Features : Performing Trauma; Don DeLioo`s Narrative Experiments

Publised in 2000, Don DeLillo's The Body Artist is radicaaly different from his previous works in its theme and scope. Instead of offering a panoramic overview of the effects of global capitalism, the short novel proves into the traumatized mind of a body artist. In The Body Artist DeLillo experiments with the narrative form as it performs, rather than heals, the trauma. As a result, the reader is invieted to participate in the protagonist's gradual recognition of her self as irreversibly damaged by the loss of the loved other. This new way of perceiving the self is important as it leads to the realization of the Self that is vulnerable to, and thus open to, the Other. Thus conceived, this self-other relationship also opens the possibility of re-reading the past and forming a sess self-centerd future. This is a possibility DeLilloe explores in Falling Man while dealing with 9·11, a national trauma of the U.S. In the novel, DeLillo counteracts the patriotic and oversimplified representations of 9·11 which have contributed to the totalitarian turn of th Bush administration. Extending the formal experiment of performing trauma on the lovel of narrative, Falling Man forces the reader to face the naked moment of the catastrophe. However, Falling Man stops short of imagining a different kind of a nation self, as it fails to confront the complex causes and outcomes of the terror attack.??? ????????? 2012??? ??????????????? ?????????????????????????????? ????????? ?????? ??????