“Persistent Pattern, Significant Form: Redemptive Artificiality in William Gaddis’ The Recognitions

The present study aims to trace in William Gaddis’ 1955 The Recognitions a celebration of artificiality which prefigures a radical post-structural theory. I initially survey early criticism of Gaddis’ novel, in an attempt to highlight the inadequacies of modernist interpretations of the text. Subsequently, a specific type of postmodern reading of The Recognitions is considered, which ultimately is shown to fall short of capitalizing on some of the novel’s key passages. In the latter half of the article, I draw on Lyotard’s Libidinal Economy in order to configure a post-structural reading of Gaddis’ novel that, unlike the former interpretative frames, affirms the value of artificiality exactly as it is given. Finally, such a celebration of artificiality is traced both in conceptual developments throughout the text, as well as in the novel’s own literary mechanisms which intimate a sense of value and transcendence present even in fake constructs.