The empty self in Revolutionary Road or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the blonde

Abstract

This article focuses on the themes of self and selfhood raised in the 2008 film Revolutionary Road and the 1961 novel of the same name. These texts, I suggest, demonstrate how American culture has been performing a double movement since World War II, simultaneously appealing to an essential, stable notion of the self while ingraining a sense of emptiness and incompleteness in individuals. Using Judith Butler's concept of performativity as its main theoretical framework, the article approaches Revolutionary Road from three angles. First, it explores the transformation of the American aesthetic by focusing on the setting in which the plot takes place the suburbs of New York in the 1950s. Second, the article investigates the sweeping changes that occurred in the workplace during this period, focusing mainly on the autonomous Marxists' concept of virtuosic and immaterial labour. Finally, the article considers Lacan's theory of desire as it relates to the domestic sphere. The article concludes by arguing that these texts represent a subtle revolution in American thought that encourages readers and audiences to embrace the performative nature of the self rather than attempting to satisfy what Cushman calls the empty self, which can never be satisfied.