| Chapter : | Introduction |
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Upheld by the tenets of consumer ideology, the system Baudrillard envisions has grown to such mammoth proportions as to enslave the heretofore dominating class as well. Like such post-Marxist critics as Walter Benjamin and T. H. Adorno, Baudrillard describes a world in which advances in communications technology have robbed the cultural landscape of a human presence. As a result of such technological advances, Baudrillard argues, we live in a state of hyperreality, or one in which models always precede reality. Such is the state of the developed world in DeLillo's novels as well, and this, Duvall notes, is where the projects of DeLillo and Baudrillard intersect:
Where Baudrillard sees hyperreality as a state that can only stifle humanity, however, DeLillo recognizes the hyperreal landscape as a proving ground for humanity. As such, his novels explore the ways in which we might retain our humanity even in the dehumanizing face of hyperreality.
Building on such studies of DeLillo and Baudrillard as Duvall's, this volume examines the ways in which both figures critique the dehumanizing effects of consumer culture and, more specifically, the ways in which DeLillo's novels interrogate and refine Baudrillard's notion of ambivalence. To this end, my project is divided into three sections. The first section takes a broad view of DeLillo and Baudrillard and situates DeLillo's novels within Baudrillard's theoretical framework. This section begins with an examination of consumerism and the ways in which DeLillo's novels demonstrate that our fascination with commodities has caused us to regard ourselves as commodities as well. I then move into a discussion of