Diversity and Multiplicity of themes in Don DeLillo’s Fiction: Expressing Contemporariness

Abstract

It is a common twentieth-century thought that we live in a world that is demystified by the force of technology and by the rationalized thinking that grounds such technology.  In the wake of the attacks of September 11th, many artists struggled with how to respond to the horror. In literature, Don DeLillo was one of the first authors to pose a significant, fictionalized investigation of the day through Falling Man. DeLillo’s works are very much suited to the uncertainties of the time. His list of awards is extensive: ‘Don DeLillo is the acclaimed author of fifteen novels and three plays. He has won the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize and most recently the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for lifetime achievement in American literature’ (Point Omega). This paper aims at exploring the multiplicity of themes in DeLillo’s fiction.