Postironic sensibility in My Appearance by David Foster Wallace

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54515/lcp.2023.1.129-138

Keywords:

irony, postirony, My Appearance, David Foster Wallace

Abstract

This paper aims to show how David Foster Wallace uses the story My Appearance to convey his ideas on postmodernism and irony. I argue that two sensibilities, ironic and post-ironic, are represented by the main characters David Letterman and Edilyn, respectively. I briefly outline the ways in which irony is problematic. Then I focus on how the battle between the ironic and the post-ironic is played out during an interview that the above mentioned characters participate in. I also write about the tension inherent in the notion of sincerity. I draw on the works of Adam Kelly and Lukas Hoffmann on postirony as well as a body of literature devoted to irony.

Author Biography

  • Malina Załużna-Łuczkiewicz, The University College of Applied Sciences in Chełm, Poland

    M.A. in English Philology – a faculty member of the English and American Studies Department (The University College of Applied Sciences in Chełm, Poland).

References

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Boswell, M. (2003). Understanding David Foster Wallace. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

Colebrook, C. (2004). Irony: the New Critical Idiom. London: Routledge.

Constantinou, L. (2016). Cool Characters: Irony and American Fiction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Hoffmann, L. (2016). Postirony: The Nonfictional Literature of David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers. Bielefeld: Verlag.

Hutcheon, L. (1988). A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New York: Routledge.

Hutcheon, L. (1994). Irony’s Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony. London: Routledge.

Kelly, A. (2010). David Foster Wallace and the New Sincerity in American Fiction.

In: D Hering (ed.) Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays. Los Angeles: Sideshow Mediagroup Press.

Kelly, A. (2013). American Fiction in Transition: Observer-Hero Narrative, the 1990s, and Postmodernism. New York: Bloomsbury.

Konstantinou, L. (2016). Cool Characters: Irony and American Fiction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

McClaughlin, R. L. (2018). Wallace’s Aesthetic. In: R. Clare (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to David Foster Wallace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rorty, R. (1989). Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Timmer, N. (2010). Do You Feel It Too? The Post-Postmodern Syndrome in American Fictionat the Turn of the Millennium. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Wallace, D.F. (2014). My Appearance. In: The David Foster Wallace Reader. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Wallace, D.F. (2014). E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction. In: The David Foster Wallace Reader. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Wallace, D. F. (2012). An Expanded Interview with David Foster Wallace. In: S. J. Burn (ed.) Conversations with David Foster Wallace, Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.

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Published

2023-11-23

How to Cite

Postironic sensibility in My Appearance by David Foster Wallace. (2023). Language. Culture. Politics. International Journal, 1, 129-138. https://doi.org/10.54515/lcp.2023.1.129-138