“When does utilitarian become totalitarian”?—“Mannequined lives” in Zero K and The Flame Alphabet
Abstract
Ben Marcus’ The Flame Alphabet (2012) and Don DeLillo’s Zero K (2016) fictionally explore the ways in which political regimes supported by body-oriented, life-controlling programs shape dimensions of personal and political freedom, further questioning whether the preservation of biological life amounts to a normative yardstick for mankind’s well-being. Both novels are concerned with how human beings experience their embodied existence in space and time under the te
Fields of Study & Subjects
Utopian
Dystopian
and Speculative Fiction
Contemporary Literature and Criticism
Modern American Literature Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Presses universitaires de Rennes eBooks
- Pages
- 91–106
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026
- Language
- FR
- Document type
- Book chapter