David Foster Wallace in Context

This book introduces readers to the literary, philosophical and political contexts of David Foster Wallace's work.

Clare Hayes-Brady (Edited by)

9781316513323, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 December 2022

375 pages
23.8 x 15.6 x 3.1 cm, 0.83 kg

David Foster Wallace is regarded as one of the most important American writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book introduces readers to the literary, philosophical and political contexts of Wallace's work. An accessible and useable resource, this volume conceptualizes his work within long-standing critical traditions and with a new awareness of his importance for American literary studies. It shows the range of issues and contexts that inform the work and reading of David Foster Wallace, connecting his writing to diverse ideas, periods and themes. Essays cover topics on gender, sex, violence, race, philosophy, poetry and geography, among many others, guiding new and long-standing readers in understanding the work and influence of this important writer.

Introduction
Part I. Context: 1. David Foster Wallace and narratology Pia Masiero
2. A meeting of minds: David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov and the ethics of empathy Marshall Boswell
3. Writing in a material world: David Foster Wallace and 1980s fiction Ralph Clare
4. Confidence man: Wallace and the American nineteenth century Catherine Toal
5. David Foster Wallace and European literature Lucas Thompson
6. David Foster Wallace and poetry Philip Coleman
7. 'Non'-fiction Martin Eve
8. Thanks everybody and I hope you like it: David Foster Wallace and entertainment Matthew Luter
9. Visual culture Corrie Baldauf
Part II. Ideas: 10. Wallace and attention Alice Bennett
11. After analysis: notes on the new sincerity from Wallace to Knausgaard Jon Baskin
12. Perfectionism and the ethics of failure Áine Mahon
13. The pragmatist possibility in David Foster Wallace's writings Antonio Aguilar Vazquez
14. A tale of two theses: system J and The Broom of the System Maureen Eckert
15. Free will and determinism Paul Jenner
16. Mathematics of the infinite Stuart J. Taylor
17. Wallace and existentialism Allard Den Dulk
18. David Foster Wallace and religion Tim Personn
19. Mr. Consciousness Jamie Redgate
Part III. Bodies: 20. No ordinary love: David Foster Wallace and sex Emily Russell
21. 'The Limits of His Seductively Fine Mind': Wallace, whiteness and the feminine Daniela Franca Joffe
22. Wallace and masculinity Edward Jackson
23. Theorizing the other Dominik Steinhilber
24. Wallace and disability Peter Sloane
25. Queering Wallace: on the queer history of addiction fiction Vincent Haddad
Part IV. Systems: 26. Infinite jest as opiate fiction Alexander Moran
27 David Foster Wallace and racial capitalism Colton Saylor
28. Language and self-creation: David Foster Wallace's many ways of sounding American Mary Shapiro
29. Very old land: David Foster Wallace and the myths and systems of agriculture Jeffrey Severs
30. Ecologies Laurie McRae Andrew
31. 'I Could, If You'd Let Me, Talk and Talk': institutions, dialogue and citizenship in David Foster Wallace Joel Roberts
32. David and Dutch: Wallace, Reagan and the US Presidency David Hering
33. Wallace and publishing Tim Groenland
34. Author here, there and everywhere: Wallace and biography Mike Miley.

Subject Areas: Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Literary studies: post-colonial literature [DSBH5], Literary theory [DSA], Poetry by individual poets [DCF]