The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Aporia

Aporia: A term borrowed from logic for use in literary criticism, most frequently in deconstruction, to indicate an interpretative dilemma or impasse involving some textual contradiction that renders — or seems to render — meaning undecidable. Deconstructors often speak of the aporic “juncture” or “moment” as the point at which the reader lacks the justification to choose or cannot choose between two meanings.

Aporia can also be used more generally to refer to any indecision or doubt expressed by the speaker of a work, whether actual or voiced with ironic intent.