Man and His Identity: David Foster Wallace’s Trilogy and the End of Modernism and Postmodernism

Abstract

During history, one of the most influenced realms is the world of literature. That is to say, each literary work has been under the influence of the period in which it has been written. Therefore, all the dominant features in each era play very significant roles in shaping literary works created in that particular age. Besides, the notion of identity is a very crucial factor in each literary work in all eras and all authors creating works pay much of their attentions to the identity of the characters which can be the representation of man’s dominant identity in that specific period. Based on such an important factor, the aim of this article is to investigate the notion of man and his identity inDavid Foster Wallace (1962-2008) trilogy—The Broom of the System (1987), Infinite Jest (1996) and The Pale King (2011)—in accordance with this sequence of eras of Modernism, Postmodernism and Post Postmodernism (especially at the end of two primary ones)through the critical gates of philosophers and critics such as Raoul Eshelman, Stuart Sim, Jean-François Lyotard and Fredric Jameson.