Approaches to Teaching the Works of David Foster Wallace
- Editors: Stephen J. Burn, Mary K. Holland
- Pages: 214
- Published: 2019
- ISBN: 9781603294645 (Hardcover)
- ISBN: 9781603293914 (Paperback)
“This is a wonderful book that will appeal to teachers at all educational levels. It offers a great deal both to newcomers to Wallace and to readers familiar with his work.”
—Kasia Boddy, Cambridge University
David Foster Wallace’s works engage with his literary moment—roughly summarized as postmodernism—and with the author’s historical context. From his famously complex fiction to essays critical of American culture, Wallace’s works have at their core essential human concerns such as self-understanding, connecting with others, ethical behavior, and finding meaning. The essays in this volume suggest ways to elucidate Wallace’s philosophical and literary preoccupations for today’s students, who continue to contend with urgent issues, both personal and political, through reading literature.
Part 1, “Materials,” offers guidance on biographical, contextual, and archival sources and critical responses to Wallace’s writing. The essays in part 2, “Approaches,” discuss teaching key works and genres in high school settings, first-year undergraduate writing classes, American literature surveys, seminars on Wallace, and world literature courses. They examine Wallace’s social and philosophical contexts and contributions, treating topics such as gender, literary ethics, and the culture of writing programs.
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Introduction (3)
Novels and Short Fiction (3)
Nonfiction and Reviews (4)
Readings for Students (5)
The Instructor’s Library (6)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
Introduction (13)
Teaching Key Works and Genres
Teaching Infinite Jest (22)
Last Words: Teaching The Pale King (33)
Teaching Wallace’s Short Fiction (42)
Teaching Wallace’s Pop Criticism (52)
Classroom Contexts
Infinite Unrest: “Octet,” High School, and the Revolving Door of Metanarrative (59)
Considering Composition: Teaching Wallace in the First-Year Writing Classroom (68)
Wallaceward the American Literature Survey Course Takes Its Way (75)
Wallace as Major Author: Teaching the Oeuvre (85)
Digital Wallace: Networked Pedagogies and Distributed Reading (94)
Wallace and Literary History: Influences and Intertexts
After Deconstruction: Wallace’s New Realism (101)
Beyond the Limit: Teaching Wallace and the Systems Novel (113)
Twenty-First-Century Wallace: Teaching Wallace amid His Contemporaries (123)
Wallace and World Literature (132)
Intellectual and Social Contexts
Early Wallace and Program Culture (144)
Wallace and Philosophy (155)
Desire, Self, and Other: Wallace and Gender (169)
Can Empathy Be Taught? Wallace’s Literary Ethics (180)
Notes on Contributors (187)
Survey Participants (191)
Works Cited (193)
