“Killers and Diers”: White Noise, Violence, Genre 
	Michelle E. Moore, The College of DuPage, IL

Towards the end of Don DeLillo’s White Noise, Murray lectures Jack Gladney 
on the theoretical relationship between “killers and diers” (290).  
His point that “violence is a form of rebirth” for the killer places DeLillo’s 
novel inside a long line of traditionally violent works in American literature.  
My essay will examine the topic of violence in White Noise by unraveling the 
various literary genres on which DeLillo relies. Teachers of the novel will 
find my approach useful, because it allows the general and theoretical subject 
of violence to be discussed through concrete and specific narrative conventions.  
My essay will also act as a blueprint for teachers who wish to teach the novel 
through its genres, as a captivity, slave, gothic, or crime novel.  Finally, 
my essay will provide an alternate way to teach the novel’s post-modern methods 
by illustrating its reliance on low or popular art forms.