Creating Contended Zombies: Walker Percy’s Novel Thanatos Syndrome Under Dystopian Lens

Abstract

The aesthetics of postmodern apocalyptic fiction lies in its ability to trace the traumatic historical memories of mankind. It also addresses the fears and desires of the disintegrated human mind. Postmodern human is bereft of spiritual and social sensibility and is left with the faculty of reason. The cataclysmic failure of man’s attempt to reconfigure the wounded humanity/humanism with the help of science is the central subject of Walker Percy’s novel Thanatos Syndrome. This paper/article attempts a close reading of the apocalyptic tropes and sensibilities that are inherent in the plots of postmodern fiction. Further, it suggests the panacea for the problems caused by absorption of technology and rational abstractions. The dystopian or anti-utopian plot unravels the episodes of mysteries that have affected the psyche of commoners in the ‘happy land’ in America. Percy uses psychiatry as an instrument to disclose the enigma caused by science and technology in human life. The implications of the novel’s plot are discussed in this paper and an attempt is made to throw light on the contrasting bifurcated dimensions of science and its challenges.