POST-GENDER AND THE BIOLOGICAL BODY IN DON DELILLO’S ZERO K

Abstract

Due to the biological determination of sex, the biological body—especially the inner body parts—has often been ignored in the arguments regarding feminism, which becomes an important theme to be revisited in Don DeLillo’s post-human novel Zero K. The novel concerns a billionaire, Ross Lockhart, who is motivated by the terminal illness of his wife, Artis Martineau, to seek immortality for both of them through cryopreservation. Ross’s son, Jeffrey Lockhart, narrates the story while he visits the cryogenic facility called “the Convergence.”

Drawing on the fact that architectural spaces have been used as metaphors for thinking about the body and its interior, the architectural spaces inside the Convergence can thus be viewed as the inner parts of a female biological body—the stone room as the brain; the hospice as the esophagus; the post-apocalyptic garden as the heart; the room linked to the veer (a horizontal elevator) as the stomach; the catacomb as the rectum; the cryopreservation site as the womb—in order to encourage the reader to pay more attention not only to the surface but also to the inside of a human body.

In this presentation, first, the problematic mind/body concept is discussed in the stone room. Next, referring to the hospice, the presenter analyzes the discourse of body discipline. Then, the dualistic brain/heart concept is reviewed referring to the English Garden. After that, referring to the mannequins’ catacomb, the focus is on the post-human monstrosity and the mechanization of the human body. Passing through the room linked to the “veer,” the objectification of the living body by the ‘whiteness’ of medical science is re-emphasized. Finally, referring to the cryopreservation site, the presenter explores arguments regarding post-human’s fondness for pansexuality and its consequences for human society.

At last, the novel ends with a scene on a bus back in a city in America, where a description of a disabled boy’s pre-linguistic condition is shown. It is suggested that the narrator’s refusal to see the boy as disabled and insist that he is not feeling bad is to call attention to how the body feels instead of how the body works. When describing a human living body, rather than depending on the biological narrative that is based on science, the presenter argues that it is necessary to construct another form of biological narrative (that is independent of the scientific one) in order to balance the harmonious relation between the mechanical cyborg selves and the human living bodies.

This paper was presented at the 56th Annual Conference of America Literature Society of Japan at Kagoshima University on October 14, 2017. Click here to view the full program