Wednesday 10 June 2015
University of Sussex
Keynote Speaker: John Duvall (Purdue University)
Venue: Jubilee 144
Writing also means trying to advance the art. Fiction hasn’t quite been filled in or done in or worked out. We make our small leaps.
Don DeLillo, 1982
This one-day conference will address the state of fiction in contemporary American culture by focusing on the extensive oeuvre of Don DeLillo, from the 1970s to the present day and beyond. Shortly after the publication of The Names, DeLillo commented that fiction had not yet been ‘filled in,’ ‘done in,’ or ‘worked out.’ How do we read this thirty years later, in the shadow of not only DeLillo’s major works but also the events that have characterised our move into the Twenty-First Century? How have DeLillo’s small leaps between the New York of Players (1977) and the New York of Falling Man (2007) ‘filled in’ fiction? Has DeLillo’s pervasive influence across contemporary American culture ‘done in’ postmodernism? Is the novel in the Twenty First Century already ‘worked out’?
Our call for papers is now closed. The programme and registration details can be found on this site. If you have any questions or queries about the conference, you can contact the organisers at delilloconference2015@gmail.com.
Cover image © Ryan Powell 2015
The State of Fiction: Don DeLillo in the Twenty-First Century 