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Acts of Justice Acts of Justice Risk and Representation in Contemporary American Fiction Jason S. PoHey August 2006 Department of English McGilI University, Montréal A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Jason S. Polley 2006 Library and Bibliothèque et 1+1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-32231-4 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-32231-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans loan, distribute and sell th es es le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, électronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. ln compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privée, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont été enlevés de cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. ••• Canada Table of Contents Acknowledgments 11 Abstract IV Résumé VI Introduction: Ends and Odds 1 Justifying Franzen's Fiction and Essays Chapter One: Defending Franzen, Defending The Corrections 30 Chapter Two: Surveillance and Success in the Suburbs 75 The Limits of Control in DeLiIlo's Drama Chapter Three: Stage-Managing the Individual 129 Chapter Four: Lost in The Day Room, Locked into Valparaiso 169 The Odds of Justice in Smiley's Fiction Chapter Five: The End of Legal Process in The Greenlanders 228 Chapter Six: Big Stakes in Horse Heaven 278 Conclusion: Risks and Starts 322 Works Cited 328 Acknowledgments The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without funding and the encouragement of colleagues and friends. During the course of my PhD, 1 received tinancial assistance in the form of the Slava Klima Award for Academic Excellence, a SSHRCC Doctoral Fellowship, the Hugh J. MacLennan Fellowship, a McGill Faculty of Arts and Science Award, and a McGill Faculty of Graduate Studies Entrance Award. From my cohort, 1 would especially like to thank Robin Feenstra for his recommendations about research and teaching. With his many questions, Seth Shugar helped me retine my thinking and theorizing. Thanks to Véronique Dorais for correcting my résumé. As always, 1 am deeply indebted to my parents, Trish McNulty and Joseph Polley, for a lifetime ofimmeasurable support. 1 thank my sister, Krista, for her consummate cool. Y gracias a Maria,Femanda Jaramillo, Santiago Jaramillo, Esteban Camargo, José Daniel Parra, Brian Lander, and Craig Williams for many refreshing meals and for keeping me informed about contemporary art, politics, media, and technology. 1 also owe thanks to the University of Lethbridge, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotâ, and McGill for granting me sessional teaching positions. Like nothing else beyond the individuals on this page, teaching taught me that 1 do have something worth saying. 1 reserve my greatest thanks to the two individuals most instrumental to the completion of this project: my supervisor Allan Hepburn and my girlfriend Catalina Holguin Jaramillo. Always expedient, resourceful, and instructive, Professor Hepbum approached this study with more care, due diligence, expert commentary, and lU professional savoir-faire than 1 could have ever imagined, much less expected. 1 thank him for his time, ideas, dedication, and friendship. And Cata, this is as much for me as it is for you, my unofficial RA, mi paciencia infinita, my true muse. lV Abstract Spectacles of justice preoccupy contemporary American culture. Legal culture­ including the Watergate trials, the Lewinsky scandaI, and OJ Simpson's trial for alleged murder-assumes a central place in the American imaginary. Configurations of the law are not limited to media reportage and televised docudramas. Nor are arbitrations confined to law faculties and the spaces of formaI courts. Working through depictions of due process in different ways and in different zones, contemporary American writers point up the prevalence of legality in everyday life. Whether on college campuses, in TV studios and suburban homes, or at theatres and racetracks, justice mediates interpersonal relations. Personal narratives proliferate as modes of self-justification. Everyone has a right to represent her side of a story. As interpretations of reality, however, none ofthese stories can claim absolute justness. No one has a monopoly on the law or victimhood. This dissertation inspectshow Jonathan Franzen, Don DeLillo, and Jane Smiley present the inconsistencies of the law. These American novelists emplot global escapes into their work as a means to inform notions ofliberty and jurisprudence. For these writers, freedom requires the recognition of contradictory-and unanticipated­ narratives. "Justice Theory" emerges where media, gambling, performance, and suburban studies intersect with ethics, globalism, and narratology. In Franzen's novel The Corrections and essay collection How to Be Atone, self-validation requires the appreciation of the stories of others. In DeLillo's later works, particularly the plays The Day Room and Valparaiso, justice materializes in terms of isolation and the will to alter personal stories. For Smiley, as construed in her long novels The Greenlanders and v Horse Heaven, dynamic responsive actions attend risky, unpredictable encounters in competitive mi lieus like the racetrack. These authors reveal that executions of justice and the perpetration of injustice involve varied consequences. The law is not only about punishment and recompense. Rather, legality directs the consequences ofits applications toward the ideal of justice, which evolves alongside the subjects that it serves and the stories that they relate. VI Résumé La culture américaine contemporaine est préoccupée par des spectacles de justice. La culture légale--comprenant les procès Watergate, le scandale Lewinsky, et le procès d'OJ Simpson pour des allégations de meurtre-prend une importance globale dans l'imaginaire américain. Les configurations de la loi ne sont pas limitées au reportage des médias et aux documentaires dramatisés. Mêmes les arbitrages ne sont pas limités aux facultés de droit ou aux espaces des tribunaux judiciaires. Afin de représenter des procédures équitables de manières différentes et selon des zones différentes, les auteurs américains décrivent la prédominance du droit dans la vie quotidienne. Soit sur des campus universitaires, dans des studios télé et des maisons de banlieue, soit aux théâtres et aux champs de courses, la justice négocie toutes les relations interpersonnelles. Les récits personnels prolifèrent comme modes d'autojustification. Chacun détient le droit de représenter son côté d'une situation. Toutefois, comme les interprétations de la réalité, aucune de ces situations ne peuvent réclamer une justesse absolue. Personne n'a un monopole sur la loi ou la victimisation. Cette thèse examine les façons dont Jonathan Franzen, Don DeLillo, et Jane Smiley présentent les responsabilités de la loi. Ces auteurs américains incluent des évasions globales dans leurs œuvres afin de clarifier des notions de la liberté et de la loi. Pour eux, l'agence libre est démontrée par la juxtaposition de plusieurs récits uniques et plusieurs approches à la fiction. «La théorie de la justice» surgit des médias, du jeu, du théâtre, et des études urbaines qui s'entremêlent avec la narratologie. Dans le roman The Corrections de Franzen, et dans le recueil d'essais How to Be A/one de ce dernier, la Vll validation individuelle exige l'appréciation des histoires des autres. Dans ses oeuvres postérieures, particulièrement les pièces de théâtre The Day Room et Valparaiso, DeLillo localise la justice en termes d'isolement et de la volonté de changer son histoire personnelle. Pour Smiley, comme interprété dans l'ensemble de ses longs romans The Greenlanders et Horse Heaven, des réactions sensibles et dynamiques sont suivies par des rencontres risquées et imprévisibles. Les exécutions de la justice et la perpétration de l'injustice, comme ces écrivains décrivent, impliquent des conséquences diverses. La loi dirige ces conséquences vers l'idéal de la justice, qui évolue à côté des sujets et des histoires que ces individus partagent. Ceci n'est pas limité aux aspects de la punition
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