Don DeLillo and the Ghost of Language

Abstract

It is diffcult to provide an insightful overview of Don DeLillo’s fction without commenting upon the signifcance that language plays in his novels—not as a craft, but as an object of an in-depth, ongoing study. To DeLillo, language seems to inhabit a paradoxical, liminal space between material existence and inexistence. On the one hand, the author is famous for his masterful control over his words, on the other, he recognizes a mysterious force with which the words affect literature independently of its creator in a possession-like manner. In my article, I discuss DeLillo’s reflections on language by analyzing The Body Artist, his shortest and arguably most unusual novel, on the surface a strange kind of a ghost story, but beyond that, a profound reflection on language, trauma and contemporary art. I focus on the novel’s semi-aphasic character, Mr. Tuttle, to explore the spectral quality in DeLillo’s language, connecting it to Jacques Derrida’s influential theoretical reflection on the matter.