Apocalyptic Discourse: A Thematic Enquiry Of White Noise

As a leading figure possessing unique charm among the contemporary writers in the United States,Don DeLillo,with his unique perspective and sharp strokes depicted the status of human life in the post-industrial era.Meanwhile,he demonstrated the implications of how people find themselves in the contemporary complicated American society.So far,DeLillo has published more than ten novels,in which White Noise is his masterpiece.This fiction,published in 1985,is qualified as an “Ecological Disaster Novel”,and is recognized by the academic community as one of the most classic post-modernist novels in America.In 1980 s,the nuclear threat,the environmental collapse,genetic mutation and the identity loss,etc.all these crises appeared at the right time just before a millennium,arousing an apocalyptic fear-the end of the world among the public.Consequently,more and more writers showed an increasing concern with those pervasive problems,and apocalyptic literature began to take shape.Don DeLillo expressed the apocalyptic ideas in his works with no exception.Thus,with the application of the idea of apocalypticism,the paper purports to make a thematic study of White Noise by focusing upon the natural apocalypse,secular apocalypse and spiritual apocalypse in the novel.In doing so,it intends to conclude that the sense of crisis and the feeling that the situation is out of control lead to notions of imminent destruction.And Don DeLillo's White Noise is a major warning to the postmodern crises.We should get enlightenment and reflection from it.Only when we use the fullest range of our powers to observe and pay more attention to our connection to the earth and to each other and to ourselves,can we assume responsibilities for the apocalyptic world.This thesis consists of three parts.The introduction part gives an introduction to Don DeLillo and his work White Noise;a literature review of White Noise and the theoretical basis and the structure of this thesis.The main body includes three chapters.In chapter one,based on White Noise,this paper explores natural apocalypse from “Waves and Radiation”,“The Airborne Toxic Event” and “Dylarama”.The second chapter explores some secular crises: the Whites' prejudice and racism to nonwhites and the others,conflicts among the Gladneys and Babette's sexual transaction to Mr.Gray,arguing that the society is becoming chaotic and social apocalypse is imminent.Spiritual apocalypse is dug out by analyzing character's fear of death,loss of belief and their identity crises in chapter three.The final part concludes that the sense of crisis and the feeling that the situation is out of control lead to notions of imminent destruction.And Don DeLillo's White Noise is a major warning to all these postmodern crises.We should get enlightenment and reflection from it.