David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest is one of the most ambitious American novels of the last
decade. Its huge scope its immense array of characters and Wallace's artful mastery of
language make it a complex and sometimes difficult text that has frequently been compared with
other works of magnitude such as Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow. This study is an attempt to
provide the reader of Wallace's novel with one (of many) possible threads which might lead him
through the textual labyrinth of Infinite Jest. It is concerned with the issues of narcissism
addiction depression and despair and interprets the novel within an Existentialist framework
drawn from the philosophical works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Søren Kierkegaard. It analyzes
Wallace's portrayal of contemporary existence inside a society that paradoxically entraps the
individual self exactly by exposing it to an unprecedented state of freedom. Furthermore this
study discusses the counter-proposals which Wallace weighs against postmodern culture. Infinite
Jest is thus set in relation to Postmodern literature and the similarities as well as the
differences between this literary period and Infinite Jest are illuminated.
