Knowledge Bank

The aim of my thesis is to provide—or, at least, begin to provide—a fuller contextualization of Don DeLillo's writings than has so far been given in the secondary literature on his work. In this respect, my main areas of emphasis are biography, history, and religion. Taking into account DeLillo's Italian ethnic origins, his maturation during the 1960s, and his sustained engagement with Roman Catholicism and other religions, a few of the often mysterious pronouncements and encounters which characterize his novels, short stories, and essays become clearer. In particular, I focus on the novels Americana (1971), Running Dog (1978), The Names (1982), White Noise (1985), and Underworld (1997), and the early short stories "The River Jordan" (1960), "Take the 'A' Train" (1962), and "In the Men's Room of the Sixteenth Century" (1971). Finally, I attempt to give a sense of how religion is mediated through fiction in the late-twentieth century.