Piecing Together: Body Control, Mutability and Entertainment Technology in Infinite Jest.

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to explore body representation and its significance in David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest (1996). By doing so, it will correlate (ab)use and domination of entertainment to the description of the particular corporeality present in the novel, which is portrayed as being malleable, disconnected, machine-like and monstrous. Although published in the late 90s, the novel anticipated most accurately how entertainment would be consumed in contemporary times and its possible effects on individuals. Thereby, this essay analyzes how the body is shaped in Infinite Jest through the use of a current neuropsychological perspective and contemporary theories of the self as an attempt to reflect upon Wallace’s description of the body and its relation to the world of entertainment.