“Your temple is self and sentiment”: David Foster Wallace’s diagnostic novels

This article contends that David Foster Wallace should be read as a contemporary Christian existentialist, one who depicts the alienation of the individual in mass society but also offers a way beyond this condition. Wallace’s work grapples with faith and morality in the modern, secular world, and he approaches these issues from a Christian framework, informed by the tensions of his own personal belief and practice. The essay explores the Christian elements in his biography, and then uses Walker Percy’s description of the diagnostic novel to examine the form and content of Infinite Jest and The Pale King, Wallace’s last two novels.