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Chapter 17 - The Human Endeavour

Bioethics and Biocapitalism in Don DeLillo’s Zero K

from Part III - Applications: Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2024

Anna M. Elsner
Affiliation:
Universität St Gallen, Switzerland
Monika Pietrzak-Franger
Affiliation:
Universität Wien, Austria
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Summary

This chapter uses Don Delillo’s novel Zero K to consider the historical and structural relationship between bioethics and biocapitalism, particularly in the development of consent forms and contract labour. In this way, the essay examines the role human capital theory and transhumanism have played in influencing definitions of human nature and the bioethical frameworks predicated on these definitions. Using the techniques of literary narrative bioethics and feminist relational bioethics, the essay carefully interprets Zero K’s treatment of cryonics as a bioethical dilemma too often contained and constrained by historical and ideological conceptions of consent, which the novel seeks to critique. Ultimately, the chapter offers a form of posthuman literary narrative bioethics as an alternative methodology.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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