Don DeLillo, Events, and Local Gods – PDF download
by
Robert F. McMinn
Thesis submitted to
the University of Nottingham
Faculty of Arts
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
School of American and Canadian Studies
Nottingham, England
September 1999
This is a study of five novels by the American writer Don DeLillo. Of particular concern is his treatment of events, but also his concern with language and – in particular – naming. The novels included in this study are The Names (1982); White Noise (1985); Libra (1988); Mao II (1991); and Underworld (1998); there is also some discussion of a pseudonymous novel, Amazons (1980).
Events, in spite of their profound affects on the characters in these novels, are shown to be resistant to analysis, retaining their singularity as ‘unexpected happenings’ even as they are incorporated into a narrative that explains their development. The mixed feelings evoked by events, or the confused understanding of them, is often due to a blurring of paradigms. This blurring of paradigms is compared herein to the persistence of local gods who have been rendered obsolete or suppressed by more totalising spiritual systems. The gesture of explaining an event, making explicit its constituent parts or causes, is always accompanied by a competing gesture which retains implicitness by keeping the event in shadow. Events, neurotically repeated in memory or in media, bear a relationship to rituals having the purpose of dealing with
anomalous or ambiguous happenings, when things are exposed to light and
hidden in shadow at the same time.
Citation Styles for “Don DeLillo, events and local gods.”
APA
McMinn, R. F. (1999). Don DeLillo, events and local gods. Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Nottingham, 1999.
Chicago (Author-Date)
McMinn, Robert Frank. 1999. Don DeLillo, events and local gods. Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Nottingham, 1999.
Harvard
MCMINN, R. F. (1999). Don DeLillo, events and local gods. Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Nottingham, 1999.
MLA
McMinn, Robert Frank. Don DeLillo, Events and Local Gods. Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Nottingham, 1999, 1999.
Turabian
McMinn, Robert Frank. Don DeLillo, Events and Local Gods. Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Nottingham, 1999, 1999.
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