永野 良博

This study investigates David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996) with special emphasis on the concepts and practices of the "care of the self," an art of caring for oneself in the hyper-competitive culture of contemporary America. Wallace's America aggressively propels the characters toward self-actualization and social success, and yet it tragically depresses those who fail to achieve their goals. The characters are free to shape their own lives, make the best of opportunities, and maximize their happiness, but, struggling toward higher, almost impossible goals, they become distraught with anxiety, and often crushed by the feelings of failure and powerlessness. The novel revolves around the Enfield Tennis Academy in Boston, a competitive, elite academy whose students are obsessed with achievement, with aspiration to climb the ladder of a tennis-ranking system. This study first examines how these students grapple with a gnawing sense of failure and powerlessness, as they endeavor to succeed in that highly competitive, athletic system. This paper will explore their attempts at the care of the self by way of philosophical and psychological investigations into the self, with special emphasis on the concepts and practices of the Tennis Academy's philosophy, ones that lead individuals to ethical self-formation. This analysis also involves another group of characters-troubled adults who have lost control over their lives and have fallen into powerlessness. These characters are residents of a halfway house that Wallace locates near the elite Tennis Academy. This study also probes into the relationship between powerlessness and the biological origin of morality in order to suggest an example of the art of survival, one that could guide individuals through intensely distressing cultural forces at work within Wallace's America.