Players: Gender and Sexuality in the Universe of Don DeLillo

Author

Alexandria Nicole Tidwell

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Jamie Harker

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This project considers Don DeLillo’s body of work (specifically the texts Cosmopolis, Players, White Noise and Libra) in terms of gender and sexuality, two areas often overlooked by the current body of scholarship on the writer. My analysis is informed by contemporary queer theory — that is to say, an assumption of the constructed nature of gender and sexual difference runs through the work. I begin by defining two intertextual systems at work within (My first chapter deals with the capitalist system of Cosmopolis and Players, a closed network serving to mirror and critique modernist assumptions; and my second chapter focuses on a metafictive device used in White Noise and Libra). I establish them to be and, arguably, without the novels. homosocial environments, and then identify resistance or subversion within each system. Ultimately, DeLillo’s universe recognizes the constructed nature of gender; and though his representation of marginalized groups is arguably less than perfect, moments of subversion or liminality characterize a narrative that is fragmented, heteroglot.

Recommended Citation

Tidwell, Alexandria Nicole, "Players: Gender and Sexuality in the Universe of Don DeLillo" (2013). Honors Theses. 2440.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2440

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