Date of Award
Spring 2018
Thesis Type
Open Access
Degree Name
Master of Liberal Studies
Department
English
Advisor(s)
Paul Reich
Second Advisor
Emily Russell
Abstract
I will attempt to reconstruct and interpret the elusive ‘Infinite Jest,’ the film within the novel of the same title. As James Incandenza’s final product whose cryptic message originates in the filmmaker’s broken upbringing and damaged relationship with his own family, the movie points beyond the novel to the world of the reader and serves as Wallace’s mirrored evaluation of the purpose and moral considerations on literary fiction, itself part of American culture. By analyzing primarily Incandenza’s relationship with his father in the two 1960s scenes, I intend to provide a missing component in previous IJ scholarship toward the elucidation of Incandenza as Wallace’s self-actuating literary device.
Recommended Citation
Meneses, Esteban, "The Man who Put his Head in a Microwave Oven: A Look at James Incandenza from Infinite Jest" (2018). Master of Liberal Studies Theses. 83.
https://scholarship.rollins.edu/mls/83
Rights Holder
Esteban Meneses