Fictional needs, literary options: Alternatives to television in Thomas Pynchon's "Vineyard", Don DeLillo's "White Noise", and Richard Powers's "Prisoner's Dilemma"
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate what, if anything, contemporary literature has to offer that television doesn't. American television, which has become an increasingly powerful force, and which has a far larger audience than literature, offers its viewers more than "mere" entertainment; it offers, in both its form and content, a worldview that is characterized by isolated detachment, political and philosophical and metaphysical cynicism, and a narrow materialism. More than turning readers into viewers, television offers its viewers a worldview that is anti-literary. The present study, after defining that worldview by relying on the works of Neil Postman, Todd Gitlin, Mark Crispin Miller, Bill McKibben, and other cultural critics, analyzes three contemporary novels, Thomas Pynchon's Vineland, Don DeLillo's White Noise, and Richard Powers's Prisoner's Dilemma, for both how they depict television and whether or not they offer alternatives to the televisual worldview. The study finds that while all three novels are critical of television, Vineland ends up positioning the reader more firmly in the televisual worldview, and White Noise, while lamenting television's power, offers no viable alternatives to the televisual worldview. Of the three novels, only Prisoner's Dilemma, by emphasizing harmony, community, and mystery, is able to offer significant alternatives to television--alternatives embodied in both the novel's structure and themes. While television offers an escape from contemporary life, Prisoner's Dilemma offers a way to more fully experience contemporary life, the task and challenge, the present study argues, of contemporary literature.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Flory, Purdue University.
Subject Area
American literature|Literature
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