Latent Destinies

Patrick O’Donnell is Professor and Chair of the Department of English at Michigan State University. He is author of Echo Chambers: Figuring the Voice in Modern Narrative and Passionate Doubts: Designs of Interpretation in Contemporary American Fiction.

• Preface Entry: The Time of Paranoia 1. Postmodernity and the Symptom of ParanoiaThe Sympton of Paranoia Paranoia and History: Latent Destiny Postmodern Temporalities 2. Headshots: The Theater of ParanoiaBranch-Work: Libra Stone’s Oedipus: JFK Performing Character: Oswald’s Tale 3. Engendering ParanoiaThe Point of the Cry: The Crying of Lot 49 The Umbra of Difference: The Shadow Knows Exposing Paranoia: Empire of the Senseless 4. Criminality and ParanoiaThe Voice of Paranoia: The Executioner’s Song The Cultural Logic of Paranoia: The Killer Inside Me Men in Black: Reservoir Dogs Exit: Under History: Underworld Notes Bibliography

“Latent Destinies provides a smartly informed paradigm for understanding postmodern U.S. narratives, both aesthetic and theoretical. Examining a representative sample of these, O’Donnell finds that they indulge a cultural paranoia that wags the tail of their late-capitalist bÊte noire.”-Louis A. Renza, Dartmouth College “Latent Destinies provides a careful, lucid, insightful analysis of a number of works of contemporary American authors and filmmakers, and situates their work within a complex theoretical matrix of social connections that enhance our understanding not only of the works under discussion but also of the conditions of contemporary American culture in which those works circulate.”-Alan Nadel, author of Containment Culture: American Narratives, Postmodernism and the Atomic Age