Perhaps better known as a novelist, David Foster Wallace was also a master essayist, whose works offer a unique look at what has animated our culture over the past generation, from hi-brow to lo. Wallace's essays explore matters from animal ethics to the physics of a game of tennis, from David Lynch and John McCain to Roger Federer and Tracy Austin (who broke his heart). He wrote about philosophy and pornography, cruise ships and Dostoevsky. This seminar explores Wallace's non-fiction work in pieces and as a whole, and as an example of what the essay alone may be able to do in our time. We ask also, in the words of one critic: 'How much can we sort of pin on DFW?'