The Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo [Paperback]

An overview of the works and career of the postmodern American author of White Noise and Underworld.This Companion charts the shape of DeLillo's career and provides in-depth assessments of his best-known novels, White Noise, Libra, and Underworld, which have become required reading not only for students of American literature, but for all interested in the history and the future of American culture.This Companion charts the shape of DeLillo's career and provides in-depth assessments of his best-known novels, White Noise, Libra, and Underworld, which have become required reading not only for students of American literature, but for all interested in the history and the future of American culture.With the publication of his seminal novel White Noise, Don DeLillo was elevated into the pantheon of great American writers. His novels are admired and studied for their narrative technique, political themes, and their prophetic commentary on the cultural crises affecting contemporary America. In an age dominated by the image, DeLillo's fiction encourages the reader to think historically about such matters as the Cold War, the assassination of President Kennedy, threats to the environment, and terrorism. This Companion charts the shape of DeLillo's career, his relation to twentieth-century aesthetics, and his major themes. It also provides in-depth assessments of his best-known novels, White Noise, Libra, and Underworld, which have become required reading not only for students of American literature, but for all interested in the history and the future of American culture.Chronology; Introduction: The power of history and the persistence of mystery John N. Duvall; Part I. Aesthetic and Cultural Influences: 1. DeLillo and modernism Philip Nel; 2. DeLillo, postmodernism, postmodernity Peter Knight; Part II. Early Fiction: 3. DeLillo and media culture Peter Boxall; 4. DeLillo's apocalyptic satire Joseph Dewey; 5. DeLillo and the political thriller Tim Engles; Part III. Major Novlc-