White Noise...Don DeLillo

Do a researched blog on the meaning of “postmodernism.” Why is this a post modern novel? What components of the novel make it postmodern? Use quotes to support your answer.


Postmodernism is defined by Dictionary.com as “any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism…” Postmodernism depicts a historical period, beginning after World War II and continuing until today. It addresses certain concerns, affinities, and sensibilities. Based upon this definition, a lot of critics view the era of postmodernism in literature as a simple borrowing from older works. Despite this, White Noise written by Don DeLillo has served to the literary community as the standard example of a work that employs the postmodern attitude. The main traces of postmodernism within this novel lie in it being considered a sort of information overload, in which the protagonist Jack Gladney is surrounded by constant media stimuli and digital marketing imagery.

The majority of professors are currently using White Noise to introduce their students to the idea of postmodernism and the way it affects literature as well as other art forms. In an article written by Cornel Bonca entitled, “Don DeLillo’s White Noise: The natural language of the species” he mentions the effect that the novel and the discussion of postmodernism have on our students. His testimony reminded me of the class discussions that we have had concerning the novel. He said, “Yet the novel seems to draw out a certain buried awareness in my students that the most familiar aspects of their lives shopping malls, television, families, and the languages of these things-harbor deep and resonant mysteries. It affects them, I think, as a sustained defamiliarization of their own lives.” (Bonca)

A perfect example of how postmodernism is displayed in the novel is when Jack and Babette are looking at old photos and they are discussing their feelings about it. This is evident on page 30 of the novel where it describes that the two were looking at “children wincing in the sun, women in sun hats, men shading their eyes from the glare as if the past possessed some quality of light we no longer experience.” In a brief text by Leslie Whisenaut she sums it all up by stating, “DeLillo’s postmodernism here is best viewed in terms of another statement uttered by Jack, ‘When tradition becomes too flexible, irony enters the voicee.’ (p. 86), but the irony understandable in light of their promises of personal integration in the face of fragmentation, of inspirational meaning in the midst of misprison, of cosmic order in the moment of chaos.” (Whisenaut)



Bonca, C. “Don DeLillo’s White Noise: The natural language of the species”. (1996). College literature.

       June. Page 1. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3709/is_199606/ai_n8753398/

Whisenaut, L. “Postmodernism in: White Noise”. Angelfire.

       http://www.angelfire.com/rebellion2/whitenoise/pomo.html