Wallace Effect

The Wallace Effect explores David Foster Wallace's contested space at the forefront of 21st-century American fiction. Pioneering Wallace scholar Marshall Boswell does this by illuminating “The Wallace Effect”-the aura of literary competition that Wallace routinely summoned in his fiction and non-fiction and that continues to inform the reception of his work by his contemporaries.

A frankly combative writer, Wallace openly challenged his artistic predecessors as he sought to establish himself as the leading literary figure of the post-postmodern turn. Boswell challenges this portrait in two ways. First, he examines novels by Wallace's literary patriarchs and contemporaries that introduce innovations on traditional metafiction that Wallace would later claim as his own. Second, he explores four novels published after Wallace's ascendency that attempt to demythologize Wallace's persona and his literary preeminence.

By re-situating Wallace's work in a broader and more contentious literary arena, The Wallace Effect traces both the reach and the limits of Wallace's legacy.

Efectul Wallace exploreaza spatiul contestat al lui David Foster Wallace in fruntea fictiunii americane din secolul XXI. Savantul pionier al lui Wallace, Marshall Boswell, face acest lucru iluminand „Efectul Wallace” - aura competitiei literare pe care Wallace a convocat-o in mod obisnuit in fictiunea si non-fictiunea sa si care continua sa informeze primirea operei sale de catre contemporanii sai. Un scriitor sincer combativ, Wallace si-a provocat in mod deschis predecesorii artistici, in timp ce incerca sa se stabileasca ca fiind figura literara de frunte a cotiturii post-postmoderne.