The Cambridge Companion to David Foster Wallace (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Cambridge University Press, 9/20/2018
EAN 9781107195950, ISBN10: 1107195950

Hardcover, 284 pages, 23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

Best known for his masterpiece Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace re-invented fiction and non-fiction for a generation with his groundbreaking and original work. Wallace's desire to blend formal innovation and self-reflexivity with the communicative and restorative function of literature resulted in works that appeal as much to a reader's intellect as they do emotion. As such, few writers in recent memory have quite matched his work's intense critical and popular impact. The essays in this Companion, written by top Wallace scholars, offer a historical and cultural context for grasping Wallace's significance, provide rigorous individual readings of each of his major works, whether story collections, non-fiction, or novels, and address the key themes and concerns of these works, including aesthetics, politics, religion and spirituality, race, and post-humanism. This wide-ranging volume is a necessary resource for understanding an author now widely regarded as one of the most influential and important of his time.

Part I. Historical and Cultural Contexts
1. Slacker redemption
Wallace and generation X Marshall Boswell
2. Wallace and American literature Andrew Hoberek
3. Wallace's 'bad influence' Lee Konstantinou
Part II. Early Works, Story Collections, and Non-Fiction
4. Broom of the System and Girl with Curious Hair Matthew Luter
5. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Adam Kelly
6. Oblivion David Hering
7. Wallace's non-fiction Jeffrey Severs
Part III. The Major Novels
8. Infinite Jest Mary Holland
9. 'Palely loitering'
on not finishing (in) The Pale King Clare Hayes-Brady
Part IV. Themes and Topics
10. Wallace's aesthetic Robert L. McLaughlin
11. Wallace and politics Andrew Warren
12. Wallace, spirituality, and religion Matthew Mullins
13. Wallace and race Lucas Thompson
14. Wallace's geographic metafiction Jurrit Daalder
15. David (Foster) Wallace and the (world) system Joseph Tabbi.