Signs

doi:10.1017/9781009025676.019

Chapter 15 - Signs

Print, Image, and Digital Media in DeLillo

from Part III - Media and Pop Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 May 2022

Joseph M. Conte

Edited by

Jesse Kavadlo

Show author details

Jesse Kavadlo: Affiliation:
Maryville University of Saint Louis, Missouri

Book contents

Get access

Summary

In the epoch of global capitalism, writers must be hypervigilant to the usage of their medium of choice –the written, printed word – readily aware of the proliferation of the grapheme and the saturation of visual signage in the media environment. Product advertisements that once depended on the enlarged-type appeal of slogans invariably stating the brand name have given way to an iconic Esperanto, equally legible to anyone around the globe. As a literary author, Don DeLillo recognizes that the image in our visual culture has become the dominant medium of our time. Despite this displacement of the writer from a central position in mass culture, DeLillo’s novels, such as White Noise, Mao II, and Underworld offer considerations as to how the post-war author might evade absorption by visual media and global capitalism, and whether it is possible to maintain a resistant, if marginalized, position in society.

Keywords

Don DeLillo signage global capitalism print text visual media

Type: Chapter
Information: Don DeLillo In Context , pp. 144 - 152

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009025676.019 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Anderson, Perry. The Origins of Postmodernity. Verso, 1998.Google Scholar

DeLillo, Don. “The Angel Esmeralda.” Esquire, May 1, 1994: 100–9.Google Scholar

DeLillo, Don. “The Artist Naked in a Cage.” New Yorker, May 26, 1997: 6–7.Google Scholar

DeLillo, Don. Libra. Viking, 1988.Google Scholar

DeLillo, Don. Mao II. Penguin, 1991.Google Scholar

DeLillo, Don. “‘An Outsider in This Society’: An Interview with Don DeLillo.” With Anthony DeCurtis. In Introducing Don DeLillo. Edited by Lentricchia, Frank. Duke University Press, 1991: 43–66.Google Scholar

DeLillo, Don. Underworld. Scribner, 1997.Google Scholar

DeLillo, Don. White Noise. Penguin, 1985.Google Scholar

Hutcheon, Linda. The Politics of Postmodernism. Routledge, 1989.Google Scholar

Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press, 1991.Google Scholar

Jameson, Fredric. “Totality as Conspiracy.” In The Jameson Reader. Edited by Hardt, Michael and Weeks, Kathi. Blackwell, 2000: 340–58.Google Scholar

Kittler, Friedrich A. Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. Translated by Winthrop-Young, Geoffrey and Wutz, Michael. Stanford University Press, 1999.Google Scholar

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick, or, The whale. Illustrated by Kent, Rockwell. Random House, 1930.Google Scholar

Milne, A. A. The House at Pooh Corner. Illustrated by Shepard, E. H.. Methuen & Co, 1928.Google Scholar

Stevens, Wallace. “The Poems of Our Climate.” In The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. Alfred A. Knopf, 1954: 193–4.Google Scholar

Williams, William Carlos. The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: Volume I, 1909–1939. Edited by Litz, A. Walton and MacGowan, Christopher. New Directions, 1986.Google Scholar