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Papers by Ali Dehdarirad
LITERATURE AND SCIENCE, 1922-2022: MODERNIST AND POSTMODERNIST PERSPECTIVES, 2024
In this essay, my aim is to show that the delineation of environmental issues in Bleeding Edge to... more In this essay, my aim is to show that the delineation of environmental issues in Bleeding Edge to a significant extent prefigures The
Deluge’s concern with humanity, the planet, and the more-than-human world. To this end, I will analyze the novels specifically through the
lens of sustainability within the bigger framework of the Anthropocene and ecocriticism. In the wake of the peak oil and the importance of a sustainable future for (non)humans, such an analysis is all
the more compelling as no work to date, to my knowledge, has investigated Pynchon’s or Markley’s fictions from the critical viewpoint
of sustainability.
Voci femminili dell'Antica Roma: Ritratti letterari di donne romane, 2024
Questo saggio intende analizzare la rappresentazione del personaggio di Giulia, la figlia di Otta... more Questo saggio intende analizzare la rappresentazione del personaggio di Giulia, la figlia di Ottaviano, in Augustus di John Williams. Questo romanzo storico offre al lettore una visione alternativa dell’immagine di Giulia, contraria all’idea di donna disdicevole che portò disgrazia all’Impero romano ma che bensì la vede come una figura sfuggente e poliedrica. A tal proposito, la forma epistolare del libro ha un ruolo fondamentale nell’interrogare le descrizioni non obiettive di Giulia, poiché mette in dubbio l’egemonia globale delle narrative storiche, tramite un ethos di incertezza, dove le voci emarginate vengono incluse. Quindi il fine ulti
mo è dimostrare come il diario fittizio di Giulia diventi un antidoto alle varie voci maschili che hanno formato la sua eredità storica.
RSA Journal, 2022
Although in different ways, William Vollmann’s Imperial and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road engage wi... more Although in different ways, William Vollmann’s Imperial and Cormac
McCarthy’s The Road engage with environmental and societal problems.
Representing a state of ecological crisis, among other things, they indicate
the fragility of human beings in the world. Against the backdrop of
their shared, though not similar, conceptualization of climate issues, the
article examines how these books depict the USA as an ongoing site of
emergency through an ecocritical approach. More broadly, I analyze how
the economic and political apparatus have historically exploited America’s
natural resources for capitalist profiteering, most often by recourse to
states of emergency. Imperial depicts Southern California as a dystopian
wasteland as well as a haven of possibility. Imperial County’s arbitrary
border with Mexico delineates the violent imposition of human will on
the natural territory for economic and political reasons. At the same time,
it represents hope for Mexican immigrants. Vollmann’s Imperial County
shows immigration as a long-lasting, neglected issue of concern at the USMexico border. The Road offers a post-apocalyptic vison of the world where
natural resources are exhausted. The unfolding of the (natural) catastrophe
has led the main characters, a man and his son, to migrate across the USA. Like in Imperial, migration seems to promise a better condition of life. Nevertheless, the gray sea at the end of the journey suggests “a world
unheard of.” By providing such descriptions of the American landscape,
these books delve into the anxiety of living in an uncertain world while
challenging the US system of socio-political governance.
Costellazioni, Jun 6, 2021
Through an examination of two lauded postmodern novels, in this essay I endeavor to show how narr... more Through an examination of two lauded postmodern novels, in this essay I endeavor to show how narrative, and literature in general, plays a substantial role in shaping and at once undermining the authenticity of the modern cartographic map. By analyzing the change from the urban landscape of the modern industrial city to the “real‑and‑imagined” cityscape of the postmodern metropolis, I seek to underscore the evolution of the cartographic representation of urban space in a historical optic. I argue that in Paul Auster’s City of Glass through the detective genre and the ambulatory way of exploring New York City the novel challenges the hard and fast cartographic epistemology of urban modernity, indicating the aesthetics of the postmodern metropolis. Likewise, I posit a similar argument in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis through the theme of the quest and the spatial practice of driving in New York City, suggesting the impossibility of mapping the urban space in an absolutely practical manner in the postmodern city.
Colloquium: New Philologies. 4 (3), 2019
The creation of so-called alternative worlds in his fiction has been seminal in establishing Thom... more The creation of so-called alternative worlds in his fiction has been seminal in establishing Thomas Pynchon as a postmodern writer. From the mysterious worlds of lady V. and the Tristero postal system in his early novels to the fictive worlds of a sailing airship beneath desert sand and the Deep Web and the software DeepArcher in his later fiction, these alternative realities have been investigated by distinguished critics from different points of view. Regarding the possibility of a post-national imagination in Pynchon’s fiction, in relation to his alternative worlds, several acclaimed scholars have prominently addressed this issue. Nevertheless, the narrative of Against the Day still needs to be meticulously analysed. This essay aims to investigate how Pynchon’s post-national vision calls into question and resists the overreaching metanarrative of nationalism in the world. By analysing the alternative realities, in connection with the issue of temporality, this essay attempts to depict the instantiation and development of a post-national vision from Mason & Dixon to Against the Day which questions the long-established dominance of nationalism in the world.
Book Reviews by Ali Dehdarirad
Orbit: A Journal of American Literature, Apr 23, 2021
Orbit: A Journal of American Literature, Jul 29, 2020
Books by Ali Dehdarirad
“From Faraway California”: Thomas Pynchon’s Aesthetics of Space in the California Trilogy, 2023
Offering a transdisciplinary journey across Thomas Pynchon’s California trilogy, “From Faraway Ca... more Offering a transdisciplinary journey across Thomas Pynchon’s California trilogy, “From Faraway California” addresses the representation of (city)space in The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Inherent Vice through “geourban” lenses. Drawing on specific concepts in urban and regional studies, the book provides a thorough examination of Pynchon’s spatial imaginary, where the reader comes to understand how his fiction tackles the socio-political and cultural consequences of urban restructuring in the contemporary city and the lives of its citizens. Pynchon’s depiction of California is further analyzed from mythical and environmental standpoints to shed light on his planetary vision and (post)postmodernist poetics in the span of nearly half a century.
More broadly, the book’s geocritical and urban analyses of Pynchon’s fiction indicate what might take place concerning the future of urbanism, toward “planetary urbanization” and the formation of the “city region.”
LITERATURE AND SCIENCE, 1922-2022: MODERNIST AND POSTMODERNIST PERSPECTIVES, 2024
In this essay, my aim is to show that the delineation of environmental issues in Bleeding Edge to... more In this essay, my aim is to show that the delineation of environmental issues in Bleeding Edge to a significant extent prefigures The
Deluge’s concern with humanity, the planet, and the more-than-human world. To this end, I will analyze the novels specifically through the
lens of sustainability within the bigger framework of the Anthropocene and ecocriticism. In the wake of the peak oil and the importance of a sustainable future for (non)humans, such an analysis is all
the more compelling as no work to date, to my knowledge, has investigated Pynchon’s or Markley’s fictions from the critical viewpoint
of sustainability.
Voci femminili dell'Antica Roma: Ritratti letterari di donne romane, 2024
Questo saggio intende analizzare la rappresentazione del personaggio di Giulia, la figlia di Otta... more Questo saggio intende analizzare la rappresentazione del personaggio di Giulia, la figlia di Ottaviano, in Augustus di John Williams. Questo romanzo storico offre al lettore una visione alternativa dell’immagine di Giulia, contraria all’idea di donna disdicevole che portò disgrazia all’Impero romano ma che bensì la vede come una figura sfuggente e poliedrica. A tal proposito, la forma epistolare del libro ha un ruolo fondamentale nell’interrogare le descrizioni non obiettive di Giulia, poiché mette in dubbio l’egemonia globale delle narrative storiche, tramite un ethos di incertezza, dove le voci emarginate vengono incluse. Quindi il fine ulti
mo è dimostrare come il diario fittizio di Giulia diventi un antidoto alle varie voci maschili che hanno formato la sua eredità storica.
RSA Journal, 2022
Although in different ways, William Vollmann’s Imperial and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road engage wi... more Although in different ways, William Vollmann’s Imperial and Cormac
McCarthy’s The Road engage with environmental and societal problems.
Representing a state of ecological crisis, among other things, they indicate
the fragility of human beings in the world. Against the backdrop of
their shared, though not similar, conceptualization of climate issues, the
article examines how these books depict the USA as an ongoing site of
emergency through an ecocritical approach. More broadly, I analyze how
the economic and political apparatus have historically exploited America’s
natural resources for capitalist profiteering, most often by recourse to
states of emergency. Imperial depicts Southern California as a dystopian
wasteland as well as a haven of possibility. Imperial County’s arbitrary
border with Mexico delineates the violent imposition of human will on
the natural territory for economic and political reasons. At the same time,
it represents hope for Mexican immigrants. Vollmann’s Imperial County
shows immigration as a long-lasting, neglected issue of concern at the USMexico border. The Road offers a post-apocalyptic vison of the world where
natural resources are exhausted. The unfolding of the (natural) catastrophe
has led the main characters, a man and his son, to migrate across the USA. Like in Imperial, migration seems to promise a better condition of life. Nevertheless, the gray sea at the end of the journey suggests “a world
unheard of.” By providing such descriptions of the American landscape,
these books delve into the anxiety of living in an uncertain world while
challenging the US system of socio-political governance.
Costellazioni, Jun 6, 2021
Through an examination of two lauded postmodern novels, in this essay I endeavor to show how narr... more Through an examination of two lauded postmodern novels, in this essay I endeavor to show how narrative, and literature in general, plays a substantial role in shaping and at once undermining the authenticity of the modern cartographic map. By analyzing the change from the urban landscape of the modern industrial city to the “real‑and‑imagined” cityscape of the postmodern metropolis, I seek to underscore the evolution of the cartographic representation of urban space in a historical optic. I argue that in Paul Auster’s City of Glass through the detective genre and the ambulatory way of exploring New York City the novel challenges the hard and fast cartographic epistemology of urban modernity, indicating the aesthetics of the postmodern metropolis. Likewise, I posit a similar argument in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis through the theme of the quest and the spatial practice of driving in New York City, suggesting the impossibility of mapping the urban space in an absolutely practical manner in the postmodern city.
Colloquium: New Philologies. 4 (3), 2019
The creation of so-called alternative worlds in his fiction has been seminal in establishing Thom... more The creation of so-called alternative worlds in his fiction has been seminal in establishing Thomas Pynchon as a postmodern writer. From the mysterious worlds of lady V. and the Tristero postal system in his early novels to the fictive worlds of a sailing airship beneath desert sand and the Deep Web and the software DeepArcher in his later fiction, these alternative realities have been investigated by distinguished critics from different points of view. Regarding the possibility of a post-national imagination in Pynchon’s fiction, in relation to his alternative worlds, several acclaimed scholars have prominently addressed this issue. Nevertheless, the narrative of Against the Day still needs to be meticulously analysed. This essay aims to investigate how Pynchon’s post-national vision calls into question and resists the overreaching metanarrative of nationalism in the world. By analysing the alternative realities, in connection with the issue of temporality, this essay attempts to depict the instantiation and development of a post-national vision from Mason & Dixon to Against the Day which questions the long-established dominance of nationalism in the world.
Orbit: A Journal of American Literature, Apr 23, 2021
Orbit: A Journal of American Literature, Jul 29, 2020
“From Faraway California”: Thomas Pynchon’s Aesthetics of Space in the California Trilogy, 2023
Offering a transdisciplinary journey across Thomas Pynchon’s California trilogy, “From Faraway Ca... more Offering a transdisciplinary journey across Thomas Pynchon’s California trilogy, “From Faraway California” addresses the representation of (city)space in The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Inherent Vice through “geourban” lenses. Drawing on specific concepts in urban and regional studies, the book provides a thorough examination of Pynchon’s spatial imaginary, where the reader comes to understand how his fiction tackles the socio-political and cultural consequences of urban restructuring in the contemporary city and the lives of its citizens. Pynchon’s depiction of California is further analyzed from mythical and environmental standpoints to shed light on his planetary vision and (post)postmodernist poetics in the span of nearly half a century.
More broadly, the book’s geocritical and urban analyses of Pynchon’s fiction indicate what might take place concerning the future of urbanism, toward “planetary urbanization” and the formation of the “city region.”