Triangulation and Gender Perspectives in "Falling Man" by Don DeLillo
- Autores: Noemi Abe
- Localización: Altre Modernità: Rivista di studi letterari e culturali, ISSN-e 2035-7680, Nº. Extra 2, 2011 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Número especial 9/11/2011), págs. 65-75
- Idioma: italiano
- Enlaces
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Resumen
Falling Man has often been read as the tale of of an American family trying to reinstate their ordinary lives after the 9/11 attacks, and their inability to do so due to the main protagonist�s entrapment in a traumatic state. I would argue instead that Falling Man adheres to a tradition of representations of masculinity distinguished by repressed grief and prolonged adolescence.
Susannah Radstone argues that the rhetorical response to 9/11 by the Bush administration is based on the opposition of two father figures: �the 'chastened' but powerful 'good' patriarchal father� Vs. �the 'bad' archaic father�. She explains: �In this Manichean fantasy can be glimpsed the continuing battle between competing versions of masculinity� (2002:459) that leaves women on the margins. The battle of the fathers of Bush�s rhetoric is counterposed in Falling Man by a battle between two men that stands for an unaccomplished fatherhood. Furthermore, the dualistic vision engendered by post-9/11 rhetoric and reflected in the novel should be evaluated in a trilateral dimension, given that at its core lies a triangulation built upon three stereotypical representations: the white middle-class man; the Arab terrorist; and a composite character in the middle, the woman, who shifts from ally, to victim, to a plausible supporter of the enemy
