Introduction
Literature, after the catastrophe of 9/11, took a different path. It became concerned with how the utopia became dystopia. They particularly explored the cultural causes of terrorism. DeLillo investigates the role of various groups in society. Ian McEwan was one writer who responded to the attacks with his novel Saturday (2005)
Cosmopolis is particularly interesting because it narrates and offers a careful and detailed account of the description of people and places. in the turn of the century. DeLillo was very much preoccupied with
America is shown as a hybrid society inhibited by multinational people. Cosmopolitanism fails as a result of the west’s inability to embrace and accept it.
DeLillo presents a postmodern version of cosmopolis. A postmodern condition of New York in particular. The ideas merge and meet in a cosmopolis.
The novel depicts America as a nation embracing various nationalities. A Cosmopolis is perhaps a place colonized people would ever wish for and in subscribing to it they become cosmopolitan. However, the attacks of 2001 had negative impacts on the multiculturalism, causing a renewed interest toward nationalism. In the words of Burhan and Pirnajmuddin “generally, the very presence of Muslims and the Arabs in American society has come to be seen as a threat which, shaded by multicultural idealizations, used to be ignored”(17). DeLillo depicts multinationalism as a potential source for the rise terrorism. The irony is that the east attacks the west with its own technologies.
Eric constantly doubts that “we are impenetrable” from the beginning of the novel, yet we see that he is wrong.
As Eric sitting in his limousine passes through various
According to Brennan, “What cosmopolitanism evokes a ...
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According to Raymond Williams, “In a class society, all beliefs are founded on class position, and the systems of belief of all classes …” (Rice and Waugh 122). His work titled, Marxism and Literature expounded on the conflict between social classes to bridge the political ideals of Marxism with the implicit comments rendered through the text of a novel. “For the practical links,” he states “between ‘ideas’ and ‘theories’ and the ‘production of real life’ are all in this material social process of signification itself” (133). Williams asserts that a Marxist approach to literature introduces a cross-cultural universality, ensuingly adding a timeless value to text by connecting creative and artistic processes with the material products that result. Like Williams, Don DeLillo calls attention to the economic and material relations behind universal abstractions such as aesthetics, love, and death. DeLillo’s White Noise brings modern-day capitalist societies’ incessant lifestyle disparity between active consumerists and those without the means to the forefront of the story’s plot. DeLillo’s setting uses a life altering man-made disaster in the suburban small-town of Blacksmith to shed light on the class conflict between the middle class (bourgeoisie) and the working poor (proletariat). After a tank car is punctured, an ominous cloud begins to loom over Jack Gladney and his family. No longer a feathery plume or a black billowing cloud, but the airborne toxic event—an event that even after its conclusion Jack cannot escape the prophecy of his encroaching death. Through a Marxist reading of the characterization of Jack Gladney, a middle-aged suburban college professor, it is clear that the overarching obsession with death operates as an...
In the first chapter “A new Race?”, the author affirmed that the beginning of America was viewed as an entry to a brand new life which interweaves separate ethnic strands into a new national design and liberates people from the terrible past. At the beginning, people would regard the America not so much as nation but as a world. For the society is one consists of people coming from all over the world. There were people who would depict the future of the society as without roots, without memories, without prejudices and all of people tend to have their happy time in it. There were also some people would deem the future of the society as one that would get everyone assimilated to a common customs, measures and laws, in which we will soon become one people. Also, the author mentioned that this kind of melting pot idea has an Anglocentric flavor. But such a metaphor raised a lot of doubts. ...
In his work, Don Delillo explores isolationism and its capacity to reveal the corruptness practices in society. Delillo tends to place themes in his writings that express his belief of a corrupt society. He believes that when individuals disconnect themselves from society, they are led to reflect and opinionate on civilization and its importance. Its easy to recognize this prevalent theme in several of his books. In Mark Osteen’s literary criticism, “A Moral Form to Master Commerce”, he states: “Thus he begins where many of Delillo's obsessive, ascetic protagonists eventually reside: in end land a terminal, empty landscape, purified of noise and complexity” (Osteen LC). Delillo often places his protagonists in situations where they develop negative judgments on humanity. This leads them to become overwhelmed and disappointed by its morals. When present to these complexities, the characters temporarily detach themselves from society by hiding out in a secluded location. In one of his most ubiquitous books, The Body Artist, Delillo articulates that the key to realizing humanities errors is isolation- becoming detached from societies values. These include: disorder, hassle, and deception. Citizens are ultimately oblivious to these due to cultures manipulation, lies and false values. In The Body Artist, the protagonist, Lauren loses her husband, Rey, after he commits suicide. Lauren becomes overwhelm...
The concept diaspora was derived from Greek and means the migration, movement, or scattering of people from their homeland that share the some links or common cultural elements to a home whether real or imagined. The reason why the term ‘diaspora’ is important to understand and is useful because it refers not only because its linked and refers to globalization, linking and connecting place, social consequences of migration, but also, to a form of consciousness and an awareness of home at a more personal level. The feelings, relationships and identities that is often very deeply meaningful to migrants. (Raghuram and Erel, 2014, p. 153 -
Knott , Kim, and Seán McLoughlin, eds. Diasporas Concepts, Intersections, Identities. New York : Zed Books, 2010. Print.
A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki provides an insight of America’s multicultural nation. He shares the history of the non-European minorities who have settled and contributed to the growth in America. However, many do not view them as Americans today because they still follow the Master Narrative. This teaching only focuses on the European settlement and their history in America, therefore, causing no acknowledgement to the minorities. Takaki challenges the Master Narrative as an incorrect teaching because it does not reflect America’s full history. America has always been racially and ethnically diverse. Thus, he hopes to move them away from the Master Narrative and learn from his teachings that non-Europeans are Americans despite their
In Don DeLillo's satirical novel White Noise, we become acquainted with what we might call a "postmodern family" - a group of people loosely bound together by birth, marriage, and common residence. But as we observe this family, we notice that the bonds between them are strained at best, and that their lives have been taken over by some insidious new force. This force is popular culture. For better or worse, pop culture has infiltrated the lives of our fictional family just as it has the lives of real human beings. DeLillo's purpose in the book is best illuminated by Heinrich's comment after the airborne toxic event: "The real issue is the kind of radiation that surrounds us every day." In other words, DeLillo states that popular culture is ruining - or, perhaps, has ruined - us all.
In Don DeLillo’s eighth novel: White Noise, warmly accepted by critiques, the author exposes, that the money gained colossal meaning during our time, plunging down other values like freedom of customer choice and respect for shoppers. In his work of fiction he illustrates how current world of commerce impacts our minds by manipulating our decisions, and also he indicates that a human nature demonstrates immense vulnerability for such attack. Moreover the ubiquitous commercials lead us to desire of having things we never tried before, to see things not worth seeing, to buy stuff we really do not need. The novelist tries to open our eyes to identify and understand how works this commercial destructive mechanism.
Don DeLillo creates in White Noise a manifesto which attempts to expose certain retrospective characteristics which he believes must be a part of every postmodern fiction.
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Don DeLillo’s ‘Videotape’ is a short story of man who is absolutely captivated by some footage on the news that can be described as both, raw and shocking. The footage is being repeatedly played over and over. It depicts a young girl with a camcorder travelling in the backseat of her family’s car who happens to be filming a man driving a Dodge behind them. She continues aiming the camera at the man and filming until, suddenly, he is shot and murdered. The man watching the tape at home is clearly mesmerized and fascinated with the footage to the extent that he was trying to get his wife to watch it with him. This story portrays society’s utter fascination of shocking and disturbing content relating to death and other horrible events unless they themselves are involved. This, along with other characteristics, clearly suggests that “Videotape” is a piece of postmodern literature. This report will analyze and describe why “Videotape” belongs to postmodern literature through the in-depth analysis of the selected passage and a brief breakdown of the story as a whole.
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In Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, Johnson argues the importance of preserving language. Other dialects had a produced their own dictionaries, such as the French and Italians. Various writers of the eighteenth century were alarmed at the fact that there was no standard for the English language, since there was no standard it could easily become extinct. Johnson explored many points, such as how and why languages change as well as how many words are formed.