David Foster Wallace and the Audience of Democratic Authority

Abstract

This article analyzes the thought of American political writer David Foster Wallace. It argues that Wallace’s primary concern as a political writer was the disappearance of authority in contemporary American life, a condition that should be neither celebrated with postmodern irony nor lamented with reactionary conservatism. Instead, Wallace sought a middle way through the seemingly intractable political and cultural conflict of the late twentieth century. Analyzing four of Wallace’s essays—“E Unibus Pluram,” “Up Simba!,” “Authority and American Usage,” and “Host”—that range in topic from political talk radio to the history of American lexicography, this article focuses on three themes: the consequences of visual spectacle for linguistic communication, the place of doubt and certainty in civic life, and the meaning of democratic authority. The article concludes with an assessment of Wallace’s relevance for the twenty-first century.