An Examination of Consumerism and the Role of Technology in Don DeLillo’s White Noise and Cosmopolis
Keywords:
Consumerism, technology, modernisation and modernity, postmodernity, white noise
Abstract
Human society has entered an era marked by myriad phenomena collectively labeled ‘modernisation’. Over the past 100 years, scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations have radically changed the human experience. Almost everything we touch or use in our homes, our garages, our offices is the by-product of an intense and complex industrial system: our consumption of goods is notably a function of our culture. We are surrounded by a manufactured world. Like most phenomena, the critical reality lies not in the general characteristics of modernisation, but in the particular and unique conditions of people’s lives, and the effects of modernisation in the places where we live: in our homes, our communities, our natural and cultural environments. Two texts which are concerned with an exploration of the complexities of modernisation, particularly technology and the resultant consumerist culture, are Don DeLillo’s White Noise and Cosmopolis. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship that exists between consumerism and technology in the two texts. This investigation used historical, philosophical and psychological theories. From a historical perspective, the study focused on contextual approaches, which looked at the historical development of technologies in relation to their social context. Employing postmodern theories, the characters’ motivations to buy and consume products in both texts were discussed. In essence, it was noted that consumerism physically and mentally affects consumers. On the physical level, people living in the consumerist society cannot avoid its tentacles because there are too many outside forces keeping them in the system. Technology has become as much a part of the texture of daily life as humans are themselves. In fact, the two seem inextricable. In both White Noise and Cosmopolis, the pervasive presence of technology proves both menacing and comforting—toxic threats abound, while concurrently the characters are bombarded with advertised information and promises of immortality through scientific advancements. Thus, consumers relentlessly buy products and feel that the products they buy determine their identity.References
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3. Baudrillard, Jean (1970) Selected Writings, edited and introduced by Mike Poster. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
4. Baudrillard, Jean (1995) Simulacra and Simulation, Translated by S. Fraser. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
5. Berman, M. (1982) All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. New York: Simon and Schuster.
6. Chilala, C. (2012) An Analysis of Gender Issues in Zambian Literature in English. Unpublished thesis, Lusaka: University of Zambia.
7. Chilala, C. (2019) Anglophone Zambian Prose Fiction: Tradition or Transition? Hybrid Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, Vol 1, Issue 1, pp13-29.
8. Chilala, C. (2018). Dorika’s Metamorphosis: The allusive potency of a comic character. In: I. Chukwumah, ed., Joke-Performance in Africa: Mode, Media and Meaning. London and New York: Routledge.
9. Bonka, Cornel (2012) “Rethinking Cosmopolis” in the LA Review of Books. Available at: http://themodernworld.com/reviews/cosmopolis/html [Accessed September 14, 2015].
10. Booker, M. Keith (1996) A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism. New York: Longman Publishers.
11. Burns, E. M. (2001) Western Civilizations. California: Amazon Books.
12. Cloer, L. and Cloer, D. (2014) Manufacturing a Consumer Society. California: Sage Publications.
13. Daw, Lawrence (2003) “Cosmopolis: A Book Review”. Available at: http://themodernworld.com/reviews/cosmopolis/html [Accessed December 13, 2015].
14. DeLillo, Don (1985) White Noise. New York: Viking Adult Press.
15. DeLillo, Don (2003) Cosmopolis. New York: Scribner.
16. Giddens, Anthony (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
17. Giddens, Anthony (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
18. Henneberg, Julian (2011) “Something Extraordinary Hovering Just Outside Our Touch”: The Technological Sublime in Don DeLillo’s White Noise. Berlin: AS Peers.
19. Hornby, A.S. (2010) Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (Eighth Edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
20. Picketty, T. (2020). Capital and Ideology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Published
2023-11-27
How to Cite
Malumani, K. (2023) “An Examination of Consumerism and the Role of Technology in Don DeLillo’s White Noise and Cosmopolis”, Journal of Law and Social Sciences, 5(3), pp. 50-69. doi: https://doi.org/10.53974/unza.jlss.5.3.1126.
Section
Articles