Neoliberalism, Critique, and the Contemporary Novel Tom McCarthy and Theory Fiction

This essay addresses the intersection of the contemporary novel and theory, notably through recent debates around critique. As both the twenty-first century novel and the movement of postcritique emerge after the age of High Theory, this essay explores how the contemporary genre of theory fiction, specifically Tom McCarthy’s Satin Island, has anticipated or even pre-empted the insights of postcritique. This essay argues that McCarthy’s theory fiction constitutes a reorientation of critique in response to neoliberalism’s post-political defanging of academia—a process that is both diagnosed and epitomized by the discourse of postcritique.