White Noise: Consumerism or Death

Haidar EİD

Article Details

White Noise: Consumerism or Death

Authors:

Haidar EİD

Publisher:

American Studies Association of Turkey (ASAT)

Journal:

Journal of American Studies of Turkey 2001 Issue 13, pp.73-78

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

3/2001

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2000735136

Frequency:

Bi-Annual

pISSN:

1300-6606

Abstract:

 

In this article, I attempt to replace Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise  1985  in the  context of a late-capitalist  post modern world by discussing its existential understanding of  the concept of death. I will, therefore, treat the concept of death as a dominant motif and a  metaphor for the alienation of the  post modern subject in a simulacral world.  White Noise is the story of Jack Gladney, the chairperson of the Hitler Studies  Department, at a college in the America of the eighties, who has a constant fear of death. He,  his fourth wife, Babette, and their children from previous marriages live a typical American  life. Death controls everything he does, and he therefore tries to get rid of his fear of death by  occupying himself with very American habits, i.e. shopping, watching TV, reading tabloid  magazines, and by debating scientific issues and academic interpretations of culture with his  Baudrillardean postmodernist colleague, Murray Siskind.

Article Details

White Noise: Consumerism or Death

Authors: Haidar EİD

Publisher: American Studies Association of Turkey (ASAT)

Journal: Journal of American Studies of Turkey 2001 Issue 13, pp.73-78

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 3/2001

Document Language: English

Document ID (Org No.): 2000735136

Frequency: Bi-Annual

pISSN: 1300-6606

Issues

Authors:

Haidar EİD

Publisher:

American Studies Association of Turkey (ASAT)

Journal:

Journal of American Studies of Turkey 2001 Issue 13, pp.73-78

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

3/2001

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2000735136

Frequency:

Bi-Annual

pISSN:

1300-6606