Terrorism, Media, and the Ethics of Fiction Transatlantic Perspectives on Don DeLillo

In his novel Mao II, Don DeLillo lets his protagonist say, 'Years ago I used to think it was possible for a novelist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory. They make raids on human consciousness.' DeLillo suggests that while the collective imagination of the past was guided by the creative order of narrative fictions, our contemporary fantasies and anxieties are directed by the endless narratives of war and terror relayed by the mass media. To take DeLillo's literary reflections on media, terrorism, and literature seriously means to engage with the ethical implications of his media critique. This book departs from existing works on DeLillo not only through its focus on the function of literature as public discourse in culture, but also in its decidedly transatlantic perspective. Bringing together prominent DeLillo scholars in Europe and in the US, it is the first critical book on DeLillo to position his work in a transatlantic context.

IntroductionPhilipp Schweighauser and Peter SchneckMemory Work after 9/111. The Wake of Terror: Don DeLillo's "In the Ruins of the Future," "Baader-Meinhof," and Falling ManLinda S. Kauffman2.  Grieving and Memory in Don DeLillo's Falling ManSilvia Caporale Bizzini3. Collapsing Identities: The Representation and Imagination of the Terrorist in Falling ManSascha PöhlmannWriters, Terrorists, and the Masses4. 6,500 Weddings and 2,750 Funerals: Mao II, Falling Man, and the Mass EffectMikko Keskinen5. Influence and Self-Representation: Don DeLillo's Artists and Terrorists in Postmodern Mass SocietyLeif Grössinger6. The Art of Terror--the Terror of Art: DeLillo's Still Life of 9/11, Giorgio Morandi, Gerhard Richter, and Performance ArtJulia ApitzschDon DeLillo and Johan Grimonprez7. Grimonprez's RemixEben Wood8. Dial T for Terror: Don DeLillo's Mao II and Johan Grimonprez' Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-YMartyn ColebrookDeathward and Other Plots9. Terror, Asceticism, and Epigrammatic Writing in Don DeLillo's FictionPaula Martín Salván10. The End of Resolution? Reflections on the Ethics of Closure in Don DeLillo's Detective PlotsPhilipp Schweighauser and Adrian S. Wisnicki The Ethics of Fiction11. Slow Man, Dangling Man, Falling Man: Don DeLillo and the Ethics of FictionPeter Boxall12.Falling Man: Performing Fiction Marie-Christine Leps13. "Mysterium tremendum et fascinans":  Don DeLillo, Rudolf Otto, and the Search for Numinous ExperiencePeter SchneckCoda14. The DeLillo Era: Literary Generations in the Postmodern PeriodDavid Cowart