ABSTRACT David Foster Wallace died before the publication of his novel The Pale King, which complicates and is, indeed, important to this novel. This article argues that law – as a broadly construed concept – is a character and subject of The Pale King. Many of the characters enact a form of legal subjection, by becoming agents of U.S. tax law, which construes them as agents of the law while providing them with their sense of self. Major themes of the novel revolve around tax law, which constitutes individualized legal subjects and political bodies. However, the legal performative interpretation provided here is not a simple or straightforward analysis. Because Wallace died before the novel was published, but then appears within the text as the author who is subject to the law, The Pale King plays with and reflects on the multiple conditions of legal subjection, that which constructs and deconstructs the conditions that allow one to be both subject and free, false and real, fiction and nonfiction. Because we cannot know if Wallace is actually the author of the text, The Pale King reveals processes of legal subjection by providing readers with the opportunity to performatively subject oneself to that text, which they exhibit by attributing authority to Wallace.

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寻找作者：大卫·福斯特·华莱士（David Foster Wallace）的《苍白之王》中对法律主体的表演性读物

摘要大卫·福斯特·华莱士（David Foster Wallace）在其小说《苍白之王》出版之前就去世了。本文认为，法律（作为广泛理解的概念）是《苍白之王》的特征和主题。许多角色通过成为美国税法的代理人，制定了一种法律服从的形式，这将他们视为法律的代理人，同时为他们提供了自我意识。小说的主要主题围绕税法，税法构成了个体化的法律主体和政治机构。但是，此处提供的法律执行解释不是简单或直接的分析。因为华莱士在小说出版之前就去世了，但随后在文本中以受法律约束的作者的身份出现，苍白的国王在法律服从的多重条件下发挥作用并对其进行反思，法律服从条件构造和反构筑了条件，使人们既可以成为主体又可以自由，虚假和真实，虚构和非虚构。因为我们无法确定华莱士是否真的是该文本的作者，所以《苍白之王》通过为读者提供机会使其服从性地服从该文本，从而揭示了法律上的服从过程，他们通过将权力归属华莱士来展示这些文本。