{"product_id":"9781501313530","title":"The Unspeakable Failures of David Foster Wallace: Language, Identity, and Resistance","description":"This book examines the writing of David Foster Wallace, hailed as the voice of a generation on his death. Critics have identified horror of solipsism, obsession with sincerity and a corresponding ambivalence regarding postmodern irony, and detailed attention to contemporary culture as the central elements of Wallace's writing. Clare Hayes-Brady draws on the evolving discourses of Wallace studies, focusing on the unifying anti-teleology of his writing, arguing that that position is a fundamentally political response to the condition of neo-liberal America. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe argues that Wallace's work is most unified by its resistance to closure, which pervades the structural, narrative and stylistic elements of his writing. Taking a broadly thematic approach to the numerous types of 'failure', or lack of completion, visible throughout his work, the book offers a framework within which to read Wallace's work as a coherent whole, rather than split along the lines of fiction \u003ci\u003eversus \u003c\/i\u003enon-fiction, or pre- and post-\u003ci\u003eInfinite Jest\u003c\/i\u003e, two critical positions that have become dominant over the last five years. While demonstrating the centrality of 'failure', the book also explores Wallace's approach to sincere communication as a recurring response to what he saw as the inane, self-absorbed commodification of language and society, along with less explored themes such as gender, naming and heroism. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSituating Wallace as both a product of his time and an artist\u003ci\u003e sui generis\u003c\/i\u003e, Hayes-Brady details his abiding interest in philosophy, language and the struggle for an authentic self in late-twentieth-century America.","brand":"Bloomsbury USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47127165370608,"sku":"9781501313530","price":34.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781501313530_p0.jpg?v=1763708614","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781501313530","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}