Critical Representation of America in David Foster Wallace’s Fiction Novels

Abstract

This article examines the representation of the USA at the end of the XX century and the beginning of the XXI century by David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) in the novels The Broom of the System (1987), Infinite Jest (1996), and The Pale King (2011). Particular attention is paid to how the writer analyzes the value basis of American culture and society. In his works Wallace shows that the American concept of putting individual welfare above the common, used by corporations for profit, cultivates the development of consumerism and addictions; the author’s prediction about the future of the country seems distressing.