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Haarr Silje.Pdf (1.363Mb) FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION MASTER’S THESIS Programme of study: MLIMAS Autumn and spring semester, 2016/17 Open Author: Silje Haarr (Author’s signature) Supervisor: Dr Eric Dean Rasmussen Thesis title: Subjectivity in Three Postmodern Novels by Don DeLillo and Paul Auster: Mao II, Cosmopolis and Leviathan Keywords: American literature, Paul Auster, No. of pages: 102 Don DeLillo, subjectivity, subject positions, + appendices/other: 9 interpellation, postmodernity, postmodern novel, ideology, capitalism, radicalism, the author, parody, pastiche Stavanger, 11th of May 2017 date/year ii Abstract iv Acknowledgements v List of abbreviations vi 1.0. Introduction 1 1.1. A Short Presentation of Don DeLillo and Paul Auster’s Texts Chosen for this Thesis 2 2.0. Chapter One: Subjectivity in Theory 8 2.1. Ideology 9 2.2. Louis Althusser: Interpellation and State Apparatuses 11 2.3. Michel Foucault: The Author and the Author Subject 14 2.4. Fredric Jameson: Postmodernism, Parody and Pastiche 17 2.5. David Harvey: Neoliberalism 20 3.0. Chapter Two: Capitalistic Subjectivity in Cosmopolis 25 3.1. Subjectivity and language in Cosmopolis 28 3.2. Violent Subjectivity 30 3.3. Past and Future Subjectivity 34 3.3.1. Spiritual and Digital Subjectivity 35 3.4. The Limousine and the World 37 3.5. Masculinity and Fear in Cosmopolis 40 3.5.1. Capitalism and Fear 42 3.5.2. Female Subjectivity in Cosmopolis 44 3.6. Eric Packer’s Asymmetrical Subject Position 46 3.6.1. Self-Destruction 48 4.0. Chapter Three: Politicised, Radicalised Subjectivity in Leviathan 53 4.1. The Protagonist or the Narrator 56 4.2. Doubles and Duality in Leviathan 61 4.3. The Whole and the Fractured Subject in Leviathan 63 4.3.1. Subject positions in Leviathan 65 4.4. Political Beginnings in Leviathan 67 4.5. Leviathan in a Historic, Biblical and Ideological Perspective 70 4.5.1. The Subjectivity Journey in Leviathan 72 iii 5.0. Chapter Four: Parody, Pastiche and Author Subjectivity in Mao II, Leviathan and Cosmopolis 76 5.1. Mao II and the Pastiche Family 77 5.2. Parody and Pastiche 82 5.2.1. The Pastiche Family Subjectivity in the Novels 83 5.3. The Novels, Parody and Pastiche 86 5.4. Bill Gray and the Author Subject 89 5.5. The Author and The Truth 92 6.0. Conclusion 99 Works Cited 103 iv Abstract This thesis explores how fictional characters come to occupy subject positions through ideological processes such as interpellation. It studies how the subject positions the characters occupy define their whole lives; even hinder the development in their lives. By analysing what I refer to as the capitalistic subject position in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis (2003), the radicalised and politicised subject position in Paul Auster’s Leviathan (1992), and the familial and authorial subject positions in Don DeLillo’s Mao II (1991). This thesis argues that these novels imagine a reconseptualisation of our understanding of what it means to have a self, and what it means to be completely or partially in agreement with the determining ideological processes. The selected characters are interpellated into their subject positions, however all of them are struggling to be fully interpellated by the ‘hail’, the calling, of ideology. This thesis claims that all subjects are always-already interpellated as subjects to ideology, as there is nothing on the outside of ideology. v Acknowledgments This has been a long and educational process. After a year in a maze of thoughts and theories, I exit, hopefully, enlightened and stronger. I feel absolutely privileged and honoured to have been working with Dr Eric Dean Rasmussen during this process. His knowledge and expertise have sometimes awed me, and sometimes (most of the times) challenged me. He has set the bar high, and it has definitely given me something to reach for, making sure I’m a far better student than I was at the start of this process. He has equipped me to take on future academic endeavours. I am incredibly grateful. Thank you very much. I would also like to thank the teachers I have been privileged enough to encounter during my years at UiS. I want to thank Kjersti Dybvig for proofreading my thesis, and for being an inspiration through many years. Thank you very much. I want to thank two of my fellow students who have been there for me when I have lost my courage, told me to get over myself and carry on. Merethe Sæbø and Beth Pedersen, thank you very much for your support and for just being there. I consider you both good friends, and you are brilliant. My parents, Torunn and Tor Anton Haarr, and my brother, Jon Haarr, have been encouraging supporters, read all the hundreds of drafts this thesis has produced, and stood on the sideline with small waving flags, cheering me on. My mother, in particular, has lent me an ear when I have read out chapters during the editing process. It meant more than I can express. Thank you. My son, Gabriel Haarr Fjordheim, has understood the importance of letting mum work. And it is an extra encouragement to know that he has observed that hard work will get you places, along with his amazing imagination. He has derailed me with homemade Lego fidget spinners, making sure I remember what is truly important. You are my heart, my beautiful boy. Lastly I want to thank my wonderful partner, Trevor William Tyers. Being a native speaker he has helped me read through passages and made sure the language flows. Long nights over Skype reading out strange chapters about absurd subjectivity have been quite amusing at times, and we ask ourselves what other couples do for fun. He is also the one who has been behind me no matter what I decided. To know that someone is behind you, even if you seriously (for a brief, desperate moment) consider giving up, actually encourages you to fight on. You are amazing Trevor, and I love you more than human languages can convey in words. Thank you. vi List of Abbreviations CoG – City of Glass C – Cosmopolis L – Leviathan M – Mao II NATC – Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism P – Postmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism ISA – Ideological State Apparatuses RSA – Repressive State Apparatus 1 Subjectivity in Three Postmodern Novels by Don DeLillo and Paul Auster: Mao II, Cosmopolis and Leviathan “They don’t exist outside the market. There is nowhere they can go to be on the outside. There is no outside” Cosmopolis, 90 1.0. Introduction This thesis examines subject positions in postmodern fiction novels by Don DeLillo and Paul Auster. The term subjectivity is conceptualising the everyday understanding of what it means to have a self, and depending on the circumstances, the self takes on many forms. This thesis investigates some of these forms, and also how the subjectivity process occurs within the selected novels. This thesis also interrogates what role ideology has in this process, and what aspects have to be present for the specific subject position to change, or remain unchanged. The three selected novels present character subjects in deep conflict with themselves as well as with their surroundings. This thesis looks at subject positions, and explores both internal and external processes that are present when a subject acknowledges, or breaks free from his or her position. My understanding of subjectivity translates to the sum of a human being’s thoughts, beliefs, utterances and actions. This thesis first and foremost investigates what forces drive fictional human subjects towards the various subject positions the characters are in. And also whether or not they are presented with actual choices, or if the subjects’ positions are anchored in pre-decided factors, such as environment, upbringing and education. In the field of literary studies, the term subjectivity is crucial to how characters relate to other characters and to the society and environment in which they function. In this thesis the understanding of subjectivity is that part of a human mind and a human identity that subjects, and is subjected, to ideological and discursive modes in society. In a smaller scale (like within the family) and in a bigger scale (like within society and nationality), subjectivity is staged. Subjectivity is that part of a human mind that is under the control and influence of forces that outwardly may appear not to be controlled. But in reality they are controlled at every level in society and by the choices the subjects make. The specific fields of inquiry this thesis will investigate are: 1. What subject positions does the fictional subject of ideology choose to occupy? 2. What kind of shapes does violence and fear take on, in the modern capitalist subject? 2 3. How a subject position that conveys clarity to one subject, but confusion to the surrounding subjects. 4. How subject positions within a family can lose sight of what constitutes a family. 5. How the author and the truth become their own contradictions. This thesis argues that the processes defined by Althusserian concepts determine the selected characters’ subjectivity. Three of these concepts are interpellation, Ideological State Apparatuses and the Repressive State Apparatus (these will be explained in chapter one). It will also argue that the characters’ current identities, also known as subject positions, are connected to, and challenged by, postmodernism and capitalism (and eventually neoliberalism). Both authors are known to write narratives that concern the author and the author subject, and this thesis focuses on the role of the author both within the novel as well as the actual authors of the selected novels. With a starting point in Foucault’s thoughts concerning the role of the author, this thesis scrutinises the author’s subject position.
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