Abstract
This chapter presents a reading of Don DeLillo’s short novel The Body Artist that is informed by the work of Jacques Derrida and particularly by his discussion of mimes and phantoms in “The Double Session” from Dissemination. Starting from DeLillo’s line “I want to say something but what,” the chapter argues that the novel is about a way of being, a hauntology, or about how we inhabit and haunt ourselves and others. In his account of the relation between two people following the death of one, DeLillo details the structures of ghostly imitation, repetition, and allusion that enable us to love, to mourn, and in the end, to live on.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Coughlan, D. (2016). 2. Mimes and Phantoms: Don DeLillo. In: Ghost Writing in Contemporary American Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41024-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41024-5_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-41023-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-41024-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)