Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-252) and index.
Contents:
Slacker redemption: Wallace and generation X / Marshall Boswell -- Wallace and American literature / Andrew Hoberek -- Wallace's 'bad influence' / Lee Konstantinou -- The broom of the system and Girl with curious hair / Matthew Luter -- Brief interviews with hideous men / Adam Kelly -- Oblivion / David Hering -- Wallace's non-fiction / Jeffrey Severs -- Infinite jest / Mary Holland -- 'Palely loitering': on not finishing (in) The pale king / Clare Hayes-Brady -- Wallace's aesthetic / Robert L. McLaughlin -- Wallace and politics / Andrew Warren -- Wallace, spirituality, and religion / Matthew Mullins -- Wallace and race / Lucas Thompson -- Wallace's geographic metafiction / Jurrit Daalder -- David (Foster) Wallace and the (world) system / Joseph Tabbi.
Summary:
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 resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.