Self-Sacrifice in the Autobiographical Narration of David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King

Since David Foster Wallace’s 2008 suicide, commentators have searched for autobiographical confession in his work. Through a reading of his post-humous novel, The Pale King, this essay contends that Wallace divides his authorial self into three distinct entities. In so doing, he simultaneously obscures his flesh-and-blood life from the reader, complicates the persona of his implied author, and sacrifices the selfhood of his character narrator, “David Wallace.” Ultimately, these moves challenge the methodological priority granted to the self in autobiographical criticism.