Consumerism Discourse in Don Delillo's Romance "White noise"

Abstract

The article examines the features of the artistic discourse of the American postmodernist writer Don DeLillo and examines the representation of the consumer society in his novel "White Noise". It is highlighted that along with the problem of the relationship between a person and a thing in the conditions of a consumer society, the novel poses a new problem – the existence of a person in conditions of mass media, surrounded and under the pressure of information received from the screen and monitor. The description of the world of shops, supermarkets, shopping centers is combined with the representation of the mass media and advertising impact on the personality, which in general forms the artistic space of the novel. The author makes an attempt to reveal the author's skeptic and satirical understanding of consumerism and its influence on the spiritual and intellectual life of modern society. The process of interaction of visual images, linguistic means and surreal presentation of information, dominating in the work, is analyzed. It is noted that various stylistic devices such as hyperbole, metaphor, paraphrase and irony, as well as restraint and slowness of the narrative, at times dull style reinforce the motive that reveals the mechanism of materialism and the influence of the media on the consciousness of the heroes of the novel. It is concluded that the novel corresponds to the aesthetics of postmodernism, since it traditionally raises the problems of the consumer society, the impact of the media world on a person, the distortion of the rational world, and a forecast of an anthropological crisis and catastrophe caused by these factors is given. Keywords: Don DeLillo; "White noise"; consumer society; stylistic devices; postmodernism.