Paul Giaimo, Highland Community College

Unlike the majority of American academic critics, Paul Giaimo, author of Appreciating Don DeLillo: The Moral Force of a Writer’s Work (Praeger 2011), contends that Don DeLillo’s award-winning novels are fully defined by neither postmodernism nor modernism. In this presentation, Giaimo traces DeLillo’s style through his novels, showing how it evolved from a recognizably postmodern mode into a realistic treatment of contemporary, postmodern conditions. His original and nuanced examination discusses themes that range from the devastating portrayals of evil in Mao II, Libra, and Cosmopolis, to the good and inspiring confrontation of media stereotypes and urban missionary work in Underworld. The powerful vision of language in The Names and White Noise is examined as a potent moral force of the novels. Equally important is discussion of the cultural background Giaimo believes should inform any reading of DeLillo’s work, especially his Italian-American ethnic heritage and the American Catholic church of the 1950s.