The World as a Sequence of Present Moments: The Spatialization of Social Time in Don DeLillo’s White Noise

Abstract

This paper highlights the issue of consumerism in Don DeLillo’s White Noise (1985), as well as its representation and its effects on the construction of postmodern identity. It also reveals how consumers resort to spatialized time as a way to overcome the fear of death. Since consumerism goes along with mass media, this paper discusses simulation and hyper-reality in relation to consumerism and the spatialized social time. In addition to this, it pays attention to simultaneity as another aspect of spatialized time. In incorporating the figure of Hitler in the narrative, DeLillo juxtaposes the past with the present and thus creates a spatialization of time. The figure of Hitler represents another aspect of consumerism. The protagonist of this novel, Jack Gladney, tends to consume Hitler’s image in order to acquire power as will be analyzed in the coming pages.