Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005. / Title from title page screen, viewed April 10, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Ron Strickland (chair), Chris Breu, Hilary Justice. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-183) and abstract. Also available in print.

Loneliness, unhappiness, and discord pervade David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest. Parental neglect and abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, and obsession with entertainment all work to increase characters’ narcissism and self-absorption. This increased narcissism prevents characters from developing meaningful relationships, and this absence of meaningful relationships contributes to the feeling of sadness that plagues the Organization of North American Nations. Rather than confronting reality and working to overcome their sadness by attempting to form meaningful relationships, characters instead seek to escape this sadness through the various fantasies provided by drug-use and entertainment. These fantasies only work to exacerbate characters’ self-absorption and narcissism which consequently increases their unhappiness. Certain characters are able to break free of these narcissistic impulses by turning outwards to form meaningful relationships. As these characters break free of the “cage of the self” (777), they experience a sense of meaning and happiness that other characters are without. / iv, 114 leaves ; 29 cm

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2003. / Advisor: John Ferns. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-241). Also available via World Wide Web.

Throughout the course of this thesis, I argue that the prose of David Foster Wallace, specifically his posthumously published novel The Pale King, inhabits a middle ground between universal sincerity and the particularized authenticity of postmodern irony. I examine Lionel Trilling's definitions of sincerity and authenticity before moving toward an examination of the diverging critical response to Wallace's work, which, I argue, suggests that because so many critics have read his work as either inherently sincere or inherently authentic, his work inhabits a communal middle ground somewhere in between. To explain, I analyze Wallace's so-called manifesto of sincerity, "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction," as well as other instances in interviews and conversations to develop a clearer understanding of what this middle ground consists of. Further, I analyze two passages in The Pale King in which characters seek to communicate moments of profound revelation. Though these characters finally fail to truly communicate these revelations, I argue that it is the communication itself that allows both communicator and listener, and thus both reader and writer, to experience a moment of, as Wallace puts it in The Pale King, "value for both sides, both people in the relation" (227). / Graduation date: 2012

This essay presents a conceptual analysis of my piece Unavoidably Sentimental for Large Ensemble. Specifically, the paper traces the roots of the musical thinking in the piece to a notion of Sincerity that emerges from David Foster Wallace’s books and essays. The term New Sincerity, coined by Adam Kelly, is deployed to consider what a post-postmodern Sincerity could sound like in contemporary music. The paper provides general background to the literary discourse around the concept of New Sincerity as an extension of Lionel Trilling’s formalization of Sincerity and Authenticity. It suggests some examples of how a renewed sense of Sincerity could incarnate in contemporary music. As a background for the analysis of Unavoidably Sentimental itself, the paper provides background to my prior engagement with concepts like irony and authenticity in music. Unavoidably Sentimental is analyzed as a linear process, in which the piece tries to emerge out of a net of self-aware referential musical objects into the creation of sonic states of unmediated human communication between the musicians and the audience. I present different musical strategies in which the piece confronts the limitations of human communication through music, contextualized with reference to the portrayal of communication in Wallace’s writings.

Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.A.) -- Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 25 Apr., 2008). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Christopher Kocela, committee chair; Paul J. Voss, Calvin Thomas, committee members. Electronic text (96 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 16, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-96).

This thesis addresses a creative writing approach to exploring reader empathy through the critical analysis of writing devices implemented by contemporary American short fiction writers and through creative experimentation through a written collection of short stories. It explores the ways in which writers can implement specific literary devices to potentially affect a reader's emotional reaction to a character or situation. The specified devices in this research have been utilised by contemporary American authors in their short fiction collections, namely Lydia Davis (The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis), George Saunders (Tenth of December), and David Foster Wallace (Brief Interviews with Hideous Men), who have influenced reader empathy in their short stories. Two categories of devices are in focus: narrative perspective and story format. These categories are signified due to contemporary American authors' experimentation with these devices and due to their inclusion in literary theory on reader empathy and fiction, namely Suzanne Keen's theory of narrative empathy. She focuses on the importance of reader empathy (namely, the effects that fiction can have on a reader in reality) and discusses devices that writers have used to possibly evoke these emotions. Keen explores the relationship between a reader and character identification, with a further emphasis on reader empathy and reader altruism in an inter-disciplinary setting, stating that reader empathy may lead to reader altruism; however, little to no research has been conducted on the creative implementation of writing techniques in regards to reader empathy from the perspective of a creative writer. Through creative application, this thesis aims to show the ways in which devices explored by narrative theorists can create the possibility for reader empathy. Therefore, the thesis takes into account first-, second-, and third-person narrative perspectives and question and answer (Q&A), short-short (a.k.a. flash fiction), and segmented formats through literary analysis of contemporary short fiction and through writing experimentation in the form of a short story collection. The thesis aims to explore the creative use of these devices and their linkage to reader reaction by the production of a short fiction collection entitled Fragmented Perceptions: A Collection of Characters. This creative work intends to implement the specified devices researched in order to experiment with perspective and format in relation to a possible empathetic connection of the reader to a character. Finally, by analysing possible effects on reader empathy through devices employed in the creative work, the thesis explores ways in which authors can use narrative perspective and format to discover various ways in which a writer can implement devices to affect reader empathy through short fiction.