202 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
everything—microwaves, electrical insulation etc.” Students interested in
this topic might start with analysis of the drug Dylar, its side effects and its
effect on the relationship between Babette and Jack. How does DeLillo sup-
port Heidegger’s position in White Noise? Useful criticism includes the article
by Moses in New Essays on White Noise; several pieces in The Cambridge
Companion to Don DeLillo, and Lentricchia’s Introducing Don DeLillo (1991)
discuss the treatment of technology in DeLillo’s work.
5. Alternatively, students might start with the role of Dylar to consider the novel’s
exploration of the fear of death. After returning to America after some time
living abroad, DeLillo noted something distinctive in contemporary American
culture: “a sense of death had begun to permeate not only television but the
media in general. Death seems to be all around us—in the newspapers, in maga-
zines, on television, on the radio.... I can’t imagine a culture more steeped in
the idea of death.” How does Jack’s fear of death relate to his choice of Hitler
as the focus of his academic work? Consider the scene on pages 168–169 of the
Vintage paperback, when Jack hears of the death of a colleague. Does DeLillo
convincingly demonstrate that technology has increased our fear of death, rather
than softening it, in White Noise? Students might examine such scenes as that
when the family sees Babette leading an exercise class on a silent television, or
Steffie’s tears over the fight between a sitcom husband and wife. What does
media saturation mean for real emotion? Jack’s town experiences brilliantly
beautiful sunsets after the airborne toxic event—is there anything not mediated
by the media or by technology in the world of this novel? The article by Karen
Weekes will be useful for this topic.
6. Jack Gladney is at the center of a family made up of several branches due to
his four marriages to five different wives (and Babette, his current wife, has
also been married multiple times). Students will find it fruitful to explore
what DeLillo has to say about the nature of family in the latter half of the
twentieth century. The family scenes, especially early in the novel, are often
comic. The family is also depicted as the site of the proliferation of much
misinformation. In the interview with William Goldstein in Conversations
with Don DeLillo (2005), edited by Thomas DePietro, DeLillo says, “I don’t
know exactly how to summarize my work but I would say it’s about danger,
modern danger.” What endangers family in White Noise? In this context
students might also consider such questions as Jack’s sense of masculinity.
See various essays in Engles and Duvall, the essay on masculinity in The
Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo, and Tom LeClair.
RESOURCES
Primary Works
Adam Begley, “Don DeLillo: The Art of Fiction,” Paris Review, 35 (Fall 1993):
274–306.
Discusses his early influences, working habits, methods of composition, dialogue,
characterization, and audience, as well as the idea of “plots,” the impact of the