Exploring the Irrational: Ghosts in David Foster Wallace's The Pale King
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2022-07-23
Author(s)
Abstract
David Foster Wallace's The Pale King puts the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its employees centerstage in a specific moment of time, namely the 1980, when neoliberalism gains ground and Ronald Reagan's tax revolution transforms the former civic tax service into a for-profit organization.
Bureaucracy is typically admired for its rationality, yet irrational phenomena also play a big role in Wallace's text. Similar to Frankfurt School ideas, Wallace seems to propose not only similarities between religious zeal and adamant faith in rational systems but also that the latter cannot do without the other, because the human dimension cannot be suppressed.
Bureaucracy is typically admired for its rationality, yet irrational phenomena also play a big role in Wallace's text. Similar to Frankfurt School ideas, Wallace seems to propose not only similarities between religious zeal and adamant faith in rational systems but also that the latter cannot do without the other, because the human dimension cannot be suppressed.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Event Title
International Conference: Corporations, Communities, Crowds: The Aesthetics of Collective Agency in 21-c. Culture
Event Location
Hannover
Event Date
22-24 July 2022
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
266942