Orientador : Prof. Dr. Caetano Waldrigues Galindo / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras. Defesa: Curitiba, 27/06/2016 / Inclui referências : f. 151-155 / Resumo: Em sua produção ficcional e não ficcional, o escritor contemporâneo norte-americano David Foster Wallace aborda aspectos que questionam valores tomados como certos pela estética tradicional, tais como identidade, comunidade e nação. O objetivo desse projeto é analisar como uma da obras mais importantes desse escritor representa e figura uma versão de um mundo distópico carnavalizado que modifica a relação de alteridade existente entre o eu e o outro, dentro do universo literário. Para além da relação apresentada no limite da obra literária, este trabalho pretende analisar essa mesma relação de alteridade no espaço fora da obra. Tendo como ponto de partida o projeto literário do próprio escritor, de engajamento do leitor, outro dos objetivos dessa dissertação é promover uma breve discussão sobre a questão do novo movimento literário americano que alguns chamam de pós pós-modernidade (BURN, 2012). Os conceitos de carnavalização e alteridade, abertos e cambiantes, fogem de definições estritas, possibilitando sua discussão de modo a construirmos seu significado na própria obra. Dessa forma, propõe-se a análise, partindo de uma perspectiva dialógica e alteritária, do universo e das personagens representadas no romance Graça Infinita (2014, 1ª ed. 1996), considerado como a obra mais importante em toda a produção de David Foster Wallace. Concebendo a literatura como um catalisador de questões filosóficas e culturais, partiremos das reflexões da filosofia do teórico russo Mikhail Bakhtin, mais especificamente de seus pensamentos a respeito do romance, especialmente no que concerne às obras A Cultura Popular na Idade Média e no Renascimento (2013, 1ª ed. 1965) e Problemas da Poética de Dostoiévski (1981, 1ª ed. 1929). Entendendo o discurso como algo ideológico, que se desenvolve na linha da história trazendo consigo marcas de uma memória, encontramos nele, especialmente no que diz respeito ao discurso narrativo, a possibilidade de vislumbrar de que maneira a obra literária desvela aspectos da realidade. Se o romancista figura uma imagem do homem na obra literária, é através dessa representação que podemos enxergar de que forma o sujeito vê a si próprio e o mundo em que vive. Palavras-chave: David Foster Wallace, Mikhail Bakhtin, alteridade, liberdade. / Abstract: In his fictional and non-fictional production, contemporary American writer David Foster Wallace approaches aspects that question values taken for granted by traditional aesthetics, such as identity, community and nation. The goal of this project is to analyze how one of Wallace's most important works represents and conjures up a carnivalesque dystopic world and how this carnivalesque aspect modifies the relation of alterity existent between the "I" and the "Other" inside this literary universe. Going beyond the relationship existent inside the limits of the literary work, this dissertation aims to analyze the same relation of alterity in the setting that surrounds the novel. Having for a starting point the author's own literary project of engaging the reader, another object of this dissertation is to promote a brief discussion about the new literary movement in America that some critics call post postmodernism (BURN, 2012). The concepts of carnivalesque and alterity, open and changeable, escape any strict definitions allowing a discussion in order to build their meaning inside the novel itself. Therefore, I propose an analysis, from a dialogic perspective, of the universe and characters presented in Infinite Jest, considered the most important work in all of Wallace's production. Regarding literature as a catalyst of philosophical and cultural questions, we will base our discussions in the thoughts and philosophy of Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, particularly the works: Rabelais and his World and Problems of Dostoyevsky's Poetics. Understanding discourse as something ideological in its nature, something that develops itself in the course of history, bringing with it the traces of a memory, when it comes to narrative discourse, there is a possibility to catch a glimpse of the way in which the literary work unveils aspects of reality. If novelists present an image of men in their novel, it is by looking at that image that we can observe how individuals see themselves and the world they live in. Keywords: David Foster Wallace, Mikhail Bakhtin, alterity, liberty.

In the 1980s and 1990s, many scientifically cognizant young novelists turned away from the physics-based tropes of entropy and chaos and chose biological concepts of order, complexity, and self-organization as their dominant metaphors. This dissertation focuses on three novels published between 1991 and 1996 that replace the notion of the encyclopedia as a closed system and model new narrative ecologies grounded in the tenets of the emergent science of complex systems. Thus, Richard Powers's The Gold-Bug Variations (1991) explores the marriage of bottom-up self-organizing systems and top-down natural selection through a narrative lens and cautions us against any worldview which does not grasp life as a complex system; Bob Shacochis's Swimming in the Volcano (1993) illustrates how richly complex global behavior emerges from the local interaction of a large number of independent agents; and, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996) enacts a collaborative narrative of distributed causality to investigate reciprocal relationships between the individual and the multiple systems in which he is embedded. Unlike many other contemporary authors, the new encyclopedists do not shun the abundance of information in postmodern culture. Instead, as I demonstrate here, the intricate webs of their complex ecologies emerge as narrative circulates through diverse informational networks. Ecologies of Knowledge argues that these texts inaugurate a new naturalism, demanding a reconciliation between humans and the natural world and advocating an increased understanding of life's interdependent patterns and particularities. Grounded in such an awareness of ecological complexity, these large and demanding books are our survival guides for the twenty-first century. / Department of English

Cette thèse aborde la question de la valeur de la littérature contemporaine, en posant la question de la puissance de la création langagière. Dans la mesure où l’humanisme tombe en désuétude avec la fin de l’hégémonie médiatique de l’imprimerie, et où le capitalisme contemporain assigne à la culture un rôle économique et récréatif, la « littérature » se retrouve sans « critère final » pour penser sa puissance non économique. En d’autres termes, quels sont les effets intermédiaux de la création langagière livresque qui survivent à l’humanisme tout en résistant à la communication récréative? Il en va bien sûr de la nature même de la « création littéraire ». Le premier chapitre explore les liens entre l’humanisme et l’imprimerie à partir d’un concept de fongibilité, et introduit un ensemble de concepts clé. Le deuxième chapitre présente un autre ensemble de concepts (dont le geste vertical), cette fois pour penser le langage en termes de pouvoir et de puissance. Le troisième chapitre aborde le « capitalisme civilisationnel » en termes intermédiaux. On y réfléchit sur la saturation, la séparation et la fenestration, notamment à partir d’une éthique du jeu. Le quatrième chapitre traite de la question de la plasticité. Enfin, les cinquième et sixième chapitres forment deux exemples – des exemples de puissance – à partir des oeuvres de Valère Novarina (Lumières du corps) et de David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest). Le corpus théorique se compose d’éléments puisés d’une part dans l’oeuvre de Walter Benjamin et de Giorgio Agamben, selon un matérialisme messianique, et d’autre part dans celle de Gilles Deleuze. Certaines considérations sont également tenues sous l’influence de Michel Foucault et de Ludwig Wittgenstein. / This thesis broaches the value of contemporary literature as power (puissance) of language creation. Given that humanism becomes obsolete with the end of the printing press media dominance, and given that contemporary capitalism assigns an economical and recreational role to culture, “literature” is left without any “final criterion” to think its non-economical power. In other words, which intermedial effects of language creation through book form survives humanism while withstanding recreational communication? In the process, the practice of creative writing and its idea are set under a new paradigm. The first chapter explores the relationships between humanism and the printing press based on a concept of fungibility, and it introduces a set of key concepts. The second chapter presents another set of concepts (including vertical gesture), this time in order to think language in terms of ruling power (pouvoir) and virtual power (puissance). Chapter three broaches the idea of “civilizational capitalism” in intermedial terms. Saturation, separation and windowing are considered according to a game/play ethic. Chapter four is about plasticity. Finally, chapters five and six follow two examples—examples of virtual power, those of contemporary French writer Valère Novarina (Lumières du corps) and American novelist David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest). The theoretical corpus is composed of elements taken, on the one hand, from Walter Benjamin’s and Giorgio Agamben’s works (regarding messianic materialism), and on the other hand, from Gilles Deleuze’s works. Some ideas are also influenced by Michel Foucault’s and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s works.

Cette thèse aborde la question de la valeur de la littérature contemporaine, en posant la question de la puissance de la création langagière. Dans la mesure où l’humanisme tombe en désuétude avec la fin de l’hégémonie médiatique de l’imprimerie, et où le capitalisme contemporain assigne à la culture un rôle économique et récréatif, la « littérature » se retrouve sans « critère final » pour penser sa puissance non économique. En d’autres termes, quels sont les effets intermédiaux de la création langagière livresque qui survivent à l’humanisme tout en résistant à la communication récréative? Il en va bien sûr de la nature même de la « création littéraire ». Le premier chapitre explore les liens entre l’humanisme et l’imprimerie à partir d’un concept de fongibilité, et introduit un ensemble de concepts clé. Le deuxième chapitre présente un autre ensemble de concepts (dont le geste vertical), cette fois pour penser le langage en termes de pouvoir et de puissance. Le troisième chapitre aborde le « capitalisme civilisationnel » en termes intermédiaux. On y réfléchit sur la saturation, la séparation et la fenestration, notamment à partir d’une éthique du jeu. Le quatrième chapitre traite de la question de la plasticité. Enfin, les cinquième et sixième chapitres forment deux exemples – des exemples de puissance – à partir des oeuvres de Valère Novarina (Lumières du corps) et de David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest). Le corpus théorique se compose d’éléments puisés d’une part dans l’oeuvre de Walter Benjamin et de Giorgio Agamben, selon un matérialisme messianique, et d’autre part dans celle de Gilles Deleuze. Certaines considérations sont également tenues sous l’influence de Michel Foucault et de Ludwig Wittgenstein. / This thesis broaches the value of contemporary literature as power (puissance) of language creation. Given that humanism becomes obsolete with the end of the printing press media dominance, and given that contemporary capitalism assigns an economical and recreational role to culture, “literature” is left without any “final criterion” to think its non-economical power. In other words, which intermedial effects of language creation through book form survives humanism while withstanding recreational communication? In the process, the practice of creative writing and its idea are set under a new paradigm. The first chapter explores the relationships between humanism and the printing press based on a concept of fungibility, and it introduces a set of key concepts. The second chapter presents another set of concepts (including vertical gesture), this time in order to think language in terms of ruling power (pouvoir) and virtual power (puissance). Chapter three broaches the idea of “civilizational capitalism” in intermedial terms. Saturation, separation and windowing are considered according to a game/play ethic. Chapter four is about plasticity. Finally, chapters five and six follow two examples—examples of virtual power, those of contemporary French writer Valère Novarina (Lumières du corps) and American novelist David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest). The theoretical corpus is composed of elements taken, on the one hand, from Walter Benjamin’s and Giorgio Agamben’s works (regarding messianic materialism), and on the other hand, from Gilles Deleuze’s works. Some ideas are also influenced by Michel Foucault’s and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s works.