Dressing up the author: Jonathan Franzen and David Foster Wallace branding their masculine authorial identities through fashion

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dc.contributor.authorGreene, Justin R.en
dc.contributor.departmentEnglishen
dc.date.accessioned2021-01-04T16:41:27Zen
dc.date.available2021-01-04T16:41:27Zen
dc.date.issued2020-10-01en
dc.date.updated2021-01-04T16:41:22Zen
dc.description.abstractThis article explores the use of clothes and other accessories as markers of masculine authorial identity. Fashion and literature are contentious partners, with literature attempting to keep a firm distance from the popular trappings of the fashion world. However, writers have historically used fashion to create their identities beyond the printed word. This can be seen in examples such as Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain and the ways clothing items have become associated with their personae as men of letters. Contemporary writers are no different, yet many continue to exude ambivalence towards clothing having any effect on their images in the literary sphere. Jonathan Franzen and David Foster Wallace are two examples of writers who downplay fashion’s role in their public images. Franzen and Wallace establish their positions at the forefront of American literature not only with their fiction and non-fiction works but also in the ways they adorn their bodies and present them within visual media. Nevertheless, both Franzen and Wallace perform as specific types of masculine authors through their fashion choices. Ultimately, they use fashion to brand their authorial identities in accordance with their literary output. Franzen’s and Wallace’s willing participation in the stylization of their images to meet the masculine standards of authorial identity reveals the preva-lence of gendered stereotypes regarding how authors should be represented within popular culture.en
dc.description.versionPublished (Publication status)en
dc.format.extentPages 421-441en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1386/fspc_00037_1en
dc.identifier.eissn2050-0734en
dc.identifier.issn2050-0726en
dc.identifier.issue4en
dc.identifier.orcidGreene, Justin [0000-0001-5559-2961]en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/101731en
dc.identifier.volume7en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherIntellecten
dc.rightsIn Copyright (InC)en
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subject1203 Design Practice and Managementen
dc.subject1905 Visual Arts and Craftsen
dc.subject2002 Cultural Studiesen
dc.titleDressing up the author: Jonathan Franzen and David Foster Wallace branding their masculine authorial identities through fashionen
dc.title.serialFashion, Style and Popular Cultureen
dc.typeArticleen
dc.type.otherJournal Articleen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Liberal Arts and Human Sciencesen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Liberal Arts and Human Sciences/Englishen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Techen

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