Пoстмoдeрни грaд: митски лaвиринт пoсрeдoвaнoг прoстoрa у рoмaнимa "Пoдзeмљe" и "Кoсмoпoлис" Дoнa ДeЛила
The Postmodern City: a Mythical Labyrinth of Mediated Space in Don De Lillo’s Novels "Underworld" and "Cosmopolis"

Summary/Abstract: The city as a postmodern cultural form manifests itself as several interlaced layers which facilitate processes of communication and interpretation. This matrix may at certain points most vividly project elements which would speak of the city as of an industrial machine, or those which would generate a version of its own reality through sequences of ones and zeroes within screens of liquid crystal. However, in the symbolic domain, the city simultaneously also emits messages which are not always clearly defined, messages that belong to history, heritage, the mythic – deposited in the city’s own history and in the histories of all the cities since the beginning of time. This paper examines the city as a system of communication and as a symbol [881мирна радин сабадошof Western civilization and its interaction with its inhabitants as active participants in the process of creation and interpretation of urban culture, through the analysis of two novels by the contemporary American writer Don De Lillo, Underworld and Cosmopolis. The paper highlights some of the most relevant interpretations of postmodern criticism related to the phenomenon of urbanity and its transformations, as well as the conflict between the mythic and the urban, particularly in the symbolism of the labyrinth. Through the analyses of the novels and through its intertextual links with other literary works which incorporate mythic into the contemporary – the poetry of Zbigniew Herbert, a story by J.L. Borges, “The House of Asterion” („La casade Asterión”), and Victor Pelevin’s novel Helmet of Horrors (Шлем ужаса) – one of the goals of this paper is to accentuate the myth’s power of transformation within the mediated structures of contemporary postmodern culture.

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