Postmodernism &

Postmodernist Literature

ASL Literature in English

Postmodernism: Definition
Coined in 1949
To describe a dissatisfaction with
modern architecture, founding the
postmodern architecture
Any of several movements (as in art,
architecture, or literature) reacting
against the philosophy and practices
of modern movements
An effect of, or reaction to,
postmodernity -- a historical and
cultural period that many believe has
succeeded modernity
Postmodernist Literature:
Overview
After World War II
A series of reactions against the
perceived failure
Extension of modernist literature
Reaction against modernism
Postmodernist Literature:
Overview
Important Works:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
Lost in the Funhouse by John
Barth (1968)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt
Vonnegut (1969)
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas
Pynchon (1973)
Wagners Approach to the
Definition of Postmodernism
To give a label to the period after
1968 (which would then encompass
all forms of fiction, both innovative
and traditional)
To describe the highly experimental
literature by Lawrence Durrell and
John Fowles in 1960s to Martin Amis
and the "Chemical (Scottish)
Generation" of the fin-de-sicle
Wagners Approach to the
Definition of Postmodernism
Postmodernist writers:
Experimental authors (especially
Durrell, Fowles, Carter, Brooke-
Rose, Barnes, Ackroyd, and
Martin Amis)
Postmodern writers: authors
who have been less innovative
Modernism Vs
Postmodernism
A break from 19th century realism
A story was told from an objective or
omniscient point of view
Character development:
Both literature explore subjectivism
Turning from external reality to examine
inner states of consciousness
Drawing on modernist examples in the
stream of consciousness styles of
Virginia Woolf and James Joyce
Absurd plays: Waiting for Godot by
Samuel Beckett
Modernism Vs
Postmodernism: Poems
The Waste Land by T S Eliot
Fragmentary
Employing pastiche like much
postmodern literature
Speaker in The Waste Land:
"these fragments I have shored
against my ruins"
Modernist literature: fragmentation
and extreme subjectivity as an
existential crisis, or Freudian
internal conflict
Modernism Vs
Postmodernism: Poems
A problem that must be solved,
and the artist often cited as the
one to solve it
Postmodernists: this chaos is
insurmountable; the artist is
impotent, and the only recourse
against "ruin" is to play within the
chaos.
Playfulness becomes central and
the actual achievement of order
and meaning becomes unlikely
Modernism Vs
Postmodernism
Explore fragmentariness in narrative-
and character-construction
Characterized by allusive difficulty,
paradox, and indifference or outright
hostility to the democratic ethos
More and more in jeopardy since the
rise of fascism and dictatorial
communism.
Postmodernist Literature:
Characterization
Not necessarily the same as the
literature of postmodernity
The movement ("postmodernism")
focuses on eclecticism (the choosing
of the "best" of previous movements),
based on the postwar value system
Any literature of the period
postmodernity might be mislabelled
"postmodern"
Common Themes &
Techniques
Irony, playfulness, black humor

Postmodern fiction: characterized by the

ironic quote marks,
Postmodern novelists labeled black
humorists: John Barth, Joseph Heller,
William Gaddis, Kurt Vonnegut, Bruce
Jay Friedman
Common to treat serious subjects in a
playful and humorous way
Common Themes &
Techniques
Stories of Donald Barthelme: A
good example of postmodern
irony and black humor
The School: the ironic death of
plants, animals, and people
connected to the children in one
class
The inexplicable repetition of
death is treated only as a joke and
the narrator remains emotionally
distant throughout
Common Themes &
Techniques
Thomas Pynchon: playfulness,
often including silly wordplay,
within a serious context
The Crying of Lot 49: Characters
named Mike Fallopian and Stanley
Koteks and a radio station called
KCUF, while having a serious
subject and a complex structure
Common Themes &
Techniques
Pastiche
To combine, or "paste" together, multiple
elements.
An homage to or a parody of past styles
A representation of the chaotic, pluralistic, or
information-drenched aspects of postmodern
society
A combination of multiple genres to create a
unique narrative or to comment on situations in
postmodernity
William S. Burroughs: science fiction, detective
fiction, westerns
Margaret Atwood: science fiction and fairy tales
Common Themes &
Techniques
Broader pastiche of the postmodern novel:
Metafiction and temporal distortion
The Public Burning by Robert Coover
(1977): Mixture of historically inaccurate
accounts of Richard Nixon interacting with
historical figures and fictional characters
such as Uncle Sam and Betty Crocker.
Pastiche in ompositional technique: the cut-
up technique by Burroughs.
The Unfortunates by B. S. Johnson (1969):
released in a box with no binding for
readers to assemble how ever they chose.
Common Themes &
Techniques
Metafiction
Writing about writing or "foregrounding
the apparatus"
Making the artificiality of art or the
fictionality of fiction apparent to the
reader
Generally disregards the necessity for
willful suspension of disbelief
To undermine the authority of the author,
for unexpected narrative shifts
To advance a story in a unique way, for
emotional distance
To comment on the act of storytelling
Common Themes &
Techniques
If on a winter's night a traveler by
Italo Calvino (1979): a reader
attempting to read a novel of the
same name
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt
Vonnegut (1969): the first chapter
- about the process of writing the
novel
Common Themes &
Techniques
Historiographic metafiction
Fictionalize actual historical
events or figures
The General in His Labyrinth by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (about
Simn Bolvar)
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow (featuring
such historical figures as Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria and
Sigmund Freud)
Common Themes &
Techniques
Temporal distortion
Central features: Fragmentation and
non-linear narratives
Temporal distortion for the sake of irony
Example: Historiographic metafiction
Distortions in time in Kurt Vonnegut's
non-linear novels: Billy Pilgrim in
Slaughterhouse Five coming "unstuck in
time
Common Themes &
Techniques
Anachronisms: Abraham Lincoln using a
telephone In his flight to Canada
(Ishmael Reed)
Time may also overlap, repeat, or
bifurcate into multiple possibilities.
"The Babysitter" from Pricksongs &
Descants by Robert Coover: multiple
possible events occurring
simultaneously -- in one section the
babysitter is murdered while in another
section nothing happens and so on
Common Themes &
Techniques
Technoculture and hyperreality
Fredric Jameson: society has moved
past the industrial age and into the
information age.
Jean Baudrillard: postmodernity was
defined by a shift into hyperreality in
which simulations have replaced the
real.
People are inundated with information
Technology as a central focus in many
lives
Common Themes &
Techniques
Our understanding of the real is
mediated by simulations of the
real
Characteristic irony and pastiche
White Noise by Don DeLillo:
characters who are bombarded with
a white noise of television, product
brand names, and clichs
The cyberpunk fiction of William
Gibson, Neal Stephenson
Common Themes &
Techniques
Paranoia
The belief that there is an ordering system
behind the chaos of the world
Postmodernist: no ordering system exists,
so a search for order is fruitless and absurd.
Often coincides with the theme of
technoculture and hyperreality.
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut:
the character Dwayne Hoover becomes
violent when he is convinced that everyone
else in the world is a robot and he is the
only human
Common Themes &
Techniques
Maximalism
a term used in literature, art, multimedia
and graphical design, and music
to explain a movement by
encompassing all factors under a multi-
purpose umbrella term like
expressionism To describe the extensive
way of writing post-modern novels
Digression, reference, and elaboration
of detail
Also described as hysterical realism
(similar to magical realism) coined by
James Wood
~Time to go~

Thank you!