As the last blog post of the year, I come back to the classic idea of postmodernism expressed throughout the book we’re currently reading in class. Libra is perhaps one of four books I’ve read in this semester that really accentuates the concept of postmodernism in literature and what it means to write historical fiction. Don Delillo has written such a fascinating novel on his own depiction of the JFK assassination and conspiracy, and it’s quite a wild ride and experience not only reading the novel, but discussing it in class and analyzing the writing itself. Libra contains postmodernist elements of metafiction and employing multiple perspectives in a nonlinear, fragmented narrative.
A very notable postmodernist characteristic of Libra is the writing structure and style itself. Instead of many modernist books that lay out a singular, linear storyline, Don DeLillo employs multiple perspectives and fragments of the plot the reader has to try to piece together to understand the full story. What I find most interesting about Libra in this case is how complicated the plot becomes, in which each perspective often does not provide the full narrative of the plot because the people in the plot simply don’t know the bigger picture. Lee Harvey Oswald himself doesn’t understand to what extent he’s being manipulated while the CIA agents plotting their plan don’t know all the elements of the assassination, even the man who came up with the idea himself!
Another postmodernist element of Libra, and my favorite part, is Nicholas Branch’s role in the story as a play on metafiction and essentially a self-insert of the author. Metafiction is the concept where a work of fiction is self-aware of its status as a constructed narrative, and Nicholas Branch is a key example of this notion. As the readers read a pieced together conspiracy plot on JFK’s assassination, at the same time, so is Nicholas Branch. Nicholas Branch’s goal in the novel and as a character is to uncover the “secret” truth of the JFK assassination, which is also the main objective of the novel itself. Branch often provides an introspective on the author’s own process in writing Libra and his thoughts on uncovering the “truth” of a conspiracy as well: Branch often laments on the overwhelmingly display of evidence provided to him and his struggle to uncover the “actual proof”. His character serves not only as an interesting way of breaking the 4th wall but also as a tool for Don DeLillo to explore the tension between a fictional narrative of history and the ambiguity of a singular historical grand narrative.
Yeah this book is definitely a great example of postmodernism. It also is evidence that there is no "Great Narrative" and that different perspectives can reveal different stories. It's fascinating the way that Delillo creates fictional events that explain certain circumstances better than real historical facts can.
ReplyDeleteLibra does contain a lot of postmodernist elements, and like some of the other books we've read, DeLillo writes Libra in a nonlinear writing style, jumping between perspectives, while also attempting to piece together a narrative. The character of Nicolas Brach definitely is an example of metafiction, working with the reader to uncover the mystery of the assassination of JFK. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThe stylistic writing choices employed by DeLillo are impactful and definitely alter the way readers view plot. He uses the inconsistent time periods, insertion of seemingly random and unrelated text, and variety of character perspectives to highlight the discrepancies in the quasi-historical narrative.
ReplyDeleteYes--I completely agree that Branch and his sections are the most postmodern elements of this novel, as he is the one literally trying to assemble "THE" master narrative out of (theoretically) ALL of the available evidence. If traditional history is legitimate, he is in the best possible position to test the proposition. But as the novel proceeds, and as evidence accumulates, he becomes increasingly frustrated and confused. It's such a good illustration of the idea that all we need to accurately reconstruct history is more evidence: the more he learns, the less he knows, even as the grisly, physical *reality* of the assassination (the autopsy photos, the mysterious and violent deaths of many of the people involved) makes the desire to know for sure increasingly urgent. Branch is not a smug or "happy" postmodernist--he is deeply upset by the futility of his efforts, his inability to tie "the room full of paper" into a coherent narrative.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's also the classic pomo metafiction wherein Branch is clearly a figure for the author--so the "official historian" is a figure for a writer of historical fiction (kind of the core ideas of this class in a nutshell!).
I like your point about individuals not knowing the full extent of the plot. Even though Win Everett comes up with the original plan, it eventually takes on a life of its own and morphs into something Everett has no say in. DeLillo suggests that there's always another more complicated layer to each narrative.
ReplyDeletehey Stepheny- I agree Libra uses a lot of postmodernist ideas in both structure and plot. I think especially the character of Nicholas Branch is like the penultimate postmodernist plot device as well. great post!!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you tied the novel back to postmodernism for the last post! I agree that the use of the dates vs locations for the structure was very postmodern in the way that it functioned (i personally found it annoying as it made the storylines harder to follow when reading chunks at a time but I digress.) I had never thought about the ways in which the whole narrative switch/Lee not knowing about the plot was postmodernist but I agree with your points.
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