Tracing the postmodern sublime.(Paradigms of Paranoia: The Culture of Conspiracy in Contemporary American Fiction)(Book review)

Publication: Papers on Language & Literature

Publication Date: 22-MAR-06

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2006 Southern Illinois University

Samuel Chase Coale. Paradigms of Paranoia: The Culture of Conspiracy in Contemporary American Fiction. U of Alabama P, 2005. 258 pp. Cloth $40.00.

Samuel Chase Coale's Paradigms of Paranoia considers the thematic treatment of conspiracy along with its stylistic and formal implications in a wide variety of twentieth-century texts. Indeed, one strength of the book is that its coverage extends beyond the seven contemporary American fictions noted on its inside jacket to include several novels by each of the authors who are given separate chapters--Joan Didion, Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and Toni Morrison. Furthermore, the book not only covers some additional works by highly regarded writers such as Tim O'Brien, Paul Auster, and Robert Stone, it also examines some popular culture texts, including The X-Files TV series, The Matrix films, John Saul's gothic fictions, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth, and Jim Marrs's Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilaterial Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids. Coale is not...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.