Chapter 5 - David Foster Wallace and European Literature

Summary

Wallace’s public image is of an insular and profoundly American figure, whose work is strongly aligned with US postmodernist heritages and persistently categorized in geographical and national – even regional – terms. Wallace himself invited and directed many such interpretations, referring constantly to his Americanness. However, as numerous scholars have noted over the years, this US-focused lens obscures the many global threads that run through his writing. This chapter explores the European traditions that influenced Wallace, focusing particularly on German and Russian writers and philosophers. Drawing lines between Wallace and Goethe, Dostoyevsky, Kafka and Hesse among others, the chapter explores some of the specific forms of aesthetic inspiration he took from European traditions. Paying close attention to formal techniques within Wallace’s prose allows us to see the particular literary devices he felt free to appropriate within his own context. The political implications of such appropriations are carefully examined, as are questions relating to what Wallace might justifiably have expected his readers to notice or else be unaware of. Building on the work of Jacobs, Boswell and Den Dulk, among others, this chapter argues for the centrality of European literature as a crucial context in which to interpret Wallace’s work and to come to terms with his formidable literary achievements.