identity that extend beyond reductive modernist and postmodernist conceptions to carry elements of post-postmodernist literature.

"Desperate Fictions": Space, Identity and Indeterminacy in William Gaddis and Don DeLillo

<p>Don DeLillo has frequently acknowledged William Gaddis as a significant influence, particularly in his concern with the vagaries of self-identity. DeLillo's The Body Artist (2001) and Gaddis's Carpenter's Gothic (1985) both thematically explore the relationship between self and space, employing gothic motifs and metafictional devices which intersect with the dramatic content of the novel, in which characters experience disruption to the stability of the known and located. In both, even the most intimate knowledge of relationships and environments is portrayed as a contingent construction, open to radical revision. As has been acknowledged by a number of critics, the transitory nature of postmodern spatiality is a central thematic preoccupation of both writers. The novels of both writers confront postmodern space by the way they complicate processes of identification and communication through a formalist evocation of indeterminacy. However differences become apparent in a careful comparison of their larger works. In Gaddis's J R (1975) Gaddis attempts to govern this indeterminacy in the service of cultural critique; rhetorically manipulating readerly identification in the service of an overall vision of decline. DeLillo's Underworld (1997), on the other hand, destabilizes meaning, and as a result the reader is directed towards a more ambivalent relationship to postmodern existence.</p>

"Desperate Fictions": Space, Identity and Indeterminacy in William Gaddis and Don DeLillo

<p>Don DeLillo has frequently acknowledged William Gaddis as a significant influence, particularly in his concern with the vagaries of self-identity. DeLillo's The Body Artist (2001) and Gaddis's Carpenter's Gothic (1985) both thematically explore the relationship between self and space, employing gothic motifs and metafictional devices which intersect with the dramatic content of the novel, in which characters experience disruption to the stability of the known and located. In both, even the most intimate knowledge of relationships and environments is portrayed as a contingent construction, open to radical revision. As has been acknowledged by a number of critics, the transitory nature of postmodern spatiality is a central thematic preoccupation of both writers. The novels of both writers confront postmodern space by the way they complicate processes of identification and communication through a formalist evocation of indeterminacy. However differences become apparent in a careful comparison of their larger works. In Gaddis's J R (1975) Gaddis attempts to govern this indeterminacy in the service of cultural critique; rhetorically manipulating readerly identification in the service of an overall vision of decline. DeLillo's Underworld (1997), on the other hand, destabilizes meaning, and as a result the reader is directed towards a more ambivalent relationship to postmodern existence.</p>

Literature and Fascination_Introduction

Exploring literary fascination as a key concept of aesthetic attraction, this book illuminates the ways in which literary texts are designed, presented, and received. Detailed case studies include texts by William Shakespeare, S.T. Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Don DeLillo, and Ian McEwan.

Degrowth in American Ecofictions

E doktori disszertáció kutatásának tárgyai amerikai ökofikciók. A degrowth reprezentációk logikájának megfelelően három amerikai ökofikciót választottam elemzésem tárgyául: Joyce Carol Oates The Falls (2005), Donald Richard Don DeLillo White Noise (1986), és Edward Abbey The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975) című munkáit. Mivel a növekedés, fejlődés és az ezeknek megfelelő ideológia az uralkodó világszerte, s mert különféle gazdasági rendszerekben és kultúrákban éltek és vissza is éltek vele, a fejlődés és a növekedés kérdése globális, nemzetállami határokon átívelő probléma. Kínában, a világ többi részéhez hasonlóan, a termeléssel kapcsolatos megszállotság ideológái és a fejlődés bálványozása szintén a helyi ökológiát fenyegeti és számos társadalmi probléma eredője. Jóllehet Kína szocialista ország, de jelenleg produktivista fázisban tart. Ugyanakkor a világpolitika szereplőjeként nem kerülheti el a nemzetiközi diszkurzusokat uraló más, fejlett kapitalista országok gazdasági, politikai és kulturális befolyását. Ezek az vetítik előre, hogy Kína – más, kapitalista országokhoz hasonlóan – még hosszú ideig a produktivizmus ideológiájának hatása alatt fog állni. Ezen felül a szocializmus bizonyos mértékig egyfajta nemzeti kapitalizmus, ami szintén megkívánja a felhalmozást és nagyra értékeli a GDP növekedést, amire pedig a fejlődés és haladás mutatójaként tekintenek. E fenti megfontolás alapján kínaiként a vizsgálati korpuszt és annak ökokritikai elemzését egy híres kínai ökofikcióval kívánom bővíteni, Jiang Rong Wolf Totem (2004) című munkájával, melyet az amerikai tudós, Howard Goldblatt fordított angolra, és 2008-ban adták ki az USA-ban. Ezáltal inkább a disszertáció által vizsgált probléma transznacionális dimenziójára akarok rávilágítani, mintsem az amerikai és kínai ökofikciók összehasonlító elemzését elvégezni, vagy az amerikai irodalom degrowth szempotú feltárásának kultúraközi kibővítését végrehajtani.