Underwords: Perspectives on Don Lelillo's Underworld

by Joseph Dewey (Editor), Steven G. Kellman (Editor), Irving Malin (Editor)

Don DeLillo's 1997 masterwork Underworld, one of the most acclaimed and long-awaited novels of the last twenty years, was immediately recognized as a landmark novel, not only in the long career of one of America's most distinguished novelists but also in the ongoing evolution of the postmodern novel. Vast in scope, intricately organized, and densely allusive, the text provided an immediate and engaging challenge to readers of contemporary fiction. This collection of thirteen essays brings together new and established voices in American studies and contemporary American literature to assess the place of this remarkable novel not only within the postmodern tradition but within the larger patterns of American literature and culture as well. By seeking to place the novel within such a context, this lively collection of provocative readings offers a valuable guide for both students and scholars of the American literary imagination.

Genres: Literary Criticism

219 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting collection, some articles are great (especially ones by Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Paul Gleason, Steven G. Kellman and Ira Nadel) but, still, DeLillo`s essay "The Power of History" is the most essential for those who want to understand his magnum opus

contents (TWIMC)

A gathering under words : an introduction / Joseph Dewey --
"What beauty, what power" : speculations on the third Edgar / Irving Malin and Joseph Dewey --
Subjectifying the objective : Underworld as mutable narrative / David Yetter --
Underworld : sin and atonement / Robert McMinn --
"Shall these bones live?" / David Cowart --
Don DeLillo's logogenetic Underworld / Steven G. Kellman --
Pynchon and DeLillio / Timothy L. Parrish --
Conspiratorial Jesuits in the postmodern novel : Mason & Dixon and Underworld / Carl Ostrowski --
Don Delillo, John Updike, and the sustaining power of myth / Donald J. Greiner --
In the nick of time : DeLillo's Nick Shay, Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway, and the myth of the American Adam / Joanne Gass --
Don DeLillo, T.S. Eliot, and the redemption of America's atomic waste land / Paul Gleason --
The unmaking of history : baseball, cold war, and the Underworld / Kathleen Fitzpatrick --
Underworld or : how I learned to keep worrying and live the bomb / Thomas Myers --
The Baltimore catechism ; or comedy in Underworld / Ira Nadel.

[a.g.e. montagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes collected essays are a disappointment.
(a good example is Harold Bloom's Modern Critical Views volume on DeLillo; although I suspect in that case the problem is mainly Bloom's personal disappointment with DeLillo as a wannabe Pynchon).
Sometimes the authors seem to have been coerced into it and glad if they could write about something else. Or they simply can't write.

Luckily, the 13 essays* collected here are all very good, and the last three are excellent. I'm tempted to spoil some of the best intuitions contained herein. There are, namely, two essays on DeLillo and Pynchon. The good thing is that you can jump to the end of the volume without spoiling the fun; but I would suggest following the given order, which moves from close reading to general overview.
I wish 'modern critical views' were written and assembled with such intelligence, attention and dedication more often.

* any reference to a certain obsession in the novel is purely casual.