Hyperreality and the dominance of the image in White Noise

Abstract

The pervasive culture of television watching is seen and we see that Babette tries to diminish its glamour by making it a family affair. However television’s influence is seen steadily throughout the novel, from the way Denise mutters ‘toyota celica’ in her sleep to the way the family experiences a numbness to disasters because of their exposure to it on television. Along with the ‘most photographed barn in America’ Murray Siskind takes Jack Gladney to we see that signs and symbols have replaced reality and we are firmly in the realm of the simulacral where reality is effaced and we are left with hyperreality, mediated or augmented reality.