The unspeakable failures of David Foster Wallace : language, identity, and resistance / Clare Hayes-Brady.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hayes-Brady, Clare, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wallace, David Foster--Criticism and interpretation.

Wallace, David Foster.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (233 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Summary:

"This book examines the writing of David Foster Wallace, hailed as the voice of a generation on his death. Critics have identified horror of solipsism, obsession with sincerity and a corresponding ambivalence regarding postmodern irony, and detailed attention to contemporary culture as the central elements of Wallace's writing. Clare Hayes-Brady draws on the evolving discourses of Wallace studies, focusing on the unifying anti-teleology of his writing, arguing that that position is a fundamentally political response to the condition of neo-liberal America. She argues that Wallace's work is most unified by its resistance to closure, which pervades the structural, narrative and stylistic elements of his writing. Taking a broadly thematic approach to the numerous types of 'failure', or lack of completion, visible throughout his work, the book offers a framework within which to read Wallace's work as a coherent whole, rather than split along the lines of fiction versus non-fiction, or pre- and post-Infinite Jest, two critical positions that have become dominant over the last five years. While demonstrating the centrality of 'failure', the book also explores Wallace's approach to sincere communication as a recurring response to what he saw as the inane, self-absorbed commodification of language and society, along with less explored themes such as gender, naming and heroism. Situating Wallace as both a product of his time and an artist sui generis, Hayes-Brady details his abiding interest in philosophy, language and the struggle for an authentic self in late-twentieth-century America."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Contents:

1. Introduction Section A: Wallace and his World

2. "I'm a man of my

" Sketching the Incomplete

3. "It's just the texture of the world I live in": The Writer and the World Section B: The Foundational Ideas

4. The Book, the Broom and the Ladder: Grounding Philosophy

5. "An act of communication between one human being and another": Writing and the Process of Communication

6. Narcissism, Alienation and Commun(al)ity Section C: Fail Again: Failure as Structure and Theme

7. Vocal Instability and Narrative Structure

8. "Personally I'm neutral on the menstruation point": Gender, Difference and the Body

9. Freedom, Failure and the Heroic Citizen

10. Conclusion

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781501313554

150131355X

9781501313547

1501313541

OCLC:

933296650