The David Foster Wallace Archive at the Harry Ransom Center showcases some of Wallace’s teaching material, including this syllabus for English 102 (at Illinois State University). Here’s the front page, where you can clearly see that Wallace has selected a reading list comprised almost entirely of airport novels by authors like Thomas Harris, Jackie Collins, and Mary Higgins Clark–
I love his “AIMS OF THE COURSE” section, where he steps outside of the “narcotizing” language of the university catalog to explain why the course will look at “what’s considered popular or commercial fiction.” The “WARNING” is great too.
