The New Sincerity: David Foster Wallace's Literary Revolution

Truth and the need to give reality a structure are essential. We need to recover the unfinished project of modernity.

Problem: Language and Science — Solution: Kantian "As If"

“Each people, as if following some guiding thread, go toward a natural but to each of them unknown goal.” That is to say, humankind, or a people, are not really going toward a natural but unknown goal, but they pretend they do so that they progress morally as well as politically (Immanuel Kant).

David Foster Wallace: Breaking with Postmodernism

David Foster Wallace was one of the most influential writers in contemporary literature. He committed suicide in 2008. He is the writer that breaks with postmodernism. Wallace grew up in a postmodern society where the tyranny of irony was unsurpassable. To escape irony, we need to recover sincerity.

The Challenge of Sincerity

How can we be sincere when postmodernism claims that there are no truths? Wallace decried the negative effects of postmodernism on his generation. He was aware of the dominant cultural form of television; irony was everywhere on TV. The problem is that irony deconstructs and debunks authority, but it offers no solutions.

Solution to Pervasive Irony: Sincerity and New Narratives

We need a postmodern narrative with a redeeming quality that looks for sincerity and humanity. Characters look for the meaning (that gives structure to their reality) that was lost with the disbelief in grand narratives (or metanarratives).

How Do We Achieve That Sincerity?

The answer is honesty. We need to connect with other people. In order to recover the interrupted project of modernity, we need to establish a network of honest relationships. There is no need to recover the grand narratives; we know that those totalizing truths have devastating consequences.

Meta-Metafiction and the New Realism

Meta-metafiction involves being self-aware about being self-aware. Postmodernism is pervasive; it is impossible not to be influenced by it. How can you recover reality—the one you had when you believed in grand narratives—in a postmodern society?

You cannot return to the realism of Émile Zola or Balzac because doing that wouldn’t be realist; society is not like that anymore. Wallace’s society is postmodern, so to achieve realism, your literature has to use postmodern tools. This is the way to overcome irony and metafictional games.