The environmental apocalypse in Don Delillo's white noise

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Title:	The environmental apocalypse in Don Delillo's white noise
Other Titles:	唐．狄尼羅《白噪音》中的環境啟示錄
Authors:	劉盈怡;Liu, Livia Ying-i
Contributors:	淡江大學英文學系碩士班蔡振興;Tsai, Chen-hsing
Keywords:	環境啟示錄;生態文學批評;風險;揭示;反思現代化;《白噪音》;environmental apocalypse;ecocriticism;risk;revelation;reflexive modernization;Don DeLillo;White Noise
Date:	2007
Issue Date:	2010-01-10 23:14:44 (UTC+8)
Abstract:	近年來，諸多評論家在詮釋唐．狄尼羅的作品《白噪音》時，將生態的議題視為小說的核心主旨，進而突顯唐．狄尼羅對於生態議題的關懷。唐．狄尼羅藉由環境毒害事件來刻畫對格拉德尼一家人及其居住小鎮的衝擊。透過「啟示錄」的敘述手法，唐．狄尼羅呈現出小說主人翁傑克．格拉德尼以及其妻子對死亡已無法再度壓抑的極致恐慌與病態心理，讓小說蒙上一層「啟示錄」式的末世論氛圍。本論文採「啟示」之字源意義為「揭示」的概念，說明唐．狄尼羅運用該敘述方法旨在揭示生態危機之各個面向。第一章分析小說的敘述技巧和生態主題之關聯，並將此敘述手法視為「環境啟示錄」。第二章則將《白噪音》的「環境啟示錄」敘述與｢風險｣概念做聯結，藉由德國社會學家貝克（Ulrich Beck）的「風險」理論及｢反思現代化｣觀念來剖析小說中的生態危機，指出唐．狄尼羅筆下的生態問題不只是自然的範疇，更是社會的範疇。另外，我也適度說明作者如何反思與批判當今美國的環境污染問題。第三章研究唐．狄尼羅《白噪音》中的生態文學批評。透過對生態問題的反思，作者犀利地揭示出後工業社會中資本主義與科技發展對社會與自然環境的宰制、破壞及其所引發的環境危機，風險管理等議題。貝克稱該社會型態為｢風險社會｣｡有趣的是，小說「啟示錄」之敘述方法亦融合喜劇的誇大元素。從讀者的角度來看，《白噪音》一書充滿各種危機判斷的不確定性；但就風險理論而言，此誇大效果巧妙地章顯出「風險評估」所包含的複雜性與困難度。因此，《白噪音》實為一細膩的寫實佳作。 Don DeLillo’s White Noise recounts comically the events in the life of the death-obsessed professor, Jack Gladney, and his wife, centering on an industrial accident that releases toxic insecticide into their neighborhood. Critics have responded enthusiastically to the intelligence and wit in White Noise but only few of them approach it ecocritically. Having traced the recent literary criticism with a special interest in those which scrutinize White Noise through the lens of environmental discourse with a view to restoring the novel’s environmental concerns with its rightful place at the forefront of DeLillo’s topos, this study particularly focuses on DeLillo’s ecological insight in examining the symbolic association between its “apocalyptic” narrative and ecocriticism in White Noise. This thesis is divided into three main parts in discussing DeLillo’s ecological vision: Chapter One deals with the theme of death-fear by tying it to the notion of crisis, upon which the new literary genre of “apocalypticism” is based. This chapter illuminates the theme of death-fear as it is expressed through the use of apocalyptic rhetoric: this is the mounting existential crisis of the “airborne toxic event” which, initially vague and shadowy, suddenly “explodes” into a traumatic, holocaust-like terror. Chapter Two then proceeds to take up the problem of the representation of a “risk society” in White Noise by focusing on Ulrich Beck’s key concept of “reflexivity” and, more precisely, “reflexive modernization.” This idea can help us to interpret DeLillo’s cultural criticism as a discourse that revolves around social formations of risk or crisis. Chapter Three goes on to explore the technologically-imposed “CABLE NATURE” of the novel’s postmodern (Baudrillardian) society by showing the direct link between the technological (late-capitalist, consumer-oriented) approach to the natural and human environment of the novel and the occurrence of the “airborne toxic event.” Here, I examine DeLillo’s satirical mode of “apocalyptic narrative” and analyze the narrative implications of the notion that the novel’s represented society is a risk society. Since the word “apocalypse” can be traced back to the Greek apokalypsis, which means literally “revelation,” I borrow this original meaning in order to look at the novel as representative of a genre called “environmental apocalypse”—that is, as itself a narrative “disclosure” of the ecological risks at the center of the novel’s theme. Therefore, DeLillo’s environmental apocalyticism in White Noise is essentially a critical stance that calls into question the myth of science, technology, and medicine as the guiding lights of late-capitalist modernity, implying rather technology’s potential threat to the entire earth. Finally, this study endeavors to show how DeLillo’s apocalyptic portrayal of our current (postmodern) society makes clear, in ways that are both serious and ironic, our current state of being at-risk due to an all-pervasive technology that penetrates everywhere in our lives like a haunting specter, a spectral (virtual) hyper-reality.
Appears in Collections:	[Graduate Institute & Department of English] Thesis

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