Don DeLillo's novel White Noise is a text firmly situated in the modern world. Through the novel, part postmodernist satire and part post-structuralist understanding of the world, DeLillo presents an incredibly cynical view of the modern world through its narrator and protagonist Jack Gladney, the head of Hitler studies at a Midwestern American university. The novel overlays a narrative on Gladney's entirely unspectacular life that explores the role of technology, computing, and simulation in the postmodern world, presenting contemporary America entangled in a system of cyclical programs and paradoxes. The result is a novel that probes deeply into the contemporary meaning of reality, showing how in our postmodern world there is nothing concrete, nothing solid or reliable. White Noise presents a world in which, due to the intervention of technology, reality is a fiction in its own right. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To have a good understanding of white noise it is essential to understand the basics of postmodernism and post-structuralism. Within both postmodernism and post-structuralism there is a general nihilism, and although postmodernism is a much broader field than post-structuralism there are many other similarities between the two. Post-structuralism, a reaction within literary criticism against the unifying semiotics of structuralism, attests that there is no such thing as a coherent self, that the author's intent is secondary to the reader's interpretation, that good understanding of a text is one that incorporates as many interpretations as possible (even if these are conflicting) and that there is no solidity in the signifier-signified relationship of language assumed by Structuralism. What this sums up is a movement founded on inconsistency, inconsistency and malleability, in a world where nothing can be truly known, understood or experienced. Similarly, postmodernism attests to an unknowable and incoherent self, while postmodern literature often incorporates black humor, paranoia, metafictional elements, intertextuality, and hyperreality, which can be seen through white noise. If we replace “text” with “experience” in reference to Post-structuralism, we are easily able to apply post-structuralist analysis to the events of the novel, while at the same time allowing us to continue a post-structuralist reading of the processes of the novel itself. Furthermore, aspects of the novel that are revealed through post-structuralist analysis reinforce White Noise as entirely within the postmodern tradition. For example, the novel is infused with dark humor that serves to reveal the threatening and debauched ideals and discourses that lie behind contemporary American culture. Gladney's job title, "Chairman of the Hitler Studies Department," is irrefutable dark humor and hints at the macabre undercurrent in America that DeLillo brings to the reader's attention throughout the novel.[1] The constant recycling of information within academia and mass culture, as well as the self-awareness that comes from a life and career within academia exemplified by Jack's position, argues both postmodern black humor, be the post-structuralist claim that it is the reader, not the author, who matters: it is Jack's reading of Hitler's actions that matters and not the actions themselves. Postmodernism and post-structuralism figure in White Noise, weaving intricate thematic points over and over again, reinforcinga cyclical and highly cynical vision of modern America. Many of the postmodern/post-structuralist elements of White Noise stem from DeLillo's inclusion of technology within White Noise. narrative. Technology in the modern world comes, for DeLillo and his protagonist, to embody the cyclical, repetitive and inauthentic nature of the contemporary psyche, full of dissonances and codified meanings. One of the earliest examples of this is found in the first section of the novel “Waves and Radiation.” [DeLillo, pp. 1] Even the title of this section, and the title of the novel White Noise itself, suggest the thematic technological dissonance that is widespread throughout the novel. Waves (in the suggested technological sense), radiation, and white noise are products of the modern world, yet they are intangible things, invisible and inaudible to the individual's senses and experienced only through the processes of technology. These three things are constantly encountered in our daily lives: the radio waves in our cars, the white noise through static electricity on our televisions, the radiation that cooks our food in microwave ovens. However, despite their inclusion in our reality, how can we be sure that they are actually real? If we only experience them secondhand through some sort of technological translation, how can we be sure they are real and not an imagined byproduct of technology? Can we experience radiation outside of a needle pointing at a number on a Geiger counter? Is there white noise we can hear without tuning into the static between TV channels? With the title of his book and the titles of the sections of the text, DeLillo already presents a postmodern paranoia concerning the reality of reality, an inauthenticity in what we call reality, and a world in which technology has altered our perception and the way we we question the existence of what surrounds us. This sense that technology has finally altered our perception of the world is at the center of one of the comic scenes in “Waves and Radiation.” Jack and his precocious 14-year-old son Heinrich argue about whether or not it's raining: “It's going to rain tonight.” “It's raining now,” I said. “The radio said tonight”.[…] “Look at the "Is it rain or not?" “I'm just telling you what they said.” [DeLillo, pp. 22]Heinrich often comes to exemplify tendencies to alter perceptions of technology, often to a comical level of absurdity, as shown in this example. We can assume, thanks to Jack's reliable narration within the novel, that it is actually physically raining and that there is evidence of that rain on the windshield of his car. However, this is because we trust Jack's narration that he himself trusts his own senses. Jack still exists firmly in the world of sense-based experience. Heinrich, in contrast, does not trust his senses, but rather places his trust in the information that technology transmits to him as the concrete truth about his reality: "Our senses are much more often wrong than they are right. This has been proven in the laboratory. Don't you know all those theorems that say that nothing is what it seems? There is no past, present or future outside of our mind.” [DeLillo, pp. 23] There is a disconnect between reality and information created by technology in a paradoxical way. Technology and science, the “laboratory” and the “theorems” cited by Heinrich, have “proved” that “our senses are wrong. much more often than they are right” and therefore, because of this conclusion, Heinrich places his trust in information and technology over the reality experienced through his senses. Technology has altered Heinrich's reality in a way that only technology be reliable. Reality, for Heinrich, is too muchchangeable, too inconsistent to trust, and therefore places his trust in the immobile and fixed nature of technology. As Tom LeClair writes in his book In the Loop, Heinrich's “response is to information – quantified measures of exposure, possible long-term consequences – rather than to entities.” [2] For Heinrich, sensual experience comes second to informational reality. This alteration of perception, the secondary nature of sense-based experience, is again exemplified in “Waves and Radiation” through “THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA.” [DeLillo, pp. 12] Jack is brought here by his insightful and highly philosophical colleague Murray, and as soon as they arrive Jack observes that “All the people had cameras; some had tripods, telephoto lenses, filter kits. A man at a booth was selling postcards and slides: images of the barn taken from a high point. [DeLillo, pp. 12] Murray observes that “Once you see the signs on the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn… We are not her to capture an image, we are here to keep one. Each photograph strengthens the aura.” [DeLillo, pp. 12] This highly absurd situation, while not as extreme as Heinrich's rain denial, once again sums up how technology has altered our perception of reality. As Murray notes, once you see the "MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA" sign, what you see is no ordinary barn, but rather an object that exists through a label. It is impossible to see the barn for what it really is, a regular run-of-the-mill barn, because after reading that sign it has been objectified, labeled, and turned into a consumer product in your mind and perception. The barn has been subsumed into the consumption-oriented discourse of postmodern America. But what gave rise to this discussion? As Murray asks, “What did the barn look like before it was photographed?” [DeLillo, pp. 13] The answer can be drawn from a post-structuralist analysis of the stable. What makes the barn famous? The answer is that it holds the title of “THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA” and so the fact that it has been photographed so many times is why it is so famous. Why has it been photographed so many times? It has been photographed so many times because it holds the title of “THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA.” There is no origin to this title, no reason behind the barn's fame or success as a tourist attraction. What exists is a post-structuralist cycle of paradoxical repetition and performative creation. Every photograph taken originates from the title and fame of the barn, and therefore reinforces this title and fame. As far as we know, the barn was never photographed before it became "THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA", and now the discourse surrounding the barn is unavoidable, there is no way to see the barn as a normal barn, or for the barn to return to a normal stable. The barn itself doesn't even exist, only the title projected onto it reinforced by the performative technological act of photography exists. As Frank Lentricchia writes, “'THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA' is the ostensible subject of the scene; the true subject is the electronic medium of the image as the active context of contemporary existence in America.” [3] Just as for Heinrich rain does not exist, just as the forecast transmitted via radio exists, the barn does not exist in reality, only the image through photography exists. Technology alters our perception to such an extent that what is right in front of us, whether rain or a barn, ceases to exist outside of a postmodern loop of technological relays. All these ideas, the technological alteration of perception, the Post-originless structuralist cycles, the postmodern nonsense.". 88