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THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE: Don DeLillo's The Names
Friday, 5 December, 2025
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit grandhotelabyss.substack.comWelcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2025 season is here. The 2024 archive is here. This episode, of which the first 10 minutes are free, belongs to a sequence on the modern American novel. It concerns The Names, usually considered Don DeLillo’s first major novel. We begin by placing DeLillo in the possible contexts of “theory fiction” and “Italian-American literature,” neither of which may exist, and then consider his biography. Then we discuss the several genres The Names makes use of (expatriate novel, political thriller, imperial romance, domestic novel) to embody its themes of American corporate imperialism, the postmodern condition, the relation between art and violence, and language as a spiritual force granting access to the numinous and divine. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall:
