9/11 and the (Collective) Trauma in Don DeLillo’s In The Ruins of the Future and Falling Man

Abstract

This thesis analyses two works by Don DeLillo, his essay titled In The Ruins of the Future (2001), and his novel Falling Man (2007) both of which, although in different ways, deal with the horrifying events that hit the United States on September 11, 2001. The thesis examines the author’s two works, both of which propose a counter-narrative to the official history, and the correlation between them, in light of contemporary trauma theories. While the essay focuses mainly on the condition of the collective trauma that Americans suffered that day, and the possibility of making sense of the event through personal stories, the novel, quite literally, renders, through its structure and style, the condition of the personal psychic trauma of its protagonists. The analysis focuses closely on the stylistic and structural features of the novel, and on the portrayal of the characters and their ordinary lives, which come to be re-shaped by the historical event. It also investigates the protagonist’s struggle – or rather inability – to work through the traumatic experience, thus additionally touching upon the ongoing debate on whether figurative language is indeed capable of representing what seems inexplicable, that is trauma, by definition anti-narrative.