Postmodernism
Here is the introductory video.
Here are the unit notes for your binder:
Before we can fully understand Postmodernist literature, we must first review some of the tenets of Modernism.
· Whereas Modernism places faith in the ideas, values, beliefs, culture, and norms of the West, Postmodernism rejects Western values and beliefs as only a small part of the human experience and often rejects such ideas, beliefs, culture, and norms
· Whereas Modernism attempts to reveal profound truths of experience and life, Postmodernism is suspicious of being "profound" because such ideas are based on one particular Western value systems.
· Whereas Modernism attempts to find depth and interior meaning beneath the surface of objects and events, Postmodernism prefers to dwell on the exterior image and avoids drawing conclusions or suggesting underlying meanings associated with the interior of objects and events.
· Whereas Modernism focused on central themes and a united vision in a particular piece of literature, Postmodernism sees human experience as unstable, internally contradictory, ambiguous, inconclusive, indeterminate, unfinished, fragmented, discontinuous, "jagged," with no one specific reality possible. Therefore, it focuses on a vision of a contradictory, fragmented, ambiguous, indeterminate, unfinished, "jagged" world.
· Whereas Modern authors guide and control the reader’s response to their work, the Postmodern writer creates an "open" work in which the reader must supply his own connections, work out alternative meanings, and provide his own (unguided) interpretation. It is important to keep in mind that the Postmodern author rarely provides closure; it is up to the reader to put all the pieces together based on his/her interpretation. Let me know how you feel at the end of The Catcher in the Rye. Is there closure to Holden’s story or do you feel even more lost than you did when you began the novel? Is there closure to Fight Club or more chaos? What about The Great Gatsby? Did Gatsby’s death and its aftermath bring closure to you as a reader?
· Whereas the Modernist novel mourns the loss of a coherent world, the Postmodern novel celebrates and revels in the chaos. This is where you can make an argument that The Catcher in the Rye is more Modern than Postmodern. There is most certainly a feeling of loss associated with Holden’s departure from childhood. I don’t think Holden celebrates the chaos his psychological break has brought to his life. However, when we read Fight Club, you will see that the characters go out of their way to create chaos and certainly revel in it.
Additional Characteristics of Postmodernism in Fiction
Here are the unit notes for your binder:
Before we can fully understand Postmodernist literature, we must first review some of the tenets of Modernism.
- Modernism is marked by a strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views. Think of how F. Scott Fitzgerald makes a strong and intentional break with the institution of marriage via the marriage of Daisy and Tom Buchanan.
- Modernists believe the world is created in the act of perceiving it; that is, the world is what we say it is. Nearly all the characters in The Great Gatsby (with the occasional exception of Nick Carraway) who live in his or her own reality. For example, Gatsby creates and lives in his own world separate from reality in which he can recreate the past and win Daisy’s love.
- Modernists do not subscribe to absolute truth. All things are relative. Something is moral or immoral according to specific situations. For example, do you believe the characters in The Great Gatsby believe that it is wrong to commit adultery at any time and in any given situation? Probably not. They most likely believe that some instances of adultery are less immoral than others depending on the situation.
- Modernists feel no connection with history or institutions. Their experience is that of alienation, loss, and despair. Gatsby. Hello.
- Modernists champion the individual and celebrate inner strength.
- Modernists believe life is unordered.
- Modernists concern themselves with the sub-conscious.
- Modernism is characterized by a "Westernization" of many formerly traditional societies and nations and a resulting change in their values (often they are the detriment of the formerly traditional society and nation). These "modern" values include a belief in the desirability of industrialization, individual political rights, democracy, mass literacy and education, private ownership of the means of production, the scientific method, public institutions like those in the West, middle class Western value systems, a disbelief in—or at least a questioning of—the existence of God, and (sometimes) the emancipation of women
· Whereas Modernism places faith in the ideas, values, beliefs, culture, and norms of the West, Postmodernism rejects Western values and beliefs as only a small part of the human experience and often rejects such ideas, beliefs, culture, and norms
· Whereas Modernism attempts to reveal profound truths of experience and life, Postmodernism is suspicious of being "profound" because such ideas are based on one particular Western value systems.
· Whereas Modernism attempts to find depth and interior meaning beneath the surface of objects and events, Postmodernism prefers to dwell on the exterior image and avoids drawing conclusions or suggesting underlying meanings associated with the interior of objects and events.
· Whereas Modernism focused on central themes and a united vision in a particular piece of literature, Postmodernism sees human experience as unstable, internally contradictory, ambiguous, inconclusive, indeterminate, unfinished, fragmented, discontinuous, "jagged," with no one specific reality possible. Therefore, it focuses on a vision of a contradictory, fragmented, ambiguous, indeterminate, unfinished, "jagged" world.
· Whereas Modern authors guide and control the reader’s response to their work, the Postmodern writer creates an "open" work in which the reader must supply his own connections, work out alternative meanings, and provide his own (unguided) interpretation. It is important to keep in mind that the Postmodern author rarely provides closure; it is up to the reader to put all the pieces together based on his/her interpretation. Let me know how you feel at the end of The Catcher in the Rye. Is there closure to Holden’s story or do you feel even more lost than you did when you began the novel? Is there closure to Fight Club or more chaos? What about The Great Gatsby? Did Gatsby’s death and its aftermath bring closure to you as a reader?
· Whereas the Modernist novel mourns the loss of a coherent world, the Postmodern novel celebrates and revels in the chaos. This is where you can make an argument that The Catcher in the Rye is more Modern than Postmodern. There is most certainly a feeling of loss associated with Holden’s departure from childhood. I don’t think Holden celebrates the chaos his psychological break has brought to his life. However, when we read Fight Club, you will see that the characters go out of their way to create chaos and certainly revel in it.
Additional Characteristics of Postmodernism in Fiction
- Irony, absurdity, playfulness & black humour : treating serious subjects as a joke, sometimes with emotionally distant authors. Playfulness is central to postmodernism; it reinforces the idea that there is no organising principle in a chaotic world.
- Distrust:
- of theories and ideologies;
- of the author/narrator, undermining his control of one voice
- of modern assumptions about culture, identity, & history,
- Pastiche (mixing genres) as an homage to or a parody of past literary styles
- Metafiction: making the artificiality of writing apparent to the reader, i.e. deliberate strategies to prevent the usual suspension of disbelief, drawing attention to the conventions of literature
- Poioumena: purporting to be one kind of narrative, when it’s really another, exploring the boundaries of fiction and reality
- Historiographic metafiction: fictionalising actual events and figures from history
- Temporal distortion: events can overlap, repeat, or multiple events can occur simultaneously, often to achieve irony.
- Technoculture and hyper-reality: worlds & characters inundated with information, focused on technology in everyday life, swamped by products and bombarded by advertising, ambiguity about what’s real and what’s simulated.
- Paranoia: subverting or parodying the belief that there is some power or ordering system behind the chaotic postmodern world. The postmodernist believes that the search for order is pointless and absurd.
- Maximalism (but not the airport novel LOL): sprawling canvas and fragmented narrative i.e. looking disorganised and filled with playful language for its own sake.
- Minimalism: short, ‘slice-of-life’ stories where readers have to use their own imaginations to create the story. Unexceptional characters, economy with words. Spare style: anti adjectives, adverbs and meaningless details.
- Faction: blending fact and fiction, especially historical novels or those using real living personalities e.g. world politicians or celebrities.
- Magic realism: imaginary themes and subjects, with a dream-like quality, mixing the real with the fantastic, surreal and bizarre. Timeshifts, dreams, myths and fairy stories as part of the narrative, arcane erudition, inexplicable events, elements of surprise or abrupt shock.
- Intertextuality: quotations, references and allusions, designed to make apparent that every text absorbs and transforms some other text somewhere.