“Science Fiction and Prehistory”: Don DeLillo’s Underworld and the Novel of the Anthropocene

Abstract:Often associated with literary retrospectives on the Cold War, Don DeLillo’s novel Underworld is rarely viewed as an expression of the Anthropocene: the proposed geological period in which human activity has a significant impact on earth systems. Underworld integrates its complex narrative structure with an experimental spatial perspective that shifts from horizontal to vertical, thereby effectively destabilizing humanity’s position within history and revealing its entanglement with the planet. DeLillo adopts this perspectival approach from land art, specifically the work of Robert Smithson. The novel’s own visual artist, Klara Sax, embodies this aesthetics.