제니퍼 이건의 『폭력단의 방문』에 나타난 9/11과 포스트모던적 구원

9/11 and Postmodern Redemption in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad

This paper analyzes Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Good Squad, the pathbreaking 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner known for its innovative narrative devices. Taking a cue from its valorization of gaps and pauses in Rock’N’Roll songs as well as in one’s life, this essay takes aim at pronouncements of postmodern redemption thematized in Egan’s narrative. I show how the pervasive tropes of pauses and gaps conceptualize redemptive notion of time, prompting the reader to reconstruct the fractured past of the main characters whose convalescence overlaps with that of the post 9/11 US. In the context of the spectacular violence of 9/11, I construe the fear of “end” frequently featured in the novel as a corollary for America’s fascination with its own demise. I argue that the discursive displacement of that fear onto the fear of becoming a “has—been” in music industry highlighted in the novel indexes the impress of the postmodern anxiety about being a latecomer. I then draw upon Rita Felski’s idea of “attachment” to contemplate upon the unexpected agency and solidarity that the novel activates in its last chapter, which transcends divisive identity politics in the post 9/11 US.