Hysterical Realism in DeLillo's White Noise and Cosmopolis Death Phobia, Hypochondria, and Religious Revival

The present study aims at proving that the novels of Don DeLillo (1936) belong to the 
genre of hysterical realism. In White Noise (1985) and Cosmopolis (2003), DeLillo 
highlights the repercussions of modernism and postmodernism in the American society, and 
which eventually lead to diminish the spiritual aspect of religion, and magnify materialistic 
values represented by scientific, technological and medical advances. Hysterical realism in 
White Noise and Cosmopolis is mainly incarnated in the characters' desperate and absurd 
attempts to escape their fear of death and to adhere to the mundane life. The study critically 
tackles the characteristics of hysterical realism, and the common features in the two novels. 
Two important findings of the study are: DeLillo's severe criticism of the chaotic skeptic 
world created by embracing postmodern ideals; and DeLillo's implied invitation for the 
Americans to revive the role of religion in their life, so as to act as a spiritual remedy for the 
evils of the modernist-postmodern world.