The Cambridge companion to David Foster Wallace

286 Pages·2018·1.665 MB·English

by  Clare, Ralph, Wallace, David Foster, Wallace, David Foster

the cambridge companion to david foster wallace
Best known for his masterpiece Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace reshaped
literature for a generation with his groundbreaking and original work.
Wallace’s desire to blend formal innovation with the communicative function
ofliteratureresultedinworksthatappealasmuchtoareader’sintellectasthey
dotoemotion.Assuch,fewwritersinrecentmemoryhavematchedhiswork’s
intensecriticalandpopularimpact.TheessaysinthisCompanion,writtenbytop
Wallace scholars, offer historical and cultural contexts for grasping Wallace’s
significance,providerigorousindividualreadingsofeachofhismajorworksof
fictionandnonfiction,andaddressthekeythemesandconcernsoftheseworks,
includingaesthetics,politics,religionandspirituality,race,andposthumanism.
Thiswide-rangingvolumeisanecessaryresourceforunderstandinganauthor
nowtypicallyregardedasoneofthemostinfluentialandimportantofhistime.
Ralph Clare is Associate Professor of English at Boise State University and
specializesinpost-1945Americanliterature.HeistheauthorofFictionsInc.:
The Corporation in Postmodern Fiction, Film, and Popular Culture (Rutgers,
2014)andiscurrentlyatworkonastudyofemotionandaffectincontemporary
fictionoftheneoliberalera.

THE CAMBRIDGE
COMPANION TO
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
EDITEDBY
RALPH CLARE
BoiseStateUniversity
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doi:10.1017/9781108553902
©RalphClare2018
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Names:Clare,Ralph,1975–editor.
title:TheCambridgecompaniontoDavidFosterWallace/edited
byRalphClare.
description:Cambridge;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,
2018.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
identifiers:lccn2018003682|isbn9781107195950
subjects:lcsh:Wallace,DavidFoster–Criticismandinterpretation.|
Postmodernisminliterature.
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Forallthosewhocontinuetoputthepost-(post)inmodernism.

CONTENTS
NotesonContributors pageix
Acknowledgments xii
Chronology xiv
Introduction:AnExquisiteCorpus:AssemblingaWallace
withoutOrgans 1
ralph clare
part i historical and cultural contexts
1 SlackerRedemption:WallaceandGenerationX 19
marshall boswell
2 WallaceandAmericanLiterature 33
andrew hoberek
3 Wallace’s“Bad”Influence 49
lee konstantinou
part ii early works, story collections, and nonfiction
4 TheBroomoftheSystemandGirlwithCuriousHair 67
matthew luter
5 BriefInterviewswithHideousMen 82
adam kelly
vii
contents
6 Oblivion 97
david hering
7 Wallace’sNonfiction 111
jeffrey severs
part iii the major novels
8 InfiniteJest 127
mary k. holland
9 “PalelyLoitering”:OnNotFinishing(in)ThePaleKing 142
clare hayes-brady
part iv themes and topics
10 Wallace’sAesthetic 159
robert l. mclaughlin
11 WallaceandPolitics 173
andrew warren
12 Wallace,Spirituality,andReligion 190
matthew mullins
13 WallaceandRace 204
lucas thompson
14 Wallace’sGeographicMetafiction 220
jurrit daalder
15 David(Foster)Wallaceandthe(World)System 235
joseph tabbi
GuidetoFurtherReading 249
WorksbyDavidFosterWallace 253
Index 255
viii
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
marshall boswell isProfessorofEnglishatRhodesCollege.Heistheauthor
oftwoworks ofliterary scholarship:JohnUpdike’sRabbitTetralogy: Mastered
Irony in Motion (2001) and Understanding David Foster Wallace (2004). He is
alsotheauthoroftwoworksoffiction,TroublewithGirls(2003)andAlternative
Atlanta(2005).WithStephenJ.Burn,heisthecoeditorofACompaniontoDavid
Foster Wallace Studies (2013) and the editor of David Foster Wallace and
“TheLongThing”:NewEssaysontheNovels(2015).
ralph clare isAssociateProfessorofEnglishatBoiseStateUniversity,specializ-
ing in post-1945 American literature. He is the author of Fictions Inc.:
The Corporation in Postmodern Fiction, Film, and Popular Culture (2014). His
latest book project, Metaffective Fiction: Structuring Feeling in Contemporary
AmericanLiterature,explorestheroleofemotionandaffectinpost-postmodern
fictionandtheneoliberalera.
jurrit daalder read for a DPhil in English Literature at Oxford University,
focusing on the work of David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, and Richard
Powers in relation to the Midwestern regionalist tradition. His essays have
appeared in Critical Insights: Midwestern Literature (2013) and George
Saunders:CriticalEssays(2017).HeiscurrentlyaSupernumeraryResearchand
TeachingFellowatOxford’sRothermereAmericanInstitute,andheteachesatthe
Georg-August-UniversityinGöttingen,Germany.
clare hayes-brady isaLecturerinAmericanLiteratureatUniversityCollege
Dublin and the author of The Unspeakable Failures of David Foster Wallace
(2016). Other research interests include the interaction of literature with film;
transatlantic cultural heritage; performative sexuality (both normative and
queer), resistant gender modes, and the history of burlesque; digital humanities
and modes of transmission; adolescence in contemporary fiction; and dystopian
narrative.
david hering isaLecturerinAmericanLiteratureattheUniversityofLiverpool,
United Kingdom. He is the author of David Foster Wallace: Fiction and Form
(2016)andeditorofConsiderDavidFosterWallace:CriticalEssays(2010).His
ix