"The pure event" : terrorism and temporality in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo

Abstract

"The Pure Event"- Terrorism and Temporality in the Works of Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo' examines the influence of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the oeuvres of Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo. This analysis begins from the viewpoint that the 9/11 attacks constitute an event, following the paradigm established by influential thinkers such as Jean Baudrillard, that precipitates change not only in the political sphere, but in the cultural sphere as well. The 9/11 attacks constitute the beginning of the 21st century, and engender a new approach to the role of art, and especially of literature in America, and the West. The primary focus of this thesis is to explicate the ways in which Pynchon and DeLillo have grappled with the changes wrought by these terrorist attacks. This thesis contends that the primary focus of both authors is time, and that after the 9/11 attacks, the conception, and presentation, of time changes for both authors. The work begins with reference to Georg Lukács, who, writing on the development of the novel as the outstanding, and dominant, literary form of the twentieth century, argues that the twin concepts of form, and of time, provide the constitutive elements for the groundbreaking author to represent modernity in their work. This thesis then harnesses these concepts, arguing that there is an identifiable change within the works of DeLillo and Pynchon in their output before, and after, 9/11.

Date of Award	2011
Original language	English