A Postmodern Reading of Don DeLillo’s Short Stories

Sameen Shahid,Arooba Khurram

doi:10.32350/jcct.31.01

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to study how different techniques are incorporated in the postmodern fiction to present the multiplicity of meaning and subjectivity of the reality. For this purpose, the researcher has selected American novelist and short story writer Donald Richard DeLillo’s short stories “The Itch” and “Coming. Sun. Mon. Tues”. The researcher has analyzed the selected works using the theoretical frameworks provided by Fredric Jameson, Linda Hutcheon and Henri Bergson. The theoretical insights of the selected theorists help understand the subjective reality of the postmodernism. Textual analysis has been used as a method to study the selected fictional work. Postmodernism is critical of certain foundational conventions of philosophy, specifically, the Enlightenment thinking, as it symbolizes the pursuit of reason and logic. On the other hand, it focuses on the personalization and subjectivity in the construction of truth and worldviews. The rejection of objective reality gives way to multiple realities and subjectivity. American fiction, in the second half of the twentieth century, has been influenced by postmodernism to a great extent. The analyzed short stories provide a good postmodern reading since they cover a range of features that are relatable in the postmodern world.

Highlights

While modernism reflected the anxiety, fear, directionless-ness and dread of early twentieth century man, postmodernism emerged as a movement that celebrated chaos and subjective truth
Postmodernism is a movement in arts, architecture and literature that denies the presence of objective reality and objective truth
To sum up everything that has been stated so far, it is pertinent to reiterate that postmodernism is critical of certain foundational conventions of philosophy

Summary

Introduction

While modernism reflected the anxiety, fear, directionless-ness and dread of early twentieth century man, postmodernism emerged as a movement that celebrated chaos and subjective truth. In the second half of the twentieth century, has been influenced by postmodernism to a great extent. John Barth supports the break from traditional rules of writing fiction by justifying the lack of originality in the contemporary writings. After “Death of the Author” (1967) by Roland Barthes, this work of John Barth’s further consolidates the severing of postmodernist fiction from the modernist writing conventions by allowing the authors a freedom for trying new ways. Donald Richard DeLillo (1936), known as Don DeLillo, is among the contemporary postmodern writers. He is an American novelist, playwright, essayist and short story writer. DeLillo’s fictional works cover various postmodern themes including commodity fetishism, consumerism, post-humanism and underground conspiracies. In an interview to the Chicago Tribune, DeLillo described his work’s inspiration as “I think my work is influenced by the fact that we're living in the dangerous times” (Nance, 2012)

Literature Review

Research Method

Conclusion