%0 Journal Article
%T Triangulation and Gender Perspectives in ¡®Falling Man¡¯ by Don DeLillo
%A Noemi Abe
%J Altre Modernitš€
%D 2011
%I Universitš€ degli Studi di Milano
%X Falling Man has often been read as the tale of of an American family trying to reinstate their ordinary lives after the 9/11 attacks, and their inability to do so due to the main protagonist¡¯s entrapment in a traumatic state. I would argue instead that Falling Man adheres to a tradition of representations of masculinity distinguished by repressed grief and prolonged adolescence. Susannah Radstone argues that the rhetorical response to 9/11 by the Bush administration is based on the opposition of two father figures: ¡°the 'chastened' but powerful 'good' patriarchal father¡± Vs. ¡°the 'bad' archaic father¡±. She explains: ¡°In this Manichean fantasy can be glimpsed the continuing battle between competing versions of masculinity¡± (2002:459) that leaves women on the margins. The battle of the fathers of Bush¡¯s rhetoric is counterposed in Falling Man by a battle between two men that stands for an unaccomplished fatherhood. Furthermore, the dualistic vision engendered by post-9/11 rhetoric and reflected in the novel should be evaluated in a trilateral dimension, given that at its core lies a triangulation built upon three stereotypical representations: the white middle-class man; the Arab terrorist; and a composite character in the middle, the woman, who shifts from ally, to victim, to a plausible supporter of the enemy.
%K Falling Man
%K Don DeLillo
%K Gender Perspective
%K 9/11 rhetoric
%K prolonged adolescence
%K triangulation.
%U http://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/article/view/1293