.
Good morning and welcome to the NPTEL course
title post modernism and literature. Our lecture
today is titled hyper reality and DeLillos
post modernist fiction our discussion of white
noise, as the title implies this lecture is
a discussion of white noise one of the typical
post modernist novels of the contemporary.
And this lecture and also needs to be seen
in the context of the discussions that we
have been having in the last ah last a few
weeks we had first introduced you to a number
of postmodern theories and a number of postmodern
formulations within which a certain post modernist
text could be read analyzed and understood.
So, this needs to be seen in that larger context
and I would also like to tell you right at
the outset that we do not intend to provide
a detailed summary of the novel . So, it would
be ah very helpful if you read the novel white
novel is well in advance and then try to make
sense of the discussion.
And ah even if you have not really read the
novel yet it would be ah very helpful if you
use this discussion as an as an entry point
to understand the novel and also to engage
with the novel as part of post modernist fiction.
Having said that I now introduce to you the
novelist Donald Richard Don Delillo he was
born in 1936, he is the author of 14 novels,
and is considered as a representative figure
of American postmodern fiction. DeLillo's
novels are very unique they encourage us to
think about the cold war environment and terrorism.
And his fiction also seems to anticipate and
comment on certain cultural trends and tendencies.
It is a mix of very serious ah ah commentary
as well as a playful engagement with the postmodern
a world that we find in DeLillo's fiction
.
And ah his his fiction is particularly unique
in this aspect that there is a repeated invitation
to think historically. And this precisely
goes against the argument that Jameson had
put forward in his ah Marxist critique of
post modernism that in this post modernist
age it is no longer possible to think historically.
DeLillo's in fiction particularly in a white
noise also we find that he is one of those
very few people who encourage us to see a
postmodern as a historical period and encourage
us to repeatedly historicize respective of
the ways in which the age it defies all kinds
of historical conventions.
But I said about DeLillo that he is one of
those writers who conceived their vocation
as an art of cultural criticism in that sense
he also joined the league with Herman Melville,
mark twain, and Thomas Pynchon who also have
been extremely critical of their home front
which is America.
The novel white noise which happens to be
the 8th novel written by DeLillo was published
in 1985. It is considered as one of the most
frequently taught post war novels and the
publication of the novel happened as have
any happen at a very interesting juncture
in history.
It coincided with a great academic interest
in the ideas of Baudrillard and other theorists
of post modernism and we also notice how the
ah 1980's, where extremely influential in
ah for grounding the theories of post modernism
that we are now familiar with.
There is yet another distinction to this ah
novel white noise it has also been seen as
very prophetic in that sense it appeared just
weeks after the Bhopal gas tragedy happened
in India . So, we also find a resonance in
that sense though it happens inadvertently
between the novel and certain geopolitical
events which were happening in different parts
of the world.
This novel particularly shows how America
became postmodern it is in that sense a journey
through ah ah ah certain protagonist in certain
a family who become represent in terms of
postmodern American ah life. And this novel
is also one of the celebrated novels of the
contemporary it was included in the time list
of best ah ah English language novels from
1923 to 2005. It is also one of the most popular
works by the author Don DeLillo.
So, in this ah discussion throughout the the
references will be given from DeLillos work
which were the edition which was published
in 2011. I also draw extensively from the
Cambridge companion to Don DeLillo published
in 2008 by the Cambridge University Press.
Let me try to provide a very brief outline
of the novel white noise it is set in a Midwestern
college known as the college on the Hill,
it is set in a small ah American town and
it also details the academic year in the life
of the protagonist Jack Gladney. ah
This is the structure of the novel it is split
into 40 chapters. The first part is named
waves in radiation, the second part is the
airborne toxic even and the third part is
ah named Dylarama. The second part is the
shortest of all the sections and ah altogether
it is said about this novel that in his writing
in DeLillos writing a symptom my diagnoses
are an endorsement of the condition of post
modernity could be found.
The novel moves around two major plot points
the first one being an airborne toxic event
and the second one is Jack ah Jack's discovery,
he is a protagonist jacks discovery of his
wife's participation in an experimental study
of a new psycho ah pharmaceutical called Dylar
to cure her of the fear of dying.
So, it is very post modernist in that sense
it also in ah ah certain way follow certain
conventional narrative tropes and ah techniques,
but at the same time it makes use of a number
of post modernist elements to expose the ways
in which America has become postmodern to
such an extent that an entire family lives
in a a hyper real parodied situation.
We are being introduced to the protagonist
right from the beginning of the novel the
protagonist Jack Gladney also happens to be
the narrator. He is very interestingly his
position there is a chairman of the department
of Hitler studies at the college on the hill
and ah in his own words I invented Hitler
studies in North America in March of 1968.
And ironically he is also protagonist who
is an expert in Hitler studies, but he is
not taken German lesson lessons yet, but the
others in the department are well versed in
German that is also a concern that he personally
has throughout the novel .
And we are also introduced to their Gladney
household in his own words ah Babette and
I and our children by previous marriages that
is ah what comprises of the Gladney household.
He is married 5 times, his ah 4 step children,
and television also is also an important character
in the novel, because a Gladney household
continually evince the effects of massive
television exposure.
I would like to read to you an accept from
the novel where ah his a fascination with
ah Hitler studies and his positioning in the
ah colleges such as being talked about by
one of his colleague ah ah Murray and this
is what Murray says to Gladney that is exactly
what I want you to talk about.
You have established a wonderful thing here
Hitler you created it, you nurtured it, you
made it your own, nobody on the faculty of
any college or university in this part of
the country can do so much as utter the word
Hitler, without a nod in your direction literally,
or metaphorically.
This is the center the unquestioned source
he is now your Hitler Gladney's Hitler it
must be deeply satisfying for you the college
is internationally known as a result of Hitler
studies. It has an identity, a sense of achievement
you have evolved an entire system around this
figure a structure with countless sub structures
and interrelated fields of study a history
within history I marvel at the effort. It
was masterful, shrewd, and stunningly pre
emptive, it is what I want to do with Elvis.
It is a very interesting juxtaposition of
ah Hitler and Elvis Presley in the same passage
here we also shown how Hitler and Elvis Presley
can become nearly interchangeable ah figures
in this culture of celebrities . And we are
also being shown rather sarcastically how
a certain paradigm shift has come about in
the academia in the ways in which particular
departments, particular disciplines, and certain
kinds of ah ah historical figures emerge as
ah the center.
In today's discussion I draw your attention
to certain aspects which I find are predominantly
post modernist. And ah in that sense we it
is important for us to begin with the idea
of the real in the novel. In the novel at
the course of ah the ah the progression of
the plot we come across an event where Jack
ah Gladney's family is supposed to be evacuated
as a result of an airborne toxic event.
There is a certain organization named the
SIMUVAC, ah it is a it stands for simulated
evacuation we conduct our simulated evacuations
in America and that is also a presented as
a ah reality which is also very ironic in
nature.
And ah here we find one of the officers at
SIMUVAC, [voc alized-noise] here he is talking
about a real evacuation incident and also
tries to pass it off as a simulated event.
According to his own words a we thought we
could use it as a model a chance to use a
real event in order to rehearse a simulation.
We find a very direct and overt reference
to Baudrillard's simulation over here. And
we also find that the real and the hyper we
all get merged in the novel and there is an
inability for us to know why the simulation
or the rehearsal is being passed off as a
real evacuation event.
And here we also find a certain kind of a
reversal of cause and effect simulation becomes
the original event of which reality is a mere
imitation. And this is also something that
was really wanting us against in his discussion
of the SIMUVAC and simulation. We also find
certain ways in which this has been getting
replicated in multiple ah ah ways in the culture
of American and also in the postmodern consumerist
culture.
There also number of other instances in the
novel where ah ah where we find the the real
and the hyper real merging into a single point
ah one of them being a passing reference to
a Moorish ah movie theater that has become
a mosque, then we ah come across a Hollywood
version ah taken for the real thing.
There are also certain ah nuns ah ah particularly
we introduced to one who faked they believe
to correspond to peoples a sentimental fantasy
of what a nun should be. I would like to read
to you ah from that passage in the novel and
in the this edition the episode with the nun
comes towards the end of the novel in page
367.
And ah Jack Gladney needs this particular
nun and he expects a certain kind of a rhetoric
a certain kind of a behavior from the nun
and he asks about heaven, he asked about ah
ah divinely things. But the nun response in
a very ironic humorous and an indifferent
way much to the shock of a Jack Gladney and
this is also very post modernist in a certain
way I read to you from this passage .
The Nun talks a Critism is a dedication, someone
must appear to believe, our lives are no less
serious than if we professed real faith, real
belief. As belief shrinks from the world people
find it more necessary than ever that someone
belief while died men in caves, nuns in black,
monks who do not speak we are left to believe,
fools children those who have abandoned belief
must still believe in us.
They sure that we are right not to belief,
but they know how belief must not fade completely,
hell is when no one believes, they must always
be believers, fools, idiots, those who hear
voices, those who speak in tongues we are
your lunatics, we surrender our lives to make
your non belief possible .
You are sure that you are right, but you do
not want everyone to think as you do there
is no truth without fools. We are your fools,
your mad women rising at dawn to pray, lighting
candles, asking statues for good health long
life. She rattled out the laugh showing teeth
so old they were nearly transparent .
And here we are being introduced to a certain
sarcastic and ironic view of religion where
even one loses faith in ah God, even when
loses faith in the religious systems, that
is a certain way in which you expect certain
kind of a register, a certain kind of a presentation,
of figures of persons such as nuns and such
an attitude is entirely being mocked at in
this novel ah throughout right from the beginning.
And we also find certain instances where experiences
are no longer immediate, but always mediated
through other prior experiences my sense of
déjà vu or the prior experiences. For example
the novel talk about a sense of déjà vu
of a sense of déjà vu. And in this ah novel
in the 2011 edition in page 146, there is
a discussion ah of a confusion about some
whether something is has really happened whether
it is reality or whether it is a sense of
déjà vu .
So, I read to you ah this excerpt from page
146 what did it all mean ? Did Steffie truly
imagine she had seen the wreck before or did
she only imagine she would imagined it is
it possible to have a false perception of
an illusion. Is there a true déjà vu and
a false déjà vu I wondered whether her palms
had been truly sweaty or whether she would
simply imagined the sense of wetness and was
she so open to suggestion that she would develop
every symptom as it was announced.
Here we find the novel playing with the idea
of reality in multiple ways and it would be
possible to look at this from the discussions
generated by Baudria. And his ah ah concept
of ah hyper reality and also about how the
real and the fake, the real and the illusion,
the distinction between them collapses to
such an extent that there is an inability
for us to know which is real, and which one
is a simulated effect.
There are also a series of juxtapositions
which ah the, or the novel comically uses
and this a very this is very comically disconcerting
us as well. . For example in page 8 of the
novel there is this ah ah ah there is this
small passage the smoke alarm went off in
the hallway upstairs, either to let us know
the battery had just died or because the house
was on fire we finished our lunch in silence.
Here look at the way in which the term or
is being placed very casually over here without
really discriminating between the cause and
effect of both of these events of either the
battery just dying, or the house being on
fire. This is the postmodern irony or the
postmodern juxtaposition of ah ah placing
disconcerting fact simultaneously.
And here the ah here the narrator also ah
diluted into believing that he does not really
care whether the battery had just died or
whether the house was on fire because both
supposedly have only the same kind of ah ah
consequence according to him and this is the
postmodern approach that the novel takes a
throughout .
There is also a way in which irony and humor
also appear to have a disconcerting effect
on the reader ah we we realize that ah there
is a constant fear of death that ah Jack Gladney's
wife Babette has throughout the novel. And
ah there is also this repeated discussion
they have about who will die first who will
die first he adds this question comes up from
time to time like where are the car keys and
again this is yet another juxtaposition as
if death and car keys were of the same audit
of significance, it clearly does not matter
whether it is about death or whether it is
about the lost car keys .
So this sort of ah ah placing side by side
ironic elements and elements which ah which
ah may not normally go well together this
is again a way in which post modernism is
it to work in this narration.
Now we come to one of the most discussed as
scenes in postmodern fiction which is part
of ah which is part of a significant episode
in the novel white noise and this is an episode
which has generally been described as the
episode of the most of photographed barn.
Here we find the novel is displaying the astute
insight of a critic a well versed in theories
of post modernism.
And ah this ah is in fact, ah ah an episode
a scene where Jack is taken by a fellow, and
he also teaches popular culture in the same
department and ah Murray invites Jack to see
this most photographed Barn in America that
is how the site is generally known.
And this is ah ah in fact, also a tourist
equivalent of a celebrity who is famous for
being famous ah for instance and Murray also
educates ah ah educates Jack on how this has
become the most ah photographed Barn in America.
Because it is no longer possible to see the
reality of the Barn itself because all that
they can see is the tourist Cliche and that
the point of experience is not the bond itself,
but the way it is mediated through other peoples
of reactions.
Because we only do not really see the Barn
no one sees the Barn according to the novel,
people are taking pictures of taking pictures
because only if you take pictures of people
taking pictures of the Barn you get ah you
you get to claim that you have actually seen
the most of photographed a Barn in America
.
And this this ah ah except where this discussion
about the most photographed a Barn happens
in the novel has been often discussed as a
case of a hyper reality, as a way in which
America has become a victim of this sort of
ah our consumerist a culture to such an extent
that it becomes impossible to see the object,
but one only sees a mediated object which
has been mediated heavily by the and global
consumerist of perception .
We find the character Murray ah telling Jack
ah when he is taking him to see the most photographed
Barn. Once you have seen the science about
the Barn it becomes impossible to see the
Barn, it is this impossibility that ah Baudrillard
had already want us against when it comes
to seeing the contemporary America. Because,
contemporary America is also mediated by a
lot of these significations from part of the
global consumerist culture.
I could extensively from the ah from the novel
where Murray is talking to a Jack, what was
the Barn like before it was photographed.
What was a Barn like before it was photographed?
What does it look like? How is it different?
We we cannot answer these questions because
we have read the signs seen the people snapping
the pictures we cannot get outside the aura,
we are part of the aura, first one theorists
also talk about a certain aura which gives
a lot of value to certain objects in the postmodern
theory. And once the object is ah once we
get used to seeing the object within and aura
it becomes impossible to see the object itself
for what really it is.
So, ah no one sees the Barn in this context
and this is also it this also becomes an every
workable substitution of the fake for the
real and this is also sharps attire on the
way in which ah think ah ah objects are being
objectified and objects are being ah converted
into certain consumable ah products in the
contemporary particularly in America.
And this cannot be seen as a case and limited
to America it could be said that it is true
ah with most of the modernized globalized
cultures in the contemporary.
Taking off from this discussion ah related
to the most photographed Barn in ah DeLillos
novel. Philip Nel one of the contemporary
critiques of DeLillos fiction, he makes this
remark as with the Barn itself it is virtually
impossible to remember what reading DeLillo
was like before he came to be engulfed by
the order of post modernism, this statement
is very telling.
Because even in this discussion we begin with
the pre given verdict that DeLillos fiction
is essentially post modernist that white noise
it is mostly about hyper and in the American
context.
So, here even in the critical reading of ah
the novel white noise we we we cannot approach
the novel in a neutral way without really
knowing what it is to read ah white noise
without being conscious of the postmodernist
elements in it. Now whether the postmodernist
elements where ah built in ah knowingly or
whether it is there inadvertently.
Now there is an impossibility for us as a
reader to illuminate the postmodern ah ah
identification of the novel white noise, because
it has been always already seen as a post
modernist novel and we have no way of knowing
how it is to read the novel without seeing
it under the aura of post modernism .
Coming to certain aspects of the novel which
I would like to highlight in this discussion
the television emerges ah like almost a central
character in the novel white noise. The television
is always on and in that sense omnipresent
in the Jack Gladney household.
And on Friday evening evenings were also given
to understand that the Gladney's went together,
the the Gladney's went together in front of
the television. And there they said worshipfully
silent totally absorbed and attentive to our
duty.
So, it also talks about how television ah
emerges as a culture as a unifying culture,
within the family no matter how disturbing
that is a knowledge in the postmodern scenario.
And there is also a sense in which we are
being ah given to us certain we are being
subjected to a certain repetitious a brand-name
mantras such as we that there are repeated
references to the airport Marriott, at the
downtown a Travelodge, the Sheraton Inn and
the conference center.
ah Dacron, Orlon, and the Lycra spandex, leaded,
unleaded, super ah ah super unleaded, versions
of different products and also about MasterCard,
Visa, American express. These sort of images
are being continually being woven into the
narrative we are not even conscious that these
are brand names which become part of the narrative.
And this commercial culture this television
and ad saturated culture it is it have infiltrated
their way so much into Jack's stream of consciousness
that he cannot seem to escape from this ah
inevitable reality and again it brings us
back to the original mind it becomes also
difficult to differentiate reality from the
simulated things that he comes across in his
ah day to day life.
And ah there is this ah ah very significant
instance in this novel where Jack's daughter
mutters Toyota Celica in her dreams and that
is also an advertisement that she would been
continually seeing during ah the daytime through
the television and the car radio ads.
And here we find that her innermost sanctum
of individuality has been taken over by the
language of advertising and she is totally
immersed in the flow of media imagery, it
becomes impossible for her to differentiate
between the reality that she encounters. And
the reality which is being fed into her through
these mediations of advertisements and television
ah images .
White noise in that since could be considered
as a novel fashion from their ad materials
of culture particularly American culture and
we find the novel written with advertising
slogans, rock lyrics, and snippets of television
and film.
It is also has a generous discussion of literature
and philosophical traditions as well and it
was also very conscious of the traditions
and the philosophies that it makes use of
in the narrative. This we also notice the
way in which the novel talks about Hitler
studies as a department or about the presentation
of the most photographed Barn in America.
There is yet another way in which the novel
celebrates the post modernism that it talks
about. There is no difference between high
art and mass culture . In fact, there is a
refusal to distinguish between media culture,
and high culture. A refusal to discriminate
one or exclude one from the other, this is
something that we saw in way in which Hitler,
and Elvis Presley were ah mentioned in the
same breath in the same passage.
Here we find a way in which the consumer culture
comes into contact with high art, in becomes
difficult for us to differentiate one from
the other we find the discussions of Wittgenstein,
Proust, and Joyce who are philosophers and
ah writers at the high art.
We also find discussions of Bob Dylan, we
find a way in which Hollywood films and altruistic
films are mentioned side I said, we also find
Andy Warhol and his ah ah iconic image infiltrating
into this discussion as well. And there are
also certain characters who serve as examples
of media saturation taken to comic excess.
For example, the narrator Jack Gladney himself
and also there the character of Willie Mink,
we find that the novel critiques the frenzied
appetites of consumerism there is a certain
instance in the novel where a rack of novels
is knocked over in the supermarket and the
books tend to spill over the floor.
And here we are being when to understand that
fiction is just one more bar coded item in
the supermarket. There is hardly anything
superior to the literary work compared to
the many other items which are available in
the supermarket. So, fiction is reduced to
just another bar coded item which is available
in the supermarket.
We find a lot of discussions where DeLillo
and Baudrillard mentioned together and for
obvious reasons Leonard Wilcox one of the
leading critics of DeLillos fiction he writes.
While Baudrillard's finds nothing outside
the play of simulations no real in which a
radical critique of the simulation of society
might be grounded, DeLillo believes that narrative
can provide critical distance from and a critical
perspective on the processes it depicts.
Here we find Baudrillard and DeLillo being
discussed in the same breath and also highlighting
the ways in which one differs from the other
in a very postmodern ah the rhetoric we also
find that there is no regard to the fact that
Baudrillard as a philosopher and DeLillo as
a fiction writer.
And there is genre differences do not seem
to play any role in this discussion because
what becomes important is a representation
that both of them hold forth what Baudrillard
talks about and what DeLillo talks about the
genre ceases to be important the time frame
ceases ah to be important.
What becomes important is that it is possible
to talk about a philosopher and a fiction
writer in the same passage and also ah look
at how both of them engage with the postmodern
world in different ways.
How while one refuses to see anything outside
simulation the other makes use of narrative
to critique the contemporary critique the
outside world the way he finds it. There are
a couple of things which ah the novel engages
within in a in a very interesting manner it
talks about the fear of death as a real fear
which could also be addressed through ah scientific
methods. ah
There is ah Babette Jack Gladney's wife who
is constantly under the fear of ah death and
she also begins to take a certain medicine
to cure her of this ah fear . So, I read this
passage to you. We stood there watching the
surge of lurid light like a heart pumping
in a documentary on color TV.
Remember the saucer shaped pill of course,
she said a super piece of engineering, I found
out what it is designed to do it is designed
to solve an ancient problem, a fear of death,
it encourages the green to produce a fear
of death inhibitors , but we still die everyone
dies yes we just would not be afraid she said
that is right interesting I guess.
Die la was designed by a secret research group
I believe some of these people are psycho
biologists. I wonder if you have heard rumors
about a group working secretly on fear of
death, I would be the last to hear no one
can ever find me when they do find me it is
it is to tell me something important.
What could be more important you are talking
about gossip rumors this is thin stuff Jack
who are these people where is their base that
is why I have been chasing you I thought you
know something about them I do not even know
what a psycho biologist is it is a catch all
sort of thing interdisciplinary the real work
is in the pets is not there anything you can
tell me .
Here you may see how in a very postmodernist
way a number of dissimilar things are being
brought under the discussion in the same ah
passage. There is fear of death, there is
also certain new inter disciplinary field
called psycho biology and we also find that
it is a there is a certain kind of a medicine
which claims to cure the fear of dying .
So, in a very postmodernist sense we are being
presented all of these as facts which are
at the same level we are not being allowed
to wander, we are not being allowed to walk,
there is no ironic tone tone either . So,
this is a way in which the post modernist
fiction makes use of the narrative technique
to talk about things without really ah betraying
any sense of irony or any sense of marks attire.
Let me also read to you a passage ah in the
novel where ah DeLillo talks about ah the
academic setting in a very satirical way.
He talks about the conferences as part of
the Hitler studies ah ah center he uses this
as an entry point to talk about their ways
in which ah in the contemporary, the academic
ah setting functions .
I read from the novel this is from page 314
delegates to the Hitler conference began arriving
about 90 Hitler scholars would spend the 3
days of the conference attending lectures,
appearing on panels going to movies. They
would wander the campus with their names letter
in gothic type on laminated tags appearing
to their lapels.
They would exchange Hitler gossip spread the
usual sensational rumors in the last days
in the Fuhrer bunker, it was interesting to
see how closely they resembled each other
despite. The wide diversity of national and
regional backgrounds they cheerful and eager
given to spitting when they laughed given
to outdated dress, homeliness, punctuality;
they seemed to have a taste for sweets.
So, we find a very interesting description
is a satirical description being given about
academic centers in the practice of practice
of academics in the contemporary. As we begin
to wind up I also leave you with this interesting
description of a family and how the family
becomes a central ah discussion point in the
novel .
I read to you from page 97 where there is
this extensive rumination about our family.
The family is a cradle of the worlds misinformation
there must be something in the family life
that generates factual error, over closeness,
the noise and heat of being perhaps something
even deeper like they need to survive.
Murray says we are fragile creatures surrounded
by a world of hostile facts facts threaten
our happiness insecurity the deeper we delve
into the nature of things the looser our structure
may seem to become. The family process works
towards sealing of the world, small errors
grow heads, frictions proliferate.
I tell Murray that ignorance and confusion
cannot possibly be the driving forces behind
family solidarity. What an idea what is subversion
he asks me why the strongest family units
exist in the least developed societies not
to know is a weapon of survival he says, magic
and superstition become entrenched as a powerful
orthodoxy of the clan the family is strongest
where objective reality is most likely to
be misinterpreted.
What a heartless theory I say , but Murray
insists it is true. In the novel white noise
that DeLillo chooses to narrate the story
in the backdrop of a family, in the backdrop
of a number of things which are part of everyday
life in the contemporary world is very interesting.
And he also opens up the discussion opens
up the avenue for criticism and also for leading
us to ah see ah look at the ways in which
a fiction also ah coexist with the many theoretical
formulations of the postmodern age.
The novel we can say the dress in it is well
with a number of postmodern theories and it
could also it also possible to read this novel
in connection with the many critiques which
were ah formulated by Jameson. It also engages
in a very extensive ah powerful dialogue with
ah Baudrillard through the discussions of
simulation and hyper reality and we are also
introduce the pressures of living in a culture
dominated by advertising and simulation .
As we begin to a wind up this discussion I
also leave you with a set of questions for
self study which would be useful and simple
to read the novel on your own. What are the
postmodernist elements in white noise comment
on the looming presence of death in the novel,
this is also something which ah ah which could
be seen as a repeated trope in a number of
post modernist works .
What is the role of the television or car
video novel you could also use hyper reality
and Budrillard's ah works as an entry point
to access this question.
What is a role of family in the postmodern
condition that white noise portrays this can
be a scene in contrast to the ways in which
the ah postmodern narratives reject all kinds
of meta narratives and how there is an inevitability?
How there is an impossibility to completely
move away from the meta narratives.
But also how it becomes possible to stay within
some of these institutions, some of these
meta narratives, and then critique them and
subvert them in different ways.
In fact, what if the theory is proposed to
do in their ah in in in their realms we find
the novel writing out an entire script ah
staging a number of debates which are part
of a lot of theoretical formulations and also
how is it possible to use Baudrillard's theory
of hyper reality to understand white noise
it would be a good exercise to identify and
number of other instances more than the ones
that we have discussed in the course of this
lecture.
And finally, would you like to compare white
noise with travels and hyper reality by Umberto
eco Umberto ecos work is not entirely fiction,
it is almost like a documentary fiction, it
talks about his journey through the ah contemporary
American ah culture.
So, ah how would you find ah white noise resonating
with certain things that a cold also talks
about in Hesburgh travels in hyper reality?
There could be many other ways in which white
noise ah could be accessed as a post modernist
ah novel as they begin to wind up this discussion.
Let me also remind you that white noise is
also a reference to ah the multimedia generated
white noise which is infiltrating the contemporary,
globalized, consumerized, societies. I hope
this will also help you to generate a newfound
taste in reading post modernist fiction.
I thank you for listening and I look forward
to seeing you in the next session.
