Don DeLillo, White Noise

Martyn Colebrook (University of Hull)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1985

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

White Noise was published in 1984 and won the American Book Award in the same year. Its early working title, The American Book of the Dead, highlights the centrality of death in the narrative and the prominence of spiritual or sacred processes that must be undertaken to ensure safe passage into the afterlife. Don DeLillo’s principal exploration is that of mortality and loneliness, as well as the foreboding threat of death that seems to pervade the lives of the two protagonists, Jack and Babette Gladney. However, the published title, White Noise, indicates that the novel will combine this thematic interrogation with a commentary on the consumerism and “dull and unlocatable roar” that exists on the edge o…

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3208 words

Citation: Colebrook, Martyn. "White Noise". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 May 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12024, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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