Frozen Subjectivity: Vulnerability and Aesthetics at the End of the World

Abstract Using an eclectic mix of sources including political theory, a novel by Don DeLillo, a translation of Heidegger, and a visit to cryopreservation facility, this article examines how the will to sovereignty is shadowed by its disavowed other, vulnerability. Wounding constitutes the etymological heart of vulnerability (vulnus signifies wound), and this apprehension of injury generates the impossible fantasy of a subjectivity impermeable to change. Starting with the cryonic preservation of human bodies and then considering the atmosphere of a warming planet and ultimately the idea of “conceptual freezing,” this fantasy of invulnerability has literal, environmental, and philosophical implications. The textual and cultural sites examined herein disclose that sovereignty not only never escapes but also requires the vulnerability it would disavow. This snag in the logic of sovereignty creates a potential for rethinking vulnerability by looking critically at the aesthetics of preservation and timelessness upon which sovereignty relies. It is an exercise that entails thinking about art and literature as endeavors capable of challenging illusions of self-sovereignty that are serviced and maintained by technologies of preservation for lasting beyond the end of the world.