16435

SoSe 21: David Foster Wallace: Infinite Jest

Philipp Löffler

Information for students

Mode: This seminar will be taught in English and it will meet live online during regular class time. You will receive an e-mail with all necessary details about the technical aspects of the seminar. In addition to an open plenum, there will be smaller student groups, in which participants work together throughout the semester in order to intensify discussion on questions addressed in the open seminar phase. The results of your discussion will be documented in short summary papers which will then be publicized for the rest of the class. close

Additional information / Pre-requisites

Course Requirements: regular attendance and seminar participation, a short (3 pages) response paper (which you will circulate within the class) oder an oral presentation, final term paper.

Comments

This seminar is centered around the ‘maximalist’ novel Infinite Jest, alleged master piece of US American author David Foster Wallace. Our primary goal will be to close-read the novel and to examine its most pertinent narrative, conceptual, and thematic features. On the grounds of our analysis, we will discuss whether or to what extent Wallace’s text can be understood to move beyond the various legacies of literary postmodernism. Academic literary criticism has customarily tried to capture this transition as one from irony to sincerity and authenticity, which Foster Wallace’s seems to evoke throughout his writings and interviews. In the context of this debate, we will touch upon more general theoretical questions relating to the problem of periodization and the idea of progress in literary history. Was is it that defines a literary epoch? What are our instruments for defining the coherence of a period? How can we measure literary change? Themes: literary history, periodization, postmodernism, Irony vs. Authenticity, Realism close