Don DeLillo’s Underworld In The Context Of Social Theory Of Spectacle

As a famous contemporary American novelist,Don De Lillo constantly examines modern American commodity society.In one of his masterpieces,Underworld,he sketches a panoramic view of American society in the mid-to-late20 th century.Underworld is set against the backdrop of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union,interspersed with De Lillo’s reflections and criticisms of American society,history,politics and other aspects during the period of capitalist globalization.The author’s delicate brushstrokes delve into the multitudes of American society,showing the false daily life of modern people under the spectacle society and the various spiritual crises they face.With the help of French Situationist representative Guy Debord’s theory of spectacle society,this paper intends to study the commodity spectacle,the media spectacle and the integrated spectacle presented in the novel,and examine the existential crisis of contemporary people in the spectacle society from three dimensions: the false daily life in the commodity spectacle,the visual tyranny in the media spectacle and the conspiracy and paranoia in the integrated spectacle.Firstly,this paper explores that while the United States is entering into a spectacle consumer society,the daily life of the general public is also alienated by the spectacle into a broken and false living situation,but the daily life is not negative,and its dialectical connotation can empower people to take off the veil of the spectacle and present the real daily life.Secondly,under the double squeeze of media and consumer spectacle,the world becomes a huge image spectacle,and people become absent subjects in the media spectacle,but the media spectacle is a discourse field where resistance and suppression coexist,and there are still sub-cultural forces resisting the visual hegemony of the media spectacle.Finally,in this model of integrated spectacle,the technological violence in the context of the Cold War brings people apocalyptic panic and anxiety,the opaqueness of state power makes daily life be taken advantage of by various conspiracy theories,the technological violence in the Cold War brings people lasting psychological trauma,and the Cold War thinking that continues into the post-Cold War period becomes the main source of paranoid emotions.Through an in-depth study of the various symptoms of spectacle society and the corresponding active resistance behaviors presented in Underworld,it can be found that while spectacle society tries to obscure the true life,it also reveals its limitations,i.e.it ignores that people themselves have the ability to redeem themselves,and in the difficult situation of survival they will actively choose a more meaningful life situation to become a truly vibrant and valuable individual.