Base, superstructure, Underworld: Marxism and post-Marxism in Don DeLillo's Fin de Siecle fiction. Issue 8 (2nd August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rollins, Joe
• Is Part Of: Textual practice. Volume 34:Issue 8(2020)
• Page Start: 1249
• Page End: 1268
• Publication Date: 2020-08-02
• Subjects: Don DeLillo -- Marxism -- post-Marxism -- underworld -- 1990s; Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Criticism -- Periodicals; Criticism, Textual -- Periodicals; Semiotics -- Periodicals; 801.95
• DOI: 10.1080/0950236X.2019.1590456
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-236X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper argues that Don DeLillo's 1997 novel Underworld represents a concerted attempt on the author's behalf to situate himself in relation to the post-Marxist debates of the 1990s. First arguing that, contrary to popular accounts of the period, the 1990s represented a moment of intense debate regarding the future of Marxism in the twenty-first century, I read DeLillo's novel as an exercise in working through various issues pertinent to post-Marxist thought, including the possibility and desirability of autonomy for art, the relevance of a 'crude' materialist approach to a capitalist system increasingly driven by predominantly immaterial labour, and the impact of the 'linguistic turn' in Marxist critique. To do so, I use both the final, published version of DeLillo's Underworld, and the notes, annotations, and chapter drafts of the novel held at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, which provide a unique insight into DeLillo's own instabilities and insecurities while writing the novel. The article concludes with a brief look at how these debates are further addressed by DeLillo in his later twenty-first century work, specifically 2004's Cosmopolis .