(Post)modernism

Intertextuality

When a text refers to another text, movie, book, myth, song, or story. It uses ideas or references that the reader may recognize.

Metafiction

Fiction that knows it is fiction. The story reminds the reader that it is a made-up story.

Breaking the Fourth Wall

When a character talks directly to the audience or reader and knows they are being watched.

Mise en abyme

A story inside a story. A smaller version of the same story appears inside the main story.

Decentered Subjects (Fredric Jameson)

Characters who do not have a stable identity. Their identity changes depending on society, experiences, or situations.

The Waning of Affect (Fredric Jameson)

A loss of deep emotions. Characters may feel disconnected or emotionally empty.

De-hierarchisation

The mixing of high culture and popular culture. Classical art is not seen as more important than movies, TV, comics, or internet culture.

Irony and Nostalgia (Linda Hutcheon)

Looking at the past while also making fun of or criticizing it. Postmodern works often use old styles in a humorous way.

Free Form and Formlessness (Holcombe)

Breaking traditional story structures. Stories may change narrator, timeline, style, or point of view.

The Death of the Grand Narratives (Jean-François Lyotard)

The idea that people no longer believe in one big truth or explanation that controls everything.

Grand Narratives

Big ideas or stories that claim to explain the world, history, or how people should live.

Simulacra and Simulation (Jean Baudrillard)

The idea that copies or images can become more real than reality itself.

Simulacra

Copies that no longer represent a clear original and can create their own version of reality.

Narcissism and Decentered Subjects

Focus on the self while having an unstable identity. People create different versions of themselves in different situations.

Tourists (Zygmunt Bauman)

People who choose where they go, have freedom, money, and control over their movement.

Vagabonds (Zygmunt Bauman)

People who are forced to move and have less control over their lives.

Ontological Uncertainty (Brian McHale)

Uncertainty about what is real. Characters or readers are unsure which reality is true.

Postmodernism

A cultural movement that questions traditional ideas, structures, truths, and identities.

Identity in Postmodernism

The idea that identity is not fixed but changes depending on experiences, society, and situations.

Reality in Postmodernism

The idea that reality can be questioned and different versions of reality can exist.