Equivocationary Horseshit: Post-Correlationist Aesthetics and Post-Critical Ethics in the Works of David Foster Wallace

Abstract

This article argues that David Foster Wallace’s writing can profitably be understood within paradigms of post-critique that show critical thought to be a form of forever-deferred inaction. Beginning with an examination of the histories of critique and post-critique, this article unearths the extent to which a post-correlationist aesthetics appears in Infinite Jest, before turning to the ways in which philosophical and literary representations collide in a selection of Wallace’s short fiction and essays. In sum, this article seeks to show how reflexive critical approaches to novels allow us to interrogate that very reading model itself while also spotlighting the problematic ethics of Wallace’s writing.