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/lp/de-gruyter/beyond-narratology-david-foster-wallace-s-infinite-jest-ZSnHp9bMKz
- Publisher
- de Gruyter
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2013 by the
- ISSN
- 2336-2685
- eISSN
- 2336-2685
- DOI
- 10.2478/pjes-2014-0008
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Prague Journal of English Studies Volume 2, No. 1, 2013 ISSN: 1804-8722 Richard Stock David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996) provides a fruitful test case for what we can accomplish with the traditional analysis of narrative and novels. As a method to study storytelling, narratology has flourished in the twentieth century and has been the dominant way to study narrative. In this paper, I focus on Gerard Genette as the progenitor of narratology, along with Peter Brooks's more recent attempt at re-directing narratology. Using these important examples, which focus on the novel as the prime example of narrative, I claim that narratology fails to account for many instances of narrative that we encounter today especially novels and that narratology fails at its own basic goal. is is shown palpably in a small but telling example from David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. rough this reading, I demonstrate that narrative theory and the study of the novel has not changed since its inception several decades ago. is is not necessarily for bad reasons, but the field should consider if for the 21st century the field needs to reconsider the theoretical bases it is founded on, perhaps by studying
Journal
Prague Journal of English Studies – de Gruyter
Published: Dec 1, 2013