Description
Towards a 'Cohesion-Renewing Other': The Pursuit of Alterity in Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite JestA significant dimension that David Foster Wallace and Thomas Pynchon share throughout their oeuvres is their association with the subversive practices of literary postmodernism that dismantle paradigms and deconstruct conventional narrative structures. This is apparent regarding how the monolithic works of Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) and Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996)—artifices of encyclopaedic authority—maintain an epistemological scepticism towards data, language, and power. While critics have noted the post-structural significance of these works, the ethical implications of these practices has been widely ignored. The aim of this presentation will be to suggest how both authors implement deconstructive procedures in order to negotiate the epsitemological confines of their novels in favour of an infinite Other that eludes conceptualisation. This preoccupation with alterity that cannot be totalised within the novel reflects the under-recognised, ethical foundation of both authors’ work.
| Period | 6 Nov 2014 |
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| Event type | Conference |
| Location | United KingdomShow on map |