Haynes, Douglas (2015) "Gray and Waiting:" telepathy and terror in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man and Gerhard Richter’s October 18, 1977. In: Stubbs, Tara and Haynes, Doug (eds.) Navigating the transnational in modern American literature and culture: axes of influence. Routledge Transnational Perspectives on American Literature . Routledge, New York, N/A. ISBN 9781138903890 (Accepted)

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

This essay challenges the trauma model - or the disaster or catastrophe model - for understanding difficult histories and their effects on subjects. It also shows that histories move transnationally in space as well as temporally. DeLillo's 2007 novel Falling Man and Gerhard Richter's series of paintings October 18, 1977,both deal with painful subject-matter: 9/11 and the last days of the Baader-Meinhof group, respectively. I argue that a resonance exists between these artworks that allows us to imagine or understand the actions of others - even hostile others - through mechanisms both social and psychic that I term "telepathic," or the that involve the claim of the other. Both writer and painter, I argue, respect the horrific aspects of the history they represent but show how the blank spots we might write off to trauma are in fact lucid and articulate.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	Literary criticism
Schools and Departments:	School of English > English
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > ND Painting > ND1130 General works P Language and Literature > PS American literature > PS0360 Prose P Language and Literature > PS American literature > PS0700 Individual authors > PS3600 2001-
Related URLs:	Publisher
Depositing User:	Douglas Haynes
Date Deposited:	14 Sep 2015 12:10
Last Modified:	12 Apr 2016 12:30
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/56719

📧 Request an update