Representing the Incomprehensible

Criticism of Michael Herr’s Dispatches (2015) and Don DeLillo’s Falling Man (2007) can be divided into two mainstream interpretations. On the one hand, they are both marked as psychic trauma texts. writing read a therapeutic process that allows him to deal with his experienced war correspondent during Vietnam War. The intimate domestic in focuses on disconnected lives couple their child wake attacks World Trade Center. other critics have aligned each text national narrative. This article aligns itself latter interpretation. I propose, through postmodern reading, narrated is an example Lyotard’s “incredulity toward metanarratives” (xxix). argue texts represent failure metanarrative American Exceptionalism; ideology defines essence America embodiment “supremacy” “power”. Narrative fails when nature conflict deconstructs this identity. deconstruction arises from way appears alienate Herr author, characters preconceived notions knowledge. As result this, authors explore fictive human condition present caused by conflict.