Abstract:

Often associated with literary retrospectives on the Cold War, DeLillo’s 1997 novel Underworld is rarely viewed as an expression of the period that some humanists and scientists identify as the Anthropocene epoch—the proposed period of planetary time in which humanity’s existence can be “read” in the earth’s layers.  Underworld’s narrative integrates its complex temporal structure with an experimental spatial perspective that shifts from horizontal to vertical, effectively destabilizing humanity’s position within history.  DeLillo adopts this perspectival approach from the aesthetics of land art, specifically the work of Robert Smithson, as embodied in the novel’s own visual artist, Klara Sax.