Unit 5: Postmodernism

Postmodernism

1. Coined in 1949 and refers to post WWII period
2. Encompasses a range of developments in philosophy, film, architecture, art, literature, and culture
   • Eg Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse-Five
3. Postmodern authors abandon, often playfully, the possibility of meaning and the novel is often a parody of this quest
   • There is no absolute truth, each individual and societal group makes his/her own meaning
4. Similarities to modernist literature:
   • Break from realism
   • Stylistically innovative
   • Explore external reality to examine the inner states of consciousness
   • Employ fragmentation in narrative and character construction
   • Regularly use an omniscient but often unreliable narrator
5. Different to modernist literature:
   • A problem that must be solved
   • chaos is insurmountable, the artist is impotent
   • Playfulness becomes central and the actual achievement of order and meaning becomes unlikely
6. Common themes and techniques:
   • Irony, playfulness, black humor
     • Treating serious subjects in a playful and humorous way
   • Pastiche and Intertextuality
     • To combine or paste together multiple elements
     • Collage and/or parody
     • Representation of the chaotic, pluralistic, or information drenched aspects of postmodern society
   • Metafiction
     • Writing about writing, art about art
     • Aware of artist and artificiality
   • Paranoia and absurdism
     • The belief that there is something out of the ordinary while everything appears the same
   • Temporal distortion - distortions in time
     • Central features: fragmentation and non-linear narratives
     • Temporal distortion for the sake of irony
   • Technoculture and hyperreality
     • People are inundated with information
     • Technology is a central focus in many lives