“Broad-Minded Support”: David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, The MacArthur Foundation, and Neoliberal Creativity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper combines a close reading of David Foster Wallace's largely ignored story “Death is not the End” with sociological analysis of the commodification of literary fiction under neoliberalism. By examining the relationship between Wallace's short story and the MacArthur Fellowship he received in 1997 I identify a paradox: while creativity is essential to a society organised by the market, exercising that creativity is said to flourish in conditions where market forces are alleviated. I argue that to suggest that the collection was the result of a removal from market concerns is unfounded and that Brief Interviews can instead be read as a particular artefact of the commodification of literary fiction under neoliberalism. More broadly, I interpret Wallace's collection as a commodity whose seeming rejection of market concerns functions as its principle selling point, before turning to the question of whether such commodification still leaves space for aesthetic autonomy.