"A Pulse in the Neon": Televisual Assimilation in the Works of David Foster Wallace

Abstract

David Foster Wallace was thoroughly devoted to investigating conceptions of media, embodiment and selfhood in postmodern America and while much of the current scholarly conversation explores the nexus between television and Wallace's issue with the medium coopting irony in order to inoculate criticism, not much has been said about Wallace's portrayal of the televisual environment and how that environment isolates and consumes viewers. Think of the movie theater or any domestic evening in the living room watching TV. How does the setting in which we watch television condition us and how does Wallace depict the components at work, the process and consequences of such conditioning? This thesis examines the way Wallace negotiates, in his writing, the relationship between spectators and spectative spaces, how the latter assimilates the former, and the effect of such assimilation on characters' physical body, associated sense of self and their relationships.