THE LONGEVITY OF THE SUPERMARKET AS A NON-PLACE IN DON DELILLO’S WHITE NOISE

The paper examines the setting of the supermarket as a non-place in Don DeLillo's novel White Noise, published in 1985, and its lastingness in contemporary culture. Critics have been mainly focusing on the consumerist and religious meaning of the place of the supermarket in the novel, disregarding its spatial implications. As a place, the concept of the supermarket is present in the philosophical thought of the French anthropologist Marc Auge who had developed the term “non-place” during the last decade of the twentieth century. It is this paper’s aim to prove beyond doubt that DeLillo’s concept of the supermarket, as portrayed in White Noise, matches Auge’s notion of a non-place. Other non-places include: a hotel room, a highway, or an airport. Furthermore, there exists a difference between “space” and “place” which is essential for the genesis of a non-place, including the one of the supermarket. This shopping area is marked by transience and created with a certain intention in mind, but it simultaneously represents a familiar place, which is precisely the way numerous DeLillo’s characters perceive it in the novel. The longevity of the supermarket as a non-place can be found in the present cultural context as well. The present-day symbolism of supermarkets is precisely the kind DeLillo wrote about and Auge expounded on.