Mount Professor’s New Book Examines Don DeLillo in the 21st Century
12/4/2017
Riverdale, N.Y. – Associate Professor of English Jacqueline Zubeck has published Don DeLillo after the Millennium: Currents and Currencies through Lexington Books. As editor and a contributing author, she has brought together an international cast of scholars who examine DeLillo’s work from many critical perspectives.
Don DeLillo after the Millennium: Currents and Currencies examines the author’s work published in the 21st century: The Body Artist, Cosmopolis, Falling Man, Point Omega, and Zero K; the plays Love-Lies-Bleeding and The Word for Snow; and the short stories in The Angel Esmeralda. The book features an article that Dr. Zubeck wrote about performance art in the novels Falling Man and The Body Artist. She also wrote the introduction, which involved melding together ten essays on widely varied subject matter, including financial currency, cryogenics, drama and performance art, ecology, and place studies. In the introduction, she incorporated the pieces together under the umbrella of DeLillo’s short performance piece The Word for Snow, which is about global warming.
Dr. Zubeck has long studied the work of Don DeLillo. She presented a paper on his literary vision during the “Fiction Rescues History” conference based on his work, which was held at the Paris-Sorbonne University and Paris Diderot University in 2016, and she organized the second ever international literary conference on DeLillo, “Riddled with Epiphanies: DeLillo New York,” which was held at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in 2012.
“Don DeLillo After the Millennium: Currents and Currencies actually began in response to the conference at the College,” said Dr. Zubeck. “The conference was so successful that the participants immediately began talking about putting together a volume of critical essays, based largely on the papers presented; we also decided to emphasize DeLillo’s 21st century work—although he’s been writing since the 1970s.”
Though the production of the book took several years, Dr. Zubeck remained hands-on through the entire process—including securing a publisher, coordinating Chicago-style footnotes, gaining permission to quote copyrighted material, and copy editing. When it came to compiling the index, she enlisted the help of Mount English major Gabriela Berrios ’19. Ms. Berrios was able to assist with hundreds of terms and sub-categories that had to be ascertained and traced through the book.
“Producing this book was a real learning experience,” said Dr. Zubeck. “I am more than happy with the results—grateful for the excellence of each essay and happy for the patience of my contributors.”
Learn more about Dr. Zubeck’s book.
About the University of Mount Saint Vincent
Founded in 1847 by the Sisters of Charity, the University of Mount Saint Vincent offers nationally recognized liberal arts education and a select array of professional fields of study on a landmark campus overlooking the Hudson River. Committed to the education of the whole person, and enriched by the unparalleled cultural, educational, and career opportunities of New York City, the College equips students with the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary for lives of professional accomplishment, service, and leadership in the 21st century.