Don Delillo's Mao II and Tao Lin's Taipei by Maria-Chri
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The Role of the Author at a time of Terror and Emotional Detachment: Don DeLillo’s Mao II and Tao Lin’s Taipei by Maria-Christina Kyrvei A dissertation submitted to the Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki September 2017 The Role of the Author at a time of Terror and Emotional Detachment: Don DeLillo’s Mao II and Tao Lin’s Taipei By Maria-Chistina Kyrvei Has Been Approved January 2018 APPROVED: Supervisor Dr. Tatiani Rapatzikou Examiner Dr. Youli Theodosiadou Examiner Dr. Georgios Kalogeras Kyrvei i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………….iii INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………....1 CHAPTER ONE The Role of the Author in the Age of Terror in Don DeLillo’s Mao II 1. Mao II and the Search for the Purpose of Contemporary Writing…………..10 1.1. The Resonance and Popularity of Mao II………………………….…………12 1.2. Mao II and the Figure of the Author………………………………………..15 1.3. The Theoretical Background behind DeLillo’s Author in Mao II…………..19 1.4. Authorship and Terror in Mao II……………………………………….22 CHAPTER TWO The Role of the Author in the Age of Emotional Detachment in Tao Lin’s Taipei 2. The Author and his Writing in the Twenty-First Century…………………..34 2.1. The Emotionally Detached Author: Loss of Memory and Creativity in the Representation of Depression……………………………………………….38 2.2. The Language of Depression…………………………………………….…43 2.3. From Anxiety to Emotional Detachment…………………...………………48 2.4. The Writing Process of the Emotionally Disengaged Author…………….53 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………...........................64 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………...……….69 Kyrvei ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to extend my warmest and most sincere thank you to Dr. Tatiani Rapatzikou for her endless help, patience, understanding and guidance throughout the writing of this thesis. With her insightful comments, invaluable advice and superb editing skills, she made the process of completing this project smoother and more successful. Thanks to her, I got a better understanding of how to prepare for, organize and write an extended piece of academic work. She helped me learn how to think critically and outside conventions. More importantly, she prompted me to look past my fears, inhibitions and insecurities and believe in myself and the integrity of my work. I would also like to thank all my instructors in the program of “Anglophone Literatures and Cultures” for investing their time, effort and knowledge in helping us improve, hone our skills and become more receptive to alternative ways of thinking. More specifically, I wish to extend my gratitude to Dr. Anastasia Stefanidou for equipping me with the confidence and skills that are necessary for the completion of my academic pursuits and Dr. Yannis Kanarakis for introducing me to a way to view and overcome my shortcomings. I would also like to express my appreciation to Dr. Zoe Detsi for making an otherwise demanding and difficult course seem fun and interesting, Dr. Domna Pastourmatzi for teaching me how to be more meticulous and organized and Dr. Katerina Kitsi for giving me the space to unleash my hidden potential and creativity. I also wish to express my immense gratefulness to my partner, parents and sister for their endless emotional, physical and material support throughout all difficulties and challenges I have encountered during not only the fulfillment of this project but also the completion of this Master’s program. Their love and support kept me grounded and focused on my goals and obligations. Last but not least, I want to thank my friends within and beyond this program for consistently and untiredly offering me their warmth and encouragement as well as for providing me with helpful advice and input. Kyrvei iii ABSTRACT The current MA thesis aims to examine the role of the contemporary writer as this has been formulated in the last decade of the twentieth and the first of the twenty-first century through the study of two American novels, those of Don DeLillo’s Mao II (1991) and Tao Lin’s Taipei (2013). The two works successfully capture the atmosphere of fluidity and uncertainty that characterizes contemporary American society today due to various socio- cultural and political events. Both novels primarily deal with the role of the author nowadays. This is achieved through the use of a self-reflexive way of writing communicated to the readers via the author-protagonists both writers employ in their fictions. Terror, as emerging from terrorism, and emotional disengagement, which takes the form of depression, constitute two distressing societal issues that the two books touch upon, while creativity, language use, circularity and memory are also discussed in the two novels. All these recurrent motifs highlight DeLillo’s and Lin’s interest into certain recurrent societal issues in an effort to expose and elaborate on them. Though not acknowledged in the novels themselves, the traumatic terrorist attack of 9/11 provides the framework through which all the other issues in the two novels are presented. Ultimately, both Mao II and Taipei demonstrate that contemporary literary writing has the ability to create links between the inner world of the characters and their surrounding society, cultivate empathy and promote active thinking and communication, aiming in this manner at introducing new ways of looking at the world and others against any kind of intellectual stagnation. Keywords: contemporary American literature, artistic purpose, 9/11, terrorism, emotional disengagement, depression Kyrvei 1 INTRODUCTION Writing in the twenty-first century has been the object of more changes than ever before. Literary written texts that used to be the dominant source of information, education and entertainment now constitute just one part of the voices to which people are exposed. For this reason, the present thesis will bring two novels under examination, Don DeLillo‟s Mao II (1991) and Tao Lin‟s Taipei (2013), in an effort to look into the purpose of contemporary American writing. This will be attempted through the consideration of the form and content of the two novels into examination as it would be interesting to explore whether the changing position of written texts has managed to concurrently influence their ultimate artistic purpose and what this might mean for the future of literary production. In the current thesis I wish to explore in what way the two novels interact with their surrounding environment and whether they can affect and connect to their readers in meaningful ways. The reason behind the selection of these specific works is twofold. They both comment on the figure of the author and his creative process. At the same time, they also operate within the broader framework of postmodernism. Mao II displays overt postmodern elements while Taipei constitutes a transitional piece of writing that could be seen as a response to the postmodern condition. The choice to inspect these specific novels derives from the fact that both make the role of the author their main subject-matter. As a result, postmodernism constitutes the framework within which the various issues the two novels bring forth will be analyzed. This is evident due to postmodern literature‟s preoccupation with what happens in society as well as its penchant to provide alternate viewpoints that betray the existence of a resistive attitude. This thesis thus aspires to determine the ability contemporary literary practice has to connect with human experience and examine its aim, impact on our perception of reality and ability to approach reality differently. One goal of the present thesis is to explore whether contemporary literary writing, as showcased in Mao II Kyrvei 2 and Taipei, does indeed engage with societal events. In the case of Mao II, the book narrates the story of Bill Gray, a famous author living in the U. S., whose real identity remains hidden from his readers. Gray produces all his works in seclusion with little communication with the outside world. In fact, his only interaction with society is mediated through Scott Martineau, his obsessive assistant, and Karen, his helper, who used to be a member of the Unification Church and displays little resistance to what she sees and hears on television. Bill‟s decision to render his image available to the public through the lens of Britta Nilson, a photographer, and his brief interaction with her prompts him to re-evaluate the environment in which he writes, because he finds that it limits both his creative ability and the capacity of his work to successfully affect his readers. He thus abandons his confining authorial practice in order to perform a meaningful act, that of rescuing a young poet from his captivity by the Lebanese terrorist Abu Rashid. Therefore, in his novel, DeLillo ponders over the role of the author and the purpose of his writing in his contemporary society by negotiating the notions of his presence or absence both inside and outside the text. My intention is to highlight DeLillo‟s attempt to raise the awareness of his readers over the existence of certain questions regarding the future of literary writing and the potential dangers behind the loss of its mass appeal. As for Taipei, it serves as a response to similar anxieties and the changing role of literary production in the lives of people nowadays. Taipei focuses exclusively on Paul‟s, a young author‟s, impressions and experiences. In a manner similar to Mao II, the method and process the main character employs in order to write his books is not clearly stated in the novel but is briefly mentioned and almost implied. What is evidenced, however, is Paul‟s participation in various social media accounts as well as in many public readings and presentations of his novels.