Culture Industry And Alienation: A Study Of White Noise From The Perspective Of Western Marxism

Don DeLillo is one of the postmodern novelists in America, whose works depict a diversity of aspects of contemporary American life and profoundly explore the relevant social issues. The themes his fictions cover mainly include mass media, technology, Cold War, global terrorism etc. White Noise, published in 1985, is regarded as his breakthrough in his writing career and won the National Book Award of America next year. There is neither a traditional central plot nor character development. The fiction revolves around the family life of Jack Gladney, which represents the middle-class families living in the U.S. The various products of culture industry pervade almost every corner of life of the characters in it and exert profound influences upon them.Based on the critical theory of culture industry of Frankfurt school as well as the theory of alienation, this thesis will try to interpret White Noise and reveal the alienation effects of the culture industrial products on the characters. It consists of five chapters. The introduction chapter presents a brief overview of the author and the fiction with corresponding literature reviews regarding them. Then the main contents of the critical theory of culture industry of Frankfurt school and alienation theory are briefly clarified. Chapter one centers on the ubiquitous presence of culture industrial products in people's life, which is a significant feature of postmodern society. Individuals are so accustomed to the presence of media that the absence of media leads to their confusion. Chapter two focuses on the alienation effects of the culture industrial products on the relationships, such as the relationships between husband and wife, children and parents, friends. The third chapter deals with the spiritual alienation effects of the culture industrial products on the characters and their unusual behaviors are followed, such as addictions to media, turned faith in media and so on. Thus, the culture industrial products have exerted negative impacts upon the social and natural properties of human beings. The conclusion chapter making use of contrasting approach summarizes the influences of culture industrial products on people's daily life, the alienation effects in particular.Due to the fact that there are few cases in China to analyze Don DeLillo's White Noise, using critical theory of culture industry of Frankfurt school as well as the theory of alienation, some deficiencies must exist in this paper, but I do hope it will be helpful for the later study of White Noise or other works of Don DeLillo.