Vandevyvere, Jens Silveer R.2024-05-202024-05-202020-06https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/13244In this paper, the author analyses the defining features of the post-postmodern movement in contemporary U.S. literature in relation to the main tenets of postmodernism, out of which it developed. These characteristics are subsequently explored in three of David Foster Wallace’s short stories, “Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way”, “Octet” and “Good Old Neon”, in order to show how they may be read from a post-postmodern point of view. His use of metafiction, in particular, is examined and contrasted in these stories to highlight the post-postmodern turn away from the exhausted self-referentiality that has characterised the conventionalised postmodern aesthetic.enAtribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 4.0 Internacionalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessproyecto fin de carreraDavid Foster Wallace(post-)postmodernism“Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way”“Octet”“Good Old Neon”