Abstract: This article offers an interpretation of Don DeLillo’s play , with a particular focus on the substitution of bodies and the body’s role as a stage presence and a displaced object, highlighting how the body’s physical presence is secondary to its media representation. In Valparaiso , the protagonist, Michael Majeski, repetitiously gives interviews to the media telling the story of having ended up in Valparaiso, Chile, instead of Valparaiso, Indiana, while on a business trip. The body is reflective of the play’s central themes, such as mistaken identity, celebrity culture, the role of the media, and the dissolution of the self in the postmodern world.
Tomáš Kačer (Tue,) studied this question.