David Foster Wallace's Balancing Books

Fictions of Value

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American
Cover of the book David Foster Wallace's Balancing Books by Jeffrey Severs, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jeffrey Severs ISBN: 9780231543118
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: January 3, 2017
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Jeffrey Severs
ISBN: 9780231543118
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: January 3, 2017
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

What do we value? Why do we value it? And in a neoliberal age, can morality ever displace money as the primary means of defining value? These are the questions that drove David Foster Wallace, a writer widely credited with changing the face of contemporary fiction and moving it beyond an emotionless postmodern irony. Jeffrey Severs argues in David Foster Wallace's Balancing Books that Wallace was also deeply engaged with the social, political, and economic issues of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A rebellious economic thinker, Wallace satirized the deforming effects of money, questioned the logic of the monetary system, and saw the world through the lens of value's many hidden and untapped meanings. In original readings of all of Wallace's fiction, from The Broom of the System and Infinite Jest to his story collections and The Pale King, Severs reveals Wallace to be a thoroughly political writer whose works provide an often surreal history of financial crises and economic policies.

As Severs demonstrates, the concept of value occupied the intersection of Wallace's major interests: economics, work, metaphysics, mathematics, and morality. Severs ranges from the Great Depression and the New Deal to the realms of finance, insurance, and taxation to detail Wallace's quest for balance and grace in a world of excess and entropy. Wallace showed characters struggling to place two feet on the ground and restlessly sought to "balance the books" of a chaotic culture. Explaining why Wallace's work has galvanized a new phase in contemporary global literature, Severs draws connections to key Wallace forerunners Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and William Gaddis, as well as his successors—including Dave Eggers, Teddy Wayne, Jonathan Lethem, and Zadie Smith—interpreting Wallace's legacy in terms of finance, the gift, and office life.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

What do we value? Why do we value it? And in a neoliberal age, can morality ever displace money as the primary means of defining value? These are the questions that drove David Foster Wallace, a writer widely credited with changing the face of contemporary fiction and moving it beyond an emotionless postmodern irony. Jeffrey Severs argues in David Foster Wallace's Balancing Books that Wallace was also deeply engaged with the social, political, and economic issues of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A rebellious economic thinker, Wallace satirized the deforming effects of money, questioned the logic of the monetary system, and saw the world through the lens of value's many hidden and untapped meanings. In original readings of all of Wallace's fiction, from The Broom of the System and Infinite Jest to his story collections and The Pale King, Severs reveals Wallace to be a thoroughly political writer whose works provide an often surreal history of financial crises and economic policies.

As Severs demonstrates, the concept of value occupied the intersection of Wallace's major interests: economics, work, metaphysics, mathematics, and morality. Severs ranges from the Great Depression and the New Deal to the realms of finance, insurance, and taxation to detail Wallace's quest for balance and grace in a world of excess and entropy. Wallace showed characters struggling to place two feet on the ground and restlessly sought to "balance the books" of a chaotic culture. Explaining why Wallace's work has galvanized a new phase in contemporary global literature, Severs draws connections to key Wallace forerunners Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and William Gaddis, as well as his successors—including Dave Eggers, Teddy Wayne, Jonathan Lethem, and Zadie Smith—interpreting Wallace's legacy in terms of finance, the gift, and office life.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Joothan by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book The Lioness in Winter by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book Contemporary Japanese Politics by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book Umami by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book Rage and Time by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book Gendering Global Conflict by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book The Long War by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book The Experience of Injustice by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book The Japanese and the War by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book Beyond Sinology by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book The Islamic Context of The Thousand and One Nights by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book China's Hegemony by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book Our Savage Art by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book The Columbia Guide to the Cold War by Jeffrey Severs
Cover of the book Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! by Jeffrey Severs
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy