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Historiographic Metafiction in Don Delillo's Libra

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Historiographic Metafiction in Don Delillo's Libra Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 Historiographic Metafiction in Don DeLillo’s Libra J. Britto Jenobia Dr. V. Sekar PhD Scholar, Department of English Associate Professor of English National College (Autonomous), Trichy-1 National College (Autonomous), Trichy-1 Affiliated to Bharathidasan University Affiliated to Bharathidasan University E-mail:[email protected] E-mail:[email protected] Abstract: Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific or objective, efforts to explain reality. Many postmodern writers combine elements of previous genres and styles to create a new narrative voice. An important element of postmodernism is its acknowledgement of previous literary works. Many postmodern writers employ metafiction in their writing in order to make the readers aware of its fictionality and the presence of the authors. Among the postmodern techniques, Historiographic Metafiction is a term which was created by Linda Hutcheon. Historiographic Metafiction refers to the novels that fictionalize actual historical events and characters. Don DeLillo has positioned himself in a postmodern world with a relative ease and penchant for modern realism. Don DeLillo exhibits a ‘perpetual quest for reality’. Don DeLillo’s Libra is a novel which is based on the assassination Of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. This article focuses on the postmodern technique, Historiographic Metafiction in Don DeLillo’s Libra through the characters Oswald and Nicholas Branch. Key Words: Historiographic Metafiction, Post Modernism, Don DeLillo, Assassination of John F Kennedy, History based on the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald, Nicholas Branch. Introduction: Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific or objective, efforts to explain reality. Postmodernism stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding, but rather is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality. In the postmodern understanding, reality only comes into being through the interpretations of what the world means to an individual. Many postmodern writers combine elements of previous genres and styles to create a new narrative voice. An important element of postmodernism is its acknowledgement of previous literary works. Many postmodern writers employ metafiction in their writing in order to make the readers aware of its fictionality and the presence of the authors. Among the postmodern techniques, Historiographic Metafiction is a term which was created by Linda Hutcheon. Historiographic Metafiction refers to the novels that fictionalize actual historical events and characters. Volume 10 Issue 1 - 2020 560 www.joics.org Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 Historiographic Metafiction: Linda Hutcheon in her A Poetics of Postmodernism labels postmodern historical novels as “Historiographic Metafiction”. Historiographic Metafiction thematizes the theory of contemporary historiography and problematizes the distinction between history and fiction. Linda Hutcheon’s definition is governed by the paradox created by the intermingling of metafictional self- reflexivity and historical reality in novels. In the analysis of postmodern historical novels, the metafictive elements, intertexuality, self- reflexivity, non- linear narrative and parodic intention foreground the process of historiography. Historiographic Metafiction attempts to use historical material within the parodic self- reflexivity of metafiction which aims at undermining realism. Historiographic Metafiction is not only concerned with the question of the true- value of objective historical representation but with the issues of who control history. One of the attempts of Historiographic Metafiction is to focus on past events and historical personages which history chooses not to include. The excluded events are fore grounded, their stories are retold and alternatives histories are composed in Historiographic Metafiction. As a result, a multiplicity of history is achieved since Historiographic Metafiction write alternative versions to the already accepted one. Don DeLillo and his works: Don DeLillo has positioned himself in a postmodern world with a relative ease and penchant for modern realism. Don DeLillo exhibits a ‘perpetual quest for reality’. Don DeLillo is a famous American novelist, whose journey as a writer began in 1960. He was greatly influenced by John Dos Passos and Thomas Pynchon. Quoting Lionel Trilling words, Don DeLillo exhibits a “perpetual quest for reality” in his writings. Don DeLillo as a writer has written many short stories along with the novels. His first novel Americana was published in 1971. He has written seventeen novels till 2016. His other novels are as follows: End Zone(1972), Great Jones Street(1973), Ratner’s star(1976), Players(1977), Running Dog(1978), Amazons(1980), The Names(1982), White Noise(1985), Libra(1988), Mao II(1991), Underworld(1997), The Body Artist(2001), Cosmopolis (2003), Falling Man(2007), Point Omega(2010) and Zero K(2016). Analysis of the Title: This article analyses Don DeLillo’s Libra as postmodernist historical novels in line with the form historical fictions have taken with an introduction of postmodernism. The study argues that Don DeLillo’s Libra can be regarded as subversive texts that problematize the boundary between history and fiction and claim the objectivity of historical representation. The study categorizes the novel of Don DeLillo as representatives of Historiographic Metafiction. Don DeLillo’s Libra explains historiographic metafiction by examining the historical events on John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination. Don DeLillo’s novel Libra is a work of Volume 10 Issue 1 - 2020 561 www.joics.org Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 imagination based on the life of Lee Harvey Oswald and the events surrounding President Kennedy’s assassination. Libra is named after the astrological sign of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, which symbolizes balance and Harmony. Don DeLillo’s Libra was published in 1987. Don DeLillo regards John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassination as one of the formative events of the nineteenth century American history, an event that changed the way Americans think and feel about reality. Don DeLillo himself has commented, [The JFK assassination] had an effect on Americans that we’ll probably never recover from. The fact that it could happen. The fact that it was on film. The fact that two days later the assassin himself was killed on live television. All of these psychological shockwaves that are still rolling (Interview with Arensberg, 42). Don DeLillo explains the reason why John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassination left a permanent mark in the American psyche. An additional reason is the unresolved nature of ambiguity, uncertainty and mystery in which John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassination is disguised. Libra serves to symbolize Oswald’s uncertain search for balance in American society. Libra is Don DeLillo’s ninth novel which is a fictional account of how the lives of Lee Harvey Oswald and John Fitzgerald Kennedy intersected in Dallas. Like most works of historical fiction this novel throws back the readers into the history and politics of the era through the amalgamation of real and fictional characters, and also through the actual and imaginary events. Don DeLillo acted as a biographer to the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. He brings together ‘fragments of history’ and manages to inject a historical essence into the narrative. In Libra Don DeLillo’s novelization of John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassination can be regarded as Historiographic Metafiction. Lee Harvey Oswald: Lee Harvey Oswald’s criminal activities in America and in Russia and fact that he lived only a few miles away from Bronx, where Don DeLillo lived gives a contemporary and an intimate touch of history to the novel. Don DeLillo tried to put in proper perspective the psyche of Lee Harvey Oswald. Don DeLillo counts on the circumstances in the life of Oswald as a marine, a Marxist, a husband, a killer to produce a ‘micro history’ which is solely that of an individual. In Libra, Don DeLillo explores a transitional moment in American national consciousness. The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy ends a certain kind of political innocence. Don DeLillo recognizes the event as a turning point in which the effects of the media serve as a fundamental change in American’s relationship to the world. In Libra Don DeLillo examines the changes surrounding the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Don DeLillo attempts to change the official gunman story of the warren commission Report or the multiple possibilities of conspiracy theory, around the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Instead, Don DeLillo provides a straight forward biography of Lee Volume 10 Issue 1 - 2020 562 www.joics.org Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 Harvey Oswald focusing on the plots of various government and anti-Castro agents activities against John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the wake of the failure of the US-backed invasion of Cuba. In Libra Don DeLillo approached recent American history, drawing from the evidence, testimony and analysis complied in the after moth of Kennedy’s murder. The novel recreates the traumatic moment in Dallas “the seven seconds that broke the back of the American century” (Libra, 181) and offers “a way of thinking about the assassination without being constrained by
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