A Survey of the Symbolic Order and the Eruption of the Real Order in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man: A Žižekian Reading

Document Type : Research Paper

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Department of English Language, Faculty of Human Sciences, Ghiasedin Jamshid Kashani University, Qazvin, Iran.

10.22059/jor.2025.398525.2679

Abstract

The present article surveys the process of symbolization in the Symbolic Order and the eruption of the Real as explored through Don DeLillo’s post-9/1 novel Falling Man. This study is based on the descriptive-analytical method, examining DeLillo’s novel drawing on the philosophical ideas of the eminent contemporary philosopher Slavoj Žižek. From Žižek's perspective, the subject, like a machine, is governed by the laws of symbolization and consequently rendered invisible within the Symbolic. It is this eruption of the Real that participates the subject’s act of decision. Soon after that, we will witness the reemergence of the subject at the threshold between the Symbolic and the Real. Applying Žižek’s critical ideas to Falling Man, it seems that what happens on September 11th is a meaningless thing in itself, and the various narratives and interpretations that followed are attempts to incorporate it into the Symbolic Order. Finally, it can be concluded that in DeLillo’s Falling Man, the narrative of art (including DeLillo's novel itself as a work of art), provokes the eruption of the Real and, contrary to the logic of the Symbolic Order, makes the audience confront the Real by depicting men and women who jumped to their deaths from the burning towers of the World Trade Center.

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Research in Contemporary World Literature
Volume 31, Issue 1
April 2026
Pages 1-12

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