Architected Enemies in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man

As one of the prominent literary figures in the United States, Don DeLillo (2001) urged novelists to produce a counter-narrative in response to September 2001 attacks. Falling Man (2007) was published six years after the watershed event. This paper aims to investigate DeLillo’s exemplification of Islam and Muslims in the light of post-9/11 discourse on Islam and Muslims. It also seeks to situate the novelist’s depiction of Islam and Muslims within due geopolitical implications. By means of architectures of enmity, the other is deliberately crafted into a discriminated entity whose enemy- like attributes are highlighted and reiterated to serve geopolitical interests in the other and justify violence against him/her. DeLillo’s architected enemies will be studied through three constructs, specifically, ‘difference,’ ‘Islamic agency’ and ‘clashing Islam.’ The first construct, ‘difference,’ inspects how contrast between Muslims and non-Muslims operates within the novel’s architected enmity, while ‘Islamic agency’ focuses on the narrative’s illustration of the associations between Islam, on the one hand, and Muslims’ extremist acts and radical beliefs, on the other. In the third construct, ‘clashing Islam,’ the role of Islam as a conflicting ideology is to be elaborated on as epitomized in the novel. Through means of difference, Muslims are rendered more enemy-like and less humane in DeLillo’s novel. Islam is viewed as the most operative factor in motivating Muslims’ antagonist views and deeds against non-Muslims.