ABSTRACT
In the last chapter we investigated how Acker’s ALTL, at the level of text, undermines traditional narrative form. It is appropriate, then, that we should now turn to investigate the consumer of texts, namely, the reader. I have chosen Don DeLillo’s White Noise (1985) for this purpose. Many writers have said DeLillo’s book discusses the plight of postmodern subjects in so called “postmodernity” (e.g. a fairly recent anthology edited by Frank Lentricchia 1996). Though these investigations are enormously important and do comment extensively on subjectivity, most have little to say about subjects reading DeLillo’s text and what makes that text appealing. 1 2 The present chapter is a contribution toward understanding this aspect of postmodernism in general and DeLillo’s novel in particular.
