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Print ISBN: 978-1-61925-513-5
e-ISBN: 978-1-61925-514-2 Editor: Philip Coleman, Trinity College Dublin

Tags: 2 Introductory Essays4 Critical Context Essays12 Critical Reading EssaysCurrent Critical Analysis by Top Literary ScholarsChronology of Author's LifeComplete List of Author's WorksPublication Dates of WorksBio of EditorGeneral BibliographyGeneral Subject Index


This collection of essays contributes to a global discussion concerning the value and meaning of David Foster Wallace’s work, providing fresh readings and insights on texts that have already received considerable critical attention but also advancing new ways of understanding one of the most important American writers of the late twentieth century. Containing essays by established and emerging voices, Critical Insights: David Foster Wallace makes several new and exciting contributions to the field of Wallace Studies.

Since his tragic death in 2008, David Foster Wallace’s work has been the subject of an almost overwhelming array of critical analyses, from many different perspectives, and it continues to inspire and provoke new responses. The publication of posthumous works, such as The Pale King (2011), and Both Flesh and Not: Essays (2012), together with new re-arrangements of earlier work means that the field of Wallace studies is one in which the corpus of primary materials cannot yet be said to be complete.

While it is unlikely that a previously unpublished novel remains to be discovered in the Wallace archive, the intense scholarly interest in the author’s manuscripts and papers, together with the work being done on a daily basis by scholars from around the world, means that the critical conversation about Wallace’s work is, in a very real sense, in a constant state of process and re-negotiation.

The essays in this title extend the critical conversation about the nature and value of David Foster Wallace’s work in several key respects.

This section discusses ­­­Wallace's career and certain themes of his writings in fairly broad terms, along with a biography about the man behind the literature. The rest of the text examines the writings of Wallace and their growing legacy.

The Critical Insights Series distills the best of both classic and current literary criticism of the world's most-studied literature. Edited and written by some of academia’s most distinguished literary scholars, Critical Insights: David Foster Wallace provides authoritative, in-depth scholarship that students and researchers will rely on for years. This volume is destined to become a valuable purchase for all.


“ "this book gathers a well curated assortment of criticism that does well to capture the essence of a talented writer saturated in his own complex view of contemporary society."
Critical Insights: David Foster Wallace Review
