Kennedy assassination, the Warren Report, paranoia, and most of his novels
published to 1993.
Thomas DePietro, ed., Conversations with Don DeLillo ( Jackson: University
Press of Mississippi, 2005).
Invaluable collection of interviews ranging from 1982 to 2001 that belie
DeLillo’s reputation as interview-shy. He does tend to avoid personal ques-
tions, but is generous in his discussions of his work, his work habits, his views
on contemporary culture, and passions such as baseball, movies, and jazz.
“Don DeLillo on Writing,” Don DeLillo’s America—A Don DeLillo Site http://
perival.com/delillo/ddwriting.html [accessed 23 November 2009].
A collection of brief statements by the author from various sources.
Criticism
Cornel Bonca, “Don DeLillo’s White Noise: The Natural Language of the Spe-
cies,” College Literature, 23 ( June 1996): 25–44.
Helpful essay arguing that DeLillo demonstrates the redemptive powers of
language in White Noise.
John N. Duvall, “The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television As Unmedi-
ated Mediation in DeLillo’s White Noise,” Arizona Quarterly, 50 (Autumn
1994): 127–153.
Analysis of the role of television and the idea of the simulacrum, with some
helpful explanation of Murray Siskind.
Duvall, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2008).
Includes one essay devoted to White Noise. Several others include discussions of
White Noise within considerations of DeLillo and Modernism, Postmodernism,
media culture, apocalyptic satire, masculinity, and the power of language.
Haidar Eid, “Beyond Baudrillard’s Simulacral Postmodern World: White
Noise,” Undercurrents, 7 (Spring 1999).
Discusses DeLillo’s adaptation and transformation of Jean Baudrillard’s idea of
the simulacrum, the image of the image.
Tim Engles and John N. Duvall, eds., Approaches to Teaching DeLillo’s White
Noise (New York: Modern Language Association, 2006).
Includes the section “Materials,” which suggests helpful readings and resources
for students and teachers. “Approaches” offers eighteen essays on technologi-
cal, cultural, and theoretical contexts, as well as comparisons to other works by
DeLillo and suggestions for classroom strategies.
Douglas Keesey, Don DeLillo (New York: Twayne, 1993).
Biographical overview and a chapter on each of the novels published through
- The readings tend to focus on issues of media culture and language.