Abstract
This article explores the representation of space in Don DeLillo’s White Noise (Penguin, New York, 1985) in order to reveal its influence on the protagonist’s psyche and its significant role in deciding his fate. In particular, it discusses how the geographical coordinates and physical features of the novel function as complicit agents in shaping up the protagonist’s unstable state of mind and leading him to face an undesirable fate. The article takes into account Merlin Coverley’s concept of psychogeography to delineate the embodiment of the city (atmosphere) as an integral part of the protagonist’s life and a defining feature of postmodern American fiction. A psychogeographic understanding of White Noise further illuminates that urbanity, in its twentieth-century spirit, affects the psyche of the leading character who displays this deep impact through wandering (compulsively) in and around his urban environment. The article then clarifies how the city eventually reigns triumphant as the protagonist falls victim to hallucination and deep isolation, or is left with an aporetic moment of decision: to take on murder as the only alternative to reorder his life.
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