‘Acting Out’ and ‘Working Through’ Departure in Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge

Abstract

The present article explores the literary means by which Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge (2013) approaches post-traumatic reactions to 9/11 at the personal and public levels. The posttraumatic reactions that LaCapra has defined as “acting out” and “working through” are explored in their aesthetic and ethical dimensions, mainly through the study of Pynchon’s construction of narrative anticipation and his use of the elegiac tradition. I conclude that the novel might suggest a realignment of postmodern predicaments in reconciliation with the modernist tradition as a means to work through social and aesthetic trauma. I also contend that Pynchon problematizes his typical luddite approach to the posthuman by means of an allegorical use of communication technologies as a site for ritual mourning.