Don DeLillo and the Aftermath of the Late Modern Age

The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001 left America's collective imagination in shambles. The inability to communicate fear and shock urged the need to resort to counter-narrative in order to trigger a healing process and properly elaborate the mass trauma caused by the event. Don DeLillo's Falling Man (2007) and Cosmopolis (2003) represent the perfect attempt to create a sensible counter-narrative because the ordeals of the characters in the novels offer a paradigm to the rest of the world, thus representing the embodiment of bewilderment and alienation in the aftermath of the late modern age. This study wants to investigate how DeLillo describes the impact the attack on the Twin Towers had on people's lives, the supposed reasons behind terrorism, and the decisive role of technology and the global market in today's doom. In order to do so, I will reference DeLillo's essay ¿In the Ruins of the Future¿ (2001), his short story ¿Baader-Meinhof¿ (2002), Jean Baudrillard's article ¿The Spirit of Terrorism¿ (2002), and Slavoj ¿i¿ek's book Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002). The first chapter of this thesis begins with an assessment of the relationship between reality and fiction. I will discuss why DeLillo resorts to counter-narrative, and then proceed to examine how the characters in Falling Man represent different archetypes of reactions to trauma. I will then address various references to art made in the novel and in the short story ¿Baader-Meinhof¿ as a way to point out how propensity for terrorism is somewhat innate in all of us. This idea is, indeed, embedded in the very structure of the novel and a few literary devices used by the author are, therefore, analyzed in light of this theory. The second chapter outlines the features of the main character in Cosmopolis, Eric Packer, who can be considered as an incarnation of rogue capitalism. I will review his relationship with technology and time, as well as his interactions with the forces of the global market. I will then try to canvass the many nuances of Eric's behavior and suggest a comparison between Eric and the Kierkegaardian aesthete. To conclude my discussion, I will focus on the redeeming qualities of art as it appears to be the key to a comprehensive interpretation of both novels.