Analyzing Ecological Abjection in Don DeLillo’s Underworld
Abstract
The present study explores the process of identity formation by underscoring ecocritical thematics in Don DeLillo’s novel Underworld. Environment plays a vital role in the formation of modern self. The study contends that modern man finds the structure of his self on the ruthless exploitation of nature. Nature acts as the primal other. The subjugation of this primal other furnishes the modern man with rotten core upon which he develops his notion of selfhood. The novel calls for symbiotic rather than parasitic relationship between the man and nature. The malfunctioned relationship with nature puts the psyche of modern man in jeopardy. It appears that the space is the register of the self. Ultimately the research concludes that the ruthless exploitation of nature results in psychological phenomena of abjection as theorized by Julia Kristeva. In order to reach this conclusion, the study applies an alloy of theories honed from Ecocriticism by Greg Garrard and Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva.
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