My research project is a humanities, literary and cultural analysis of author Don DeLillo’s fiction and how it intersects with the growing academic discourse of risk. My essay examines the development of risk consciousness in Don DeLillo’s literature in the face of major technological advancements that have fundamentally changed our conception of risk and risk management. As the discourse of risk moves from the mathematical to the narrative, fiction has entered the world of risk theory and literary scholars are inserting themselves into the conversation of risk. My essay contributes to this growing literary conversation by examining three major DeLillo novels in chronological order – White Noise (1985), Underworld (1997), and Zero K (2017) – and measuring the risk consciousness of the characters through instances of sublime risk, a new relationship with death, and the prevalence of sociologist Ulrich Beck’s notion of “non-knowledge” in these novels. The novels act as relics of the cultural understanding of risk at the time the novel was published. By studying these novels together, one can see the evolution of risk consciousness as modern technology causes rapid change to risk. White Noise represents a blooming awareness of the new, sublime nature of modern risk and a dazed sense of how to manage these risks. Underworld gloomily ponders how society is stuck in a broken cycle of risk management. And finally, Zero K adopts a new technique of risk management that acts as the ultimate paradox of modern risk management: using temporary death through cryonics to escape from the permanent death of sublime risks that threaten to end the world as we know it. This research has allowed me to develop the academic grit, personal motivation and discipline, and question asking skills needed to be successful in the next step in my academic career: graduate school.
Author: Rylee Jung
Advisor: Tim Melley, English
You must be logged in to post a comment.