Exploring Race and Identity in Don DeLillo’s “White Noise” and “Mao II”: Semiotic and Spatial Semantic Intersections
Keywords:
Race, Identity, Cold War, Spatiality, Globalization
Abstract
This article explores Don DeLillo’s representation of the dynamics of race and identity in the American society in his two celebrated novels, White Noise (1985) and Mao II (1991) with a particular emphasis on the semiotic devices and the opposition between urban and suburban spaces. The novels, while not overtly centered on race, offer subtle insights on the reality of race and identity in the American society in different contexts. In White Noise, DeLillo interweaves with a great deal of delicacies his critique of the consumer society and media saturation with his criticism of the racial cultural insularity and the latent racial prejudices that pervade much of the American suburbs. In a quite different way, Mao II sets the issues against a multiracial and multicultural urban setting, with special emphasis on the representation of Arabo-Muslim world.
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Thornbury , C. (2011). Peirce’s General Theory of Signs” . Finding Meaning, Cultures Across Borders: International Dialogue Between Philosophy and Psychology, 49-57. https://doi.org/http://hdl.handle.net/2433/143046
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Yousofi , M., Sistani Reesi , R., & Farivar , M. (2022). Deconstructing Updike’s Neo-colonialist Narrative. Human Arena. https://doi.org/https://10.1007/s42087-022-00317-3
Begley, A. (1997). Don DeLillo: Americana, Mao II, and Underworld. Southwest Review, 82(04), 478-505. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43471858/
Kaur , G. (2014). Diversity and Multiplicity of themes in Don DeLillo’s Fiction: Expressing Contemporariness. SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH, 01(05), 75-82. https://doi.org/https://ijellh.com/index.php/OJS/article/view/3054/
Spencer , R. (2002). Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the World’s Fastest Growing Faith. San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books.
Awan, M. S. (2010). Global Terror and the Rise of Xenophobia/Islamophobia: An Analysis of American Cultural Production since September 11. Islamic Studies, 49(04), 521-537. https://doi.org/http://www.jstor.org/stable/41581122
Däwes, B. (2010). Close Neighbors to the Unimaginable": Literary Projections of Terrorists’ Perspectives (Martin Amis, John Updike, Don DeLillo). Amerikastudien American Studies, 55(03), 495-517. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41158513/
Buell, F. (1998). Nationalist Postnationalism: Globalist Discourse in Contemporary American Culture. American Quarterly, 50(03), 548-591. https://doi.org/http://www.jstor.org/stable/30042151/
Yakin , H. S. M., & Totu, A. (2014). The Semiotic Perspectives of Peirce and Saussure: A Brief Comparative Study. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 155, 04-08. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.247.
DeLillo, D. (1971). Americana (1990 ط). London: Penguin Books.
Green, J. (1999). Disaster Footage: Spectacles of Violence in DeLillo’ s Fiction. Modern Fiction Studies, 45(3), 571-599. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/i26285521/
Said, W. E. (1978). Orientalism. London: Penguin Books.
De Saussure, F. (2011). Course in General Linguistics”: Translated by Wade Baskin (Perry Meisel and Haun Saussy ). New York: Columbia University Press.
Roth, P. (2011). Contemporary American Fiction and the Confluence of Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, and John Updike: A Roundtable Discussion. Philip Roth Studies, 07(02), 145-169. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5703/philrothstud.7.2.145
Mikics , D. (2004). Postmodern Fictions. في A Concise Companion to Postwar American Literature and Culture (Josephine Hendin). United Kingdom: Josephine Hendin.
DeLillo, D. (1991). Mao II. London: Viking Penguin.
Johnston , D. L. (2016). American Evangelical Islamophobia: A History of Continuity with a Hope for Change. Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 51, 224-235. https://doi.org/https://10.1353/ecu.2016.0018
Keith , M. ., & Pile , S. (1993). Introduction. Part 1: The politics of place. في Place and the Politics of Identity. London: Place and the Politics of Identity.
Wu , Y., Luo , X., & Xia , J. (2023). Interpretation of Ethics in DeLillo’s Fiction. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences. , 06(06), 48-55. https://doi.org/https://10.25236/AJHSS.2023.060610/10/07/2024.
Shirvani , H. (1994). Postmodernism: Decentering, Simulacrum, and Parody”. [Review of Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism; A Poetics of Postmodernism, History, Theory, Fiction, by F. Jameson & L. Hutcheon]. American Quarterly, 46(20), 290-296. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2307/2713344/10/04/2024.
Hwang, E. (2015). The Geography of Non-places in DeLillo’s White Noise. English & American Cultural Studies, 15, 337-367. https://doi.org/https:// 10.15839/eacs.15.2.201508.337/
Veggian , H. (2015). Opacity and Transparency: White Noise and Mao II. في Understanding DeLillo. South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press.
Barrett, L. (2002). How the Dead Speak to the Living: Intertextuality and the Postmodern Sublime in White Noise. Journal of Modern Literature, 25(02), 97-113. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3831638/
Antonio, R. J. (2000). After Postmodernism: Reactionary Tribalism. American Journal of Sociology, 101(01), 40-87. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/303111.
Frankenberg , R. (1993). White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness (NED-New edition). Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Alworth, D. J. (2010). Supermarket Sociology. New Literary History, 41(02), 301-227. https://doi.org/http://www.jstor.org/stable/40983824/
Chambers , R. (1996). The Unexamined. Minnesota Review , 47, 141-156. https://doi.org/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/438725
Marchese, D. (2020, ديسمبر 1). We All Live in Don DeLillo’s World. He’s Confused by It Too. استرجع في 5 مايو، 2024, من https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/12/magazine/don-delillo-interview.html?rsrc=flt&smid=url-share/
Apter, E. (2006). On Oneworldedness: Or Paranoia as a World System. American Literary History, 18(02), 365-389. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3876711?seq=1&cid=pdf/
DeLillo, D. (1985). White Noise (2002 ط). London: Picador.
Thornbury , C. (2011). Peirce’s General Theory of Signs” . Finding Meaning, Cultures Across Borders: International Dialogue Between Philosophy and Psychology, 49-57. https://doi.org/http://hdl.handle.net/2433/143046
Engles, T. (1999). Who Are You, Literally? Fantasies of The White Self in White Noise. Modern Fiction Studies, 45(03), 755-787. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26285577/
Vanheule , S. (2016). Capitalist Discourse, Subjectivity and Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 07. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01948
DeLillo, D. (1997). Underworld. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction.
Yousofi , M., Sistani Reesi , R., & Farivar , M. (2022). Deconstructing Updike’s Neo-colonialist Narrative. Human Arena. https://doi.org/https://10.1007/s42087-022-00317-3
Begley, A. (1997). Don DeLillo: Americana, Mao II, and Underworld. Southwest Review, 82(04), 478-505. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43471858/
Kaur , G. (2014). Diversity and Multiplicity of themes in Don DeLillo’s Fiction: Expressing Contemporariness. SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH, 01(05), 75-82. https://doi.org/https://ijellh.com/index.php/OJS/article/view/3054/
Published
2024-12-28
How to Cite
BOUNEKHLA, A. (2024). Exploring Race and Identity in Don DeLillo’s “White Noise” and “Mao II”: Semiotic and Spatial Semantic Intersections. Journal of Science and Knowledge Horizons, 4(02), 583-609. https://doi.org/10.34118/jskp.v4i02.4064
Section
Articles
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