The past - recorded, disseminated and assimilated [in and through Don DeLillo's Libra and Underworld]

Abstract

The subject of this thesis can be summarised in the following question. Considering Don DeLillo's novels, Libra and Underworld, how is the past recorded, disseminated and assimilated in relation to new information and communications technologies (ICTs)? Non-fictional historical accounts have been the most dominant and influential form of recording past events throughout literate culture. While the past continues to be shaped in part and retold as oral narratives by storytellers, the introduction of modern ICTs has provided a new electronic means by which the past can also be recorded and transmitted, whether in audio, textual, or visual formats. This electronic mode of communication dismantles previous frames of reference and creates limitless possible combinations of information fragments in what can be called (drawing on Deleuze and Guattari) media assemblages. To provide a theoretical framework for thinking about this question of fragmentation associated with ICTs, I will use the Deleuzean concept of 'assemblage'. In this thesis, I will consider four types of assemblages: the media assemblage, the textual assemblage, the event assemblage and the human assemblage. An assemblage according to Deleuze has the following qualities: