Watching As The World Turns: Performance, Everyday Life, and the Self in the Novels of David Foster Wallace

This thesis examines manifestations of performance in the novels of David

Foster Wallace. It argues that as Wallace engages with the theme of

performance he concurrently addresses the related topics of everyday life and the self. Taking key theories of performance from the discipline of

performance studies and applying these to an analysis of Wallace’s novels, this thesis demonstrates how the views of everyday life and the self presented by Wallace are predicated on performance and uncertainty. It first compares Wallace’s view of the everyday with theories put forward by Henri Lefebvre and Guy Debord. Wallace’s view of the self is then outlined, primarily through close readings of how choice, boredom, rituals, and masks are presented in Wallace’s novels, alongside comparisons of his work with two further theorists of the everyday, Raoul Vaneigem and Erving Goffman. The thesis concludes by examining how Wallace presents audiences within his novels, suggesting that he often uses performance situations to articulate his thoughts on the relationship between the self and the other, before calling for further interdisciplinary research into Wallace’s writing.