Hermeneutical Uncertainty in Postmodern Detective Novels

Abstract

The search for some form of absolute truth has long been regarded as one of the chief tasks of philosophy, even if there seems to be more validity in maintaining that we inhabit a world devoid of definitiveness, a world lacking a fixed centre where meaning becomes elusive and ambiguous. From the basis that this epistemological plurality is well reflected by textual hermeneutics, I wish to demonstrate how literature provides a means for testing radical (some might say untenable) philosophical positions, in this case uncertainty pushed to its extremes: due to their inherently polysemic nature, texts resist interpretation in the absolute sense and showcase the futility of seeking a definitive meaning. Since truth cannot be said to exist independently of language, it follows that what truth is also varies from subject to subject; truth is a made-up concept of the human mind with linguistic ambiguity playing a crucial role in constructing, interpreting and transmitting such truth. The fictional equivalent of this approach can be found in the metadetective novels of Paul Auster and Thomas Pynchon: in both City of Glass and The Crying of Lot 49 the protagonists are at pains to unearth a rational and all-encompassing pattern governing reality, with the texts suggesting that such patterns are rather imposed on the outside world than extracted from it. Meaning and truth are revealed to be the mental constructions of a subject reaching arbitrary decisions as to what facts to base their interpretation upon, rendering it nigh impossible to come to a collective and definitive conclusion.