Paul Virilio’s dromology and the postmodern city in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis

Abstract

Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis (2003) portrays, among other things, New York as a postmodern city. DeLillo’s fiction above all probes how contemporary American consciousness is largely shaped by the incursion of technology into daily life. In DeLillo’s novels, technology figures as largely determining the possibilities of action and influencing the very nature of perception. As such, we argue, Cosmopolis could be read rewardingly through Paul Virilio’s theories. The objective is to examine the portrayal of New York as a postmodern city in the novel through Virilio’s theorization of technology and its concomitant dromology.

Keywords

• don delillo’s cosmopolis
• dromology
• new york
• paul virilio
• postmodern city
• technology