Li-ching Ma
ABSTRACT
With his seminal concept of “liquid modernity,” Zygmunt Bauman explores how pervasive uncertainties seep into democratic capitalism, permeating everyday life. This leads to a form of modernity characterized by liquidity, where individualization and privatization prevail. Liquid life denotes an insecure and challenging existence, with individuals fearing their inability to keep up with unpredictable and rapid changes. These liquid fears proliferate, spreading through the cracks in human interactions. As Bauman posits, order regulates, while fears arise from confrontations with disorder. The overwhelming pressures and fears of irregularity inevitably lead to violence. This paper, guided by the framework of liquid modernity, Guy Debord’s discourse of the “spectacle,” and Jean Baudrillard’s concepts of consumer society within the realms of simulation and simulacra, aims to examine how the spectacle of fears engenders death anxiety and apocalyptic panic in Don DeLillo’s novels White Noise and Falling Man. Through various events in the two novels, DeLillo portrays an era fraught with terror. Nevertheless, he also introduces the notion of a counter-narrative, suggesting a perspective on the potential for humans to transcend the illusions and disillusions of democratic capitalism. Debord’s theories of the “constructed situation” and “détournement” provide theoretical support to elaborate on how DeLillo’s counter-narrative reveals a dynamic force of self-awareness. In doing so, the potential for a singular consciousness—free from separation and alienation—can be simultaneously ignited.
KEYWORDS: simulacra, simulation, spectacle, (liquid) fear, liquid modernity, liquid life, counter-narrative, constructed situation, détournement
摘 要
齊格蒙特．鮑曼（Zygmunt Bauman）以「流動的現代性」（liquid modernity）探索（後）現代中自由資本主義下所流動、滲漏、溢出或傾瀉的不確定如何滲透主／客體，成為個體化、私人化的液化現代性。液態生活意味危險不安定的生活，人因無能跟上出其不意快速變遷的事件而倍覺恐慌。液態恐懼（liquid fear）蔓延四處，在人們交錯間隙中不斷滋生。本文以尚．布西亞（Jean Baudrillard）的擬像／仿真消費社會概念，佐以鮑曼的現代性液態恐懼與紀．德博（Guy Debord）的奇觀論述為架構，檢視唐．德里羅（Don DeLillo）小說《白噪音》（White Noise）與《墜落者》（Falling Man），以期齊觀（後）現代中因對死亡、末世的未知不安所構築的恐懼奇觀。筆者認為德里羅的反敘事（counter-narrative）之特異觀點跳脫「普遍化」（generalization）的認知機制，其以文學為第三方法，在帝國資本主義、恐怖主義及視媒網絡超現實影像共構的「世界敘事」中，轉折出反敘事的流動語言。本文並引用德博的積極性概念「構境（constructed situation）」與「異軌（détournement）」來貼合兩部小說如何在創傷後的日常，藉由自我構境，以質疑，思考，驗證的異軌行動作為顛覆以翻轉出嶄新表達意義，激化殊異歧觀的力量。藉此希冀德里羅作品的出離大敘事，擦邊小敘事，直截衝破幻象的反敘事，創生敘事的有機能量。
關鍵詞：擬像、仿真、奇觀、（液態）恐懼、液態現代性、液態生活、反敘事
DOI: 10.30395/WSR.202412_18(1).0007
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