A Deep Insider’s Elegiac Tribute: The Work of Don DeLillo in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest

Abstract

This article explores the influence the work of Don DeLillo has on David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996), scrutinising the way Wallace built some of his most important themes on a foundation of literary allusion, particularly to the DeLillo novels End Zone (1972) and Americana (1971). This article also incorporates the use of archival material that shows both authors corresponding about literature and writing, which is also illuminating when investigating the origins of Infinite Jest’s sub-textual meaning. In order to thoroughly describe the theoretical import of this relationship, this article also considers Wallace’s engagement with the critical theories of influence, specifically his overt and creative use of Harold Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence (1973) in the novel.