Towards a Global Identity: images of Americanness in Don Delillo’s Underworld and Cosmopolis
Ka globalnom identitetu: Slike Amerike u Podzemlju i Kosmopolisu Dona Delila

Summary/Abstract: From Ammaps the concept of Americanness through different images typically associated with American culture, such as sports, movies, consumerism, and others. In Underworld and Cosmopolis, he manages to take the concept of American identity to the level of a global village, suggesting that these particular economic and cultural traits of American society are mere signals of ever-progressing Americanization. As Annesley and Varsava, among other critics, seem to suggest, DeLillo’s American Dream is a global pattern of behavior, both on the individual and collective level of identity. Chronologically, in these two novels, we trace the development of a unique global identity, starting from the 50s of Underworld and ending with the turn of the millennium in Cosmopolis. This paper parallels different staple traits of Americanness, such as sports, celebrity culture, consumerism, as well as the new American hero, in these two novels, analyzing DeLillo’s attempt to expose the creation of a global village in the making.From Americana to the latest The Silence, DeLillo’s novels depict American society through its most distinctive elements of a national identity that is rapidly becoming a global one. DeLillo maps the concept of Americanness through different images typically associated with American culture, such as sports, movies, consumerism, and others. In Underworld and Cosmopolis, he manages to take the concept of American identity to the level of a global village, suggesting that these particular economic and cultural traits of American society are mere signals of ever-progressing Americanization. As Annesley and Varsava, among other critics, seem to suggest, DeLillo’s American Dream is a global pattern of behavior, both on the individual and collective level of identity. Chronologically, in these two novels, we trace the development of a unique global identity, starting from the 50s of Underworld and ending with the turn of the millennium in Cosmopolis. This paper parallels different staple traits of Americanness, such as sports, celebrity culture, consumerism, as well as the new American hero, in these two novels, analyzing DeLillo’s attempt to expose the creation of a global village in the making.

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