Rainer Holl

The Reading of David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" As Play Rainer Holl

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, TU Dortmund (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: In 1996, David Foster Wallace published his second major novel 'Infinite Jest' that changed not only our understanding of what literature can do but also the way we read literature. With its hundreds of characters, thousands of pages, hundreds of endnotes and myriads of different perspectives, sub-plots and narrative digressions, Infinite Jest was and still is a extraordinary challenge for its readers. An interesting question related to Wallaces work is to what extent readers are able to establish and defend their own rules and boundaries that are challenged by their discourse with the book. The whole reading process can thus be seen as a work of play that is established between the poles of 'infinity' and 'jest'. This opens up a new narratological dimension which has an immediate impact on the autonomy of the reader. I want to find out in how far the readers of 'Infinite Jest' have to get involved in this work of play, how it affects the way they read the book and how the idiosyncratic reading experience finally becomes an integral part of the whole book itself.