The Analysis Of Foucault's Power In Reference To Don DeLillo's Novel The Names

As an Italian-American postmodernist writer,Don DeLillo focuses on the current social conditions,such as American working and living situations abroad as well as the influence of ideology toward people's thinking and psychology.The Names is DeLillo's seventh novel whose background expands to international arena,laying a profound foundation for his subsequent fictions,therefore it is DeLillo's most excellent novel.The Names mainly describes a story that James Exton takes a risk analyst job in American Northeast Group company in Greece in order to visit estranged wife Kathryn and his nine years old son Tap,but the cult's murder program of alphabetic coincidence attracts James who begins to follow them.The Names discloses the theme of the United States' political hegemony,economic expansion and cultural colonization in Greece for gaining benefits.And this dirty practice evokes the Greek anger and resistance,which results in the shooting events and strained relation between the two countries.In this novel,DeLillo depicts American living situations,working conditions and attitudes toward the Greek.The Names shows that the author expresses his critique to the American manipulation to other nations and sympathy for the Greek people.This thesis is based on Foucault's power theory,uses The Names as the object of the analysis,and deeply analyzes its theme from the perspective of knowledge power and discourse power.This thesis has five sections:the first chapter introduces DeLillo's life story,the basic information,main story of The Names,literature reviews at home and abroad,and the significance of the thesis.The second chapter mainly introduces Foucault's power theory which is the theoretical foundation of the thesis and the application of knowledge power and discourse power.The third chapter mainly analyzes that the ruling class of the United States attempts to implement political hegemony and economic expansion through knowledge power so as to seize interests,and finally this practice stirs up the Greek anger and resistance,which leads to the shooting events.The fourth chapter focuses on how the ruling class of the United States aims to implement cultural colonization in Greece through discourse power,therefore the Greek indigenous culture is threatened and invaded.The fifth chapter is the summary section that draws a conclusion for the thesis and reasserts the main views:DeLillo names the novel as The Names in order to make the Greek people understand the discrepancy of name and nature as well as the covered dirty practice under the name of the glorious languages.