In on the joke: how Infinite Jest represents entertainment addiction

Abstract

Entertainment and mass media are proven to be an addictive aspect of our everyday lives. David Foster Wallace was very concerned with media’s dangerous potential, and his 1996 novel Infinite Jest explores this along with other aspects of addiction in detail. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how entertainment addiction is represented in David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest for the purpose of understanding how addiction is woven into its narrative and form, and whether or not it stands above the postmodern aura of irony it engages with and critiques.