Abstract
This essay conducts a cross-cultural study of Don DeLillo’s novels from a Buddhist perspective. DeLillo’s writing has long been concerned with profound spiritual and religious yearning, but it has often been read within a Catholic context due to the author’s Catholic background. This essay argues that DeLillo’s engagement with mysticism also owes debts to his knowledge of Buddhism. By referring to DeLillo’s early adulthood experience in the 1960s, I position DeLillo’s novels in a postsecular narrative which means not only the resurgence of religious belief in a secular age but the coexistence of various beliefs in both social and literary context proposed by John McClure. Specifically, this essay will examine DeLillo’s Buddhist engagement within the framework of three turnings of the dharma wheel, namely, the four noble truths, emptiness and Buddha nature. This new framework would allow me to explore systematically how DeLillo’s Buddhist imagination has filtered into the fabric of everyday life of his characters. And reading through the lens of Eastern religion would also open up new possibility in understanding both DeLillo and contemporary American postsecular literature.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In his Beyond grief and nothing, Joseph Dewey argues that in his early novels, DeLillo “embraced the street” with a love for the “reach of alert senses.” Then DeLillo turned his interests to the word itself. The Names is a typical example. And in his later novels, DeLillo “has turned to the implications of the soul, the difficult confirmation of a viable spiritual dimension” (Dewey 2006, p. 8). Dewey conducts his analysis basically according to the chronological order of DeLillo’s novel.
Kohn’s findings are illuminating. My analysis owes debts to his findings as well. I mainly take issue with Kohn’s analysis on the following points: firstly, according to his analysis, Kohn defines the Tri-kaya as “the Buddha, the Dharma (or Scriptures), and the Sangha (or Priesthood)” (Kohn 2011, p. 157), which is not an accurate definition of Tri-kaya in Buddhism; secondly, Kohn’s elaboration on the Buddha, dharma and sangha is in many ways different from the implications of the three in the Buddhist tradition, which will no doubt call into question the viability of his analysis and makes some of his detailed analysis unconvincing and misleading; thirdly, Kohn argues that DeLillo “appears, in the first and second stages of his writing, to have developed his sense of spirituality from Eastern traditions, especially Tibetan Buddhism, and then in the third stage channeled that spirituality back into Catholicism” (Kohn 2011, p. 157), which seems no to be the case with reference to Hungerford’s analysis of DeLillo’s Catholic representation in her essay “DeLillo’s Latin Mass”. In fact, Kohn’s project is more of an identification than an in-depth Buddhist elaboration on DeLillo’s novels, and it is the latter I would go further in my essay.
I’m not suggesting that DeLillo has a systematic understanding of Buddhism, but his Buddhist writing, actually all Buddhist writings, can be categorized into the three categories. The three turnings of the dharma wheel categorize the content of Buddhist teaching according to the time and place of Buddhist teaching by Gautama Buddha. It should also be noted that though Buddhist teaching consists of the four noble truths, emptiness and Buddha nature, the three categories also share some implications in common, which will be shown in the following analysis.
Zen Boom and Suzuki are written into his work as well.
Kohn also suggests that “although Bucky’s similarity to the revered Milarepa is never made explicit by DeLillo, the Sanskrit words sutra and bodhisattvas deployed in the novel are keywords in Tibetan Buddhism, and it is likely that the title Great Jones Street signifies the ‘Great Path,’ which is a common English translation of Mahayana.” (Kohn 2011, p. 159). In his “Parody, heteroglossia, and chronotope in Don DeLillo’s Great Jones Street,” Kohn elaborates more on this issue. Thanks to Kohn’s analysis, my elaboration in this part can be viewed as a continuation of Kohn’s project.
The four noble truths are logically coherent. When we know that we are having suffering in this life, we seek ways to liberate ourselves from suffering by knowing the nature and cause of the suffering so that the suffering can ultimately be ended by following the path to the cessation of suffering (Shi 2009a, pp. 16–18). In Buddhism, the four noble truths are believed to reveal the reality of all kinds of human life.
This kind of role that suggests the possibility of spirituality recurrently appears in DeLillo’s novels, such as Levi in Running Dog, the Singh in The Names, Murray in White Noise, Artis in Zero K, etc., which will be discussed later.
Heart Sutra is the most frequently used and recited text in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition.
Emptiness and non-self are believed to be taught by Gautama Buddha at Vulture Peak Mountain in India during the second turning of the dharma wheel.
The book was first published in 1934 in Kyoto. Later it was introduced and translated into America in 1956 with a preface by Carl Jung. It became famous immediately after its publication. Suzuki taught at Columbia University for 6 years and attracted lots of young students and intellectuals. Bell is 28 in the story. According to his narration, he is in college around 1955 in New York, when Suzuki was a famous figure in New York and DeLillo also started to think about writing Americana during that time. Therefore, DeLillo should have read Suzuki’s works given what has been discussed above and from the text of Americana. And DeLillo’s reading is not superficial.
The Tibetan monk has traveled through the Himalayas where “prayer flags draped everywhere” and learned Tibetan and its history. He learned how to pray and “fall to the ground in body-length prostration.” And he learned to be a Tibetan monk finally (DeLillo 2016, pp. 87–89). According to the description in the novel, the monk plays a role similar to the monk in Tibetan Buddhism to guide the believer’s soul in their bardo state (Guru 2000, p. 7, pp. 33–40, pp. 153–154).
The capsule is a place where those experimentees are waiting to be reawakened after their cryonics. In the middle part of the novel, there are almost ten pages of narration of her life status by Artis in the capsule. The life in the capsule seems very strange to understand from a secular viewpoint.
References
Barrett, L. (2001). “How the dead speak to the living”: Intertextuality and the postmodern sublime in White noise. Journal of Modern Literature, 25(2), 97–113.
Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and simulation (S. F. Glaser, Trans.). Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
Berlatsky, N. (2016). DeLillo and Doctor Strange: Orientalist fantasy is alive and well. Religion Dispatches. May 24, 2016. https://religiondispatches.org/don-DeLillo-meets-doctor-strange-immortality-boredom-and-the-exotic-other/. Accessed 18 April 2020.
Brunnholzl, K. (2014). When the clouds part: The Uttaratantra and its meditative tradition as a bridge between sutra and tantra. Boston: Snow Lion.
Champlin, C. (1984). The heart is a lonely craftsman. Los Angeles Times Calendar, July 29.
Cowart, D. (2002). Don DeLillo: The physics of language. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Cowart, D. (2018). Don DeLillo’s Zero K and the dream of cryonic election. In K. D. Lewin & K. Ward (Eds.), Don DeLillo (pp. 143–157). London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
DeCurtis, A. (2005). “An outsider in this society”: An interview with Don DeLillo. In T. DePietro (Ed.), Conversations with Don DeLillo (pp. 169–172). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
DeLillo, D. (1976). Ratner’s star. New York: Knopf.
DeLillo, D. (1978). Running dog. New York: Picador.
DeLillo, D. (1985). White noise. New York: Penguin Books.
DeLillo, D. (1989). Americana. New York: Penguin Books.
DeLillo, D. (1994). Great Jones Street. New York: Penguin Books.
DeLillo, D. (2006). Libra. New York: Penguin Books.
DeLillo, D. (2016). Zero K. New York: Scribner.
Dewey, J. (2006). Beyond grief and nothing: A reading of Don DeLillo. Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press.
Duvall, J. N. (2008). Introduction: The power of history and the persistence of mystery. In J. Duvall (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Don DeLillo (pp. 1–10). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eaton, M. (2006). Inventing hope: The question of belief in Don DeLillo’s novels. In E. Griesinger & M. Eaton (Eds.), The gift of story: Narrating hope in a postmodern world (pp. 31–49). Waco: Baylor University Press.
Feeney, M. (2005). Unmistakably DeLillo. In T. DePietro (Ed.), Conversations with Don DeLillo (pp. 169–172). Jackson: University P of Mississippi.
Guru R. (2000). The Tibetan book of the dead: The after-death experiences on the bardo plane (W. Y Evans-Wentz, Trans.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Guru R. (2003). The Tibetan book of the dead: The great liberation through hearing in the bardo (F. Fremantle & C. Trungpa, Trans.). Boston: Shambhala.
Harvey, P. (2013). An introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, history and practices. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Heruka, T. (2011). 米拉日巴尊者传记 [The life of Milarepa] (J. F. Shi, Trans.). Beijing: Religious Cultural Press.
Hungerford, A. (2006). Don DeLillo’s Latin mass. Contemporary Literature, 47(3), 343–380.
Iwamura, J. N. (2011). Virtual orientalism: Asian religions and American popular culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kang, Y. B. (2015). 狄金森对佛教的吸收 [Buddhism in Dickinson]. Foreign Literature Review, 34(2), 176–193.
King, S. B. (1991). Buddha nature. New York: SUNY Press.
Kohn, R. E. (2011). Tibetan Buddhism in Don DeLillo’s novels: The street, the word and the soul. College Literature, 38(4), 156–180.
Lacan, J. (2002). Ecrits (B. Fink, Trans.). New York: Norton.
Lai, Y. H. (2010). 中国佛性论 [Chinese Buddha nature]. Nanjing: Jiangsu People’s Publishing House.
LeClair, T. (1987). In the loop: Don DeLillo and the systems novel. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
LeClair, T. (2005). An interview with Don DeLillo. In T. DePietro (Ed.), Conversations with Don DeLillo (pp. 3–15). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Lentricchia, F. (1991). Libra as postmodern critique. In F. Lentricchia (Ed.), Introducing Don DeLillo (pp. 193–215). Durham: Duke University Press.
Li, S. T. (2015). 般若波罗密多心经讲录 [Lectures on the Heart Sutra]. Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Ancient Books.
Lodro, T. (2010). 慧灯之光 (第六册) [The luminous wisdom] (Vol. 6). Lasa & Haikou: The Tibetan People’s Publishing House & Hainan Publishing House.
Lopez, D. S. (2000). The long life of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. In R. Guru (Ed.), The Tibetan book of the dead: The after-death experiences on the bardo plane (pp. 243–253). New York: Oxford University Press.
McClure, J. A. (1995). Postmodern/post-secular: Contemporary fiction and spirituality. MFS, 41(1), 141–163.
McClure, J. A. (2007). Partial faiths: Postsecular fiction in the age of Pynchon and Morrison. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
McGregor, R. K. (2012). Henry David Thoreau: The Asian thread. In F. R. Anthony, J. Ellsworth, & J. D. Reid (Eds.), Thoreau’s importance for philosophy (pp. 201–217). New York: Fordham University Press.
Mortenson, E. (2009). Keeping the vision alive: The Buddhist stillpoint in the work of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. In J. W. Bridge & G. Storhoff (Eds.), Emergence of Buddhist American literature (pp. 123–137). New York: Suny Press.
Moss, M. (2005). Writing as a deeper form of concentration. In T. DePietro (Ed.), Conversations with Don DeLillo (pp. 155–168). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Myers, B. R. (2001). A reader’s manifesto. Atlantic Monthly, 288(1), 104–119.
Nadotti, M. (2005). An interview with Don DeLillo. In T. DePietro (Ed.), Conversations with Don DeLillo (pp. 109–118). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Osteen, M. (2000). American magic and dread: Don DeLillo’s dialogue with culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Roof, W. C., & Greer, B. (1993). A generation of seekers: The spiritual journeys of the baby boom generation. San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco.
Said, E. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
Seager, R. H. (2012). Buddhism in America. New York: Columbia University Press.
Shi, Y. S. (2009a). 印度之佛教 [The Buddhism of India]. Beijing: Zhong Hua Book Company.
Shi, Y. S. (2009b). 印度佛教思想史 [The history of Buddhist thought in India]. Beijing: Zhong Hua Book Company.
Shi, Y. S. (2009c). 佛法概论 [An introduction to Buddhism]. Beijing: Zhong Hua Book Company.
Storhoff, G. (2011). A deeper kind of truth. In J. W. Bridge & G. Storhoff (Eds.), Writing as enlightenment: Buddhist American literature into the twenty-first century (pp. 109–130). New York: State University of New York Press.
Storhoff, G., & Whalen-Bridge, J. (2009). Introduction. In J. W. Bridge & G. Storhoff (Eds.), The emergence of Buddhist American literature (pp. 1–17). New York: Suny Press.
Suzuki, D. T. (1964). An introduction to Zen Buddhism. New York: Grove Press.
Thogme, Z. K. (2013). 入行论释善说海 [Ocean of good explanation: A commentary on Bodhicaryavatara] (S. Dargye, Trans.). Lasa: Tibetan Classics Publishing House.
Woodroffe, J. (2000). The science of death. In R. Guru (Ed.), The Tibetan book of the dead: The after-death experiences on the bardo plane (pp. lxv–lxxxiv). New York: Oxford University Press.
Xu, Y. (2016). 虚云和尚全集 (第一册) [The collected works of monk Xu Yun] (Vol. 2). Beijing: National Library of China Press.
Zong, M., & De, Q. (2016). 圆觉经注疏 [Exegesis on sutra of perfect enlightenment]. Beijing: Thread-Binding Books Publishing House.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yuan, J. “Writing as enlightenment”: Don DeLillo’s Buddhism and postsecular writing. Neohelicon 48, 367–385 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-020-00548-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-020-00548-9