Transformation of Authorial Subjectivity in Don DeLillo’s Mao II

Abstract

Don DeLillo’s Mao II highly exposes the condition of the writer in the contemporary world. He presents a writer who becomes a mere “passive object” in the hands of the terrorists. He feels displaced as an intellectual because he cannot incorporate all the ideas in his new novel. After the completion of the novel he spends his days in redoing the pages. He feels that the novel falls woefully short. Instead of publishing his book he feels him incapable to publish his book. He even feels that it is not his writing any more and the language of his book slips off from his hand. Not only this, he experiences that his writing looses the capacity of his self in a world dominated by terrorism. Therefore, he decides to leave his hiding place and agrees to be photographed. He also becomes ready to substitute himself in the place hostage in Beirut held by the terrorist group. Moreover, by presenting the writer acting according to the will of terrorism, directly or indirectly, the novelist shows the transformation of authorial subjectivity from universal intellectual to specific intellectual.