Durham E-Theses At the edges of perception: William Gaddis and the encyclopedic novel from Joyce to David foster Wallace Burn, Stephen J. How to cite: Burn, Stephen J. (2001) At the edges of perception: William Gaddis and the encyclopedic novel from Joyce to David foster Wallace, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4235/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 "AT THE EDGES OF PERCEPTION": WILLIAM GADDIS AND THE ENCYCLOPEDIC NOVEL FROM JOYCE TO DAVID FOSTER WALLACE A thesis submitted in August 2001 for the degree of PhD to the University of Durham By Stephen J. Burn (Department of English Studies) The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published in any form, including Electronic and the Internet, without the author's prior written consent. All information derived from this thesis must be acknowledged appropriately. L Q torn 2002 ABSTRACT "AT THE EDGES OF PERCEPTION": WILLIAM GADDIS AND THE ENCYCLOPEDIC NOVEL FROM JOYCE TO DAVID FOSTER WALLACE "Longer works of fiction," a character in William Gaddis's J_R complains of the current literary scene, are now "dismissed as classics and remain . largely unread due to the effort involved in reading and turning any more than two hundred pages" (527). This study argues that despite most literary critics constructing American postmodernism as a movement that privileges short works, in contrast to the encyclopedic masterworks of modernism, there are in fact a large number of artistically sophisticated contemporary novels of encyclopedic scope that demonstrate often ignored lines of continuity from works like James Joyce's Ulysses. In arguing this, I attempt not just to draw attention to a neglected strain in contemporary American fiction, but also to provide a more accurate context in which those few recent encyclopedic novels that have assumed centrality, like Gravity's Rainbow, might be evaluated. In doing so, this thesis also seeks to demonstrate the pivotal position of William Gaddis who, despite publishing four impressive novels that engage with the legacy of modernism and pre-empt elements of postmodernism, has been excluded from most studies dealing with the transition between the two movements. Through detailed readings of four encyclopedic novels - Gaddis's The Recognitions, Don DeLillo's Underworld. Richard Powers's The Gold Bug Variations, and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest -1 show Gaddis's continuation of encyclopedic modernism, the importance of his example to later writers, and the continuing vitality of the encyclopedic novel beyond the defined limits of modernism. However, as these novels try to encompass the full circle of knowledge, in order to do justice to their diverse learning I have adopted a different approach in each chapter. Very broadly, they attempt to encircle art, psychology, science, and literature, which, taken together, attempt to synthesise a defence of the contemporary encyclopedic novel. While minimalist writers from Raymond Carver to Ann Beattie have affirmed that less is more, this thesis argues that, in some cases, more really is more. Frontispiece: Engraving by Benoit-Louis Prevost, Frontispiece to the 1772 edition of Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopedic (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco). The engraving shows Truth, wrapped in a veil, encircled by Reason, Philosophy, Theology, and other personifications of sciences, arts and crafts. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Over the course of researching and writing this project I received help and encouragement from a lot of people, but I'd like to particularly thank Lesley and Russ Burn, Audrey, Denis, and Sophie Ferguson, and Jamie Pearson for their support. Professor Patricia Waugh has been an excellent supervisor for this thesis, and I have benefited immensely from both her encyclopedic knowledge, and her encouragement in difficult times Without her help, it would have been a far worse piece of work, and may never have been finished... Also in Durham's Department of English, I have profited from conversations with Sean Burke, and Mark Sandy. Mark's stoic patience in the face of endless questions and proof-reading was a great relief. Particularly unfortunate, though, were Jon Adams and Julie Ferguson, who suffered more with this project than most. Jon proof-read, discussed, made suggestions, and, ultimately helped me forget it. Julie lived with this thesis longest, without losing her sweetness and patience, and I feel very lucky and grateful to have had her encouragement. My parents, however, have suffered this longer than anyone, and I am especially grateful for their constant support. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT i FRONTISPIECE ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v-viii ETYMOLOGY ix EXTRACTS x-xii INTRODUCTION 1-35 The Encyclopedic Narrative in the Twentieth Century. CHAPTER ONE 36-96 "A Perfectly Ordered Chaos": William Gaddis's The Recognitions. CHAPTER TWO 97-131 "The American Book of the Dead": Don DeLillo's Underworld. CHAPTER THREE 132-73 "An Encyclopedia of the Information Age": Richard Powers's The Gold Bug Variations. CHAPTER FOUR 174-205 "Immanent Domain". David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. CONCLUSION 206-18 "At the Edges of Perception " Works Cited 219-55 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS With all the primary texts by Gaddis, DeLillo, and Powers, I have endeavoured to use the American first editions with the exception of Gaddis's The Recognitions and JR, where Gaddis corrected some errors for the first Penguin editions, and DeLillo's Americana which DeLillo cut slightly for its reprint as a Penguin paperback in 1989. David Foster Wallace's works provide a slightly different case. The first edition of The Broom of the System is so rare that even Wallace himself reputedly does not have a copy, so I have used references to a paperback reprint. More difficult to establish is the textual status of Infinite Jest. There are a number of differences between the first edition and the paperback reprint, such as Hal claiming to be "thirteen in June" on page 27 of the hardback, and "eleven in June" on the same page in the paperback. There is no note on the copyright page of the reprint suggesting that any corrections have been made, but details such as Hal's age (given JJ 49), are only consistent with the book's chronology if the reprint is taken as authoratitive, so I have assumed that this is the case. Scholarly disputes about the authority of different texts of Joyce's works have once more flared up following the 1997 publication of Danis Rose's edition of Ulysses, and, as it seems an authoritative edition of Ulysses, in particular, may never be established, I have used Penguin reprints of Joyce's first three books. While these editions are perhaps not definitive, they are at least widely available. For Finnegans Wake, however, there does seem to be some consensus on the authority of the Faber third edition, so I have used this text of Joyce's last work. It is perhaps also worth noting that I have used square brackets to signal capitalisation changes made to preserve grammatical constructions for all texts, with the exception of the Wake on the assumption that its language, and Joyce's avowed aim to forego "cutandry grammar" (Selected Letters 318), presents a special case. Works by James Joyce: D Dubliners. introd. Terence Brown (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992). P A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ed. and introd. Seamus Deane (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992). U Ulysses, introd. Declan Kiberd (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992). FW Finnegans Wake, 3rd ed. (London: Faber, 1964). Works by William Gaddis: R The Recognitions, introd. William H. Gass (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993). JR JR, introd. Frederick R. Karl (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993). CG Carpenter's Gothic (New York: Viking-Penguin, 1985). F A Frolic of His Own (New York: Poseidon-Simon, 1994). Works by Don DeLillo: A Americana (Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1989). EZ End Zone (Boston: Houghton, 1972). GJS Great Jones Street (Boston: Houghton. 1973). RS Ratner's Star (New York: Knopf, 1976). RD Running Dog (New York: Knopf, 1978). AZ Amazons: An Intimate Memoir by the First Woman Ever to Play in the National Hockey League [published under the pseudonym Cleo Birdwell] (New York: Holt, 1980). N The Names (New York: Knopf, 1982). WN White Noise (New York: Viking-Penguin, 1985). L Libra (New York: Viking-Penguin, 1988). M Mao JJ (New York: Viking-Penguin, 1991). UW Underworld (New York: Scribner-Simon, 1997). BA The Body Artist (New York: Scribner-Simon, 2001). Works by Richard Powers: 3F Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance (New York: Beech Tree-Morrow, 1985). PD Prisoner's Dilemma (New York: Beech Tree-Morrow, 1988). GBV The Gold Bug Variations (New York: Morrow, 1991). OWS Operation Wandering Soul (New York: Morrow, 1993). G2.2 Galatea 2.2 (New York: Farrar, 1995). G Gain (New York: Farrar, 1998). PTD Plowing the Dark (New York: Farrar, 2000). Works by David Foster Wallace: BS The Broom of the System (London: Abacus-Little. 1997). Girl Girl with Curious Hair (New York: Norton, 1989).