Abstract
In this thesis, I examine how the cultural tensions felt and the transformation of theindividual during the rise in mass media were expressed through narrative voices of three
novels illustrating different historical points between the time of the Victorian Era to
1980s America. Through the utilization of Marshall McLuhan’s media theory, I argue
that the shift from private and individualized culture to an all-inclusive and public culture
provides a new way to read the narrative voices found in Bleak House, The 42nd Parallel,
and White Noise. As the Western world shifted from a visual state of mass media rooted
in print media to an acoustic state created through mass utilization of electric mass media
like the radio and the television, each individual was compelled to send, receive, and
process information in new ways. In consequence, the individual private sense of self
collapsed into an external and mediated construction of identity.