Symbolic Violence And Postmodern Cultural Crisis

Don DeLillo (1936- ) is one of the most distinctive and provocative post-modernist writers in the United States. His novels focus on contemporary American life and are full of criticism and satire of American society and culture. DeLillo has been regarded as one of the finest novelists and sharpest social critics of contemporary American life. Because of his continuous concern with mass media and culture, DeLillo has also been ranked among the"Avant-Pop"writers. Since his first novel Americana, DeLillo's reflections on mass media, particularly TV, have spanned his literary career. Through the vivid"photocopy"of the chaotic life of the collective and the paranoid destruction of individual, especially the marginalization of the intellectual, DeLillo reveals American mass media's dominating effects on American people and society. This paper explores DeLillo's reflections on American mass media and culture through closely examination of his three novels: Americana, Great Jones Street, and Maoâ…¡. These three novels diachronically cover the evolution of mass media, and disclose its harmful effects during the second part of the 20th century in America and also predict the chaotic 21st century that is depicted in DeLillo's later fictions.As a novelist, DeLillo pays great attention to the functions of language and symbols. In the thesis, a more apt analysis is conducted by employing the notion of the linguistic habitus and symbolic violence outlined by Bourdieu as a basic approach. According to French sociologist Bourdieu, manipulation by the mass media is symbolic violence. Symbolic violence is a feature and the high point of postmodern cultural crisis.This study will be divided into five distinct sections. The first section introduces DeLillo and his novels, and presents the significance of this study after making a survey of criticism of DeLillo; the second deals with the theories and the relationship of symbolic violence and postmodern, and sums up the characteristics of symbolic violence and postmodern cultural crisis in DeLillo's novels; the following chapter observes representations of symbolic violence in DeLillo's three novels; and Chapter four discusses DeLillo's reflections on American postmodern mass media and culture by further thematic study of his three novels. The last chapter is the conclusion. This study will attempt to probe into the characteristics, and the patterns,dimensions, and consequences of the symbolic violence of American postmodern mass media domination that is represented in DeLillo's novels.DeLillo's reflections on American mass media aptly show us the dominating impact of mass media upon human's life and psyche. Meanwhile, DeLillo also reminds us to watch out for the potential cultural crisis from mass media. Now China is experiencing a rapid development period of mass media. Mass mediums, especially TV and the Internet, are shaping people's thinking about art, history, science, society and daily life, which has resulted in the dramatization of history, the misinterpretation of China's traditional culture, and they are accelerating the commercialization of contemporary Chinese mass culture. Establishing a harmonious and sustainable-developing society requires a healthily development of culture and a responsible media. DeLillo's committed intellectual reflections on American mass media and culture can serve as a warning.