The Urbanization of Death: The Urban Environment in the Novels of J. G. Ballard

The article analyzes the representation of the urban environment in the work of J. G. Ballard through the speculative philosophy of Thomas Moynihan and his concepts of catastrophe, recapitulation, and the death drive. Its central thesis is that, in Ballard, the city is not merely a social or architectural space, but an exteriorized inner space in which the traumatic fantasies and self-destructive impulses of modern humanity unfold. Through readings of novels such as “The Drowned World,” “The Atrocity Exhibition,” and “High-Rise,” the article shows how the urban environment functions as an incubator of catastrophes, pathologies, and regressions, thus becoming a condition for the possibility of human extinction.