Postmodern literature

Postmodern Literature
1950’s – present


Reacting against what came before…
• All literary movements begin as a REACTION
against the previous movement; thus, many of the
characteristics can be compared side by side to see
the shift more clearly
–
–
–

Realism reacted against Romanticism…
Modernism reacted against Realism…
Now Post Modernism reacts against Modernism!


Modernism vs. PoMo
• See world as composed
• See world as composed
of one universal Truth
of multiple, historicized
(capitalized); as religion
truths (little t, plural);
has come under
truth is constructed by
question, that Truth is up
historians, media, artist,
for debate, but the artist
AND reader

is the conduit to reach it
• Essential question:
• Essential question: How
Which world am I in?
can I interpret this world
of which I am part?


Modernism vs. PoMo
• Artistic distance between
artist and work;
personality of writer
absent in work; “I” is a
universal “I”, not artist
• Writer has privileged
insight to Truth; works
to reveal to reader

• Much more intimate
nature; writer is very
much present in the
work; “I” often equals
“writer”
• Shared
author/reader/culture
production of truths


Modernism vs. PoMo
• Rely on classical and

• Avoid excess of
literary allusions to help
allusions, but if do use
convey universal Truth
them, are usually
personal or pop culture
• Ex. “The Love Song of J.
related
Alfred Prufrock” alludes
• Ex. PoMo poem may
to Dante’s Inferno and
Shakespeare’s Hamlet
allude to the death of
poet’s dog in 3rd grade,
which reader doesn’t
know, but poet doesn’t
care


Modernism vs. PoMo
• See selves as myth-users;
use myths to re-establish
universal Truth based on
the past
• Ex. Final lines of The
Waste Land: “these
fragments I have shored
against my ruins”

• See selves as mythmakers; modify myths to

fit contemporary
situations and create new
myths to fit
contemporary situations
• Ex. Shrek takes fairy tale
and makes it fit TODAY
(laughs at old
stereotypes)


Other PoMo Characteristics
• Structures writing in nontraditional forms
– PoMo writers experiment with form of fiction in
order to convey meaning, or even just for the “fun”
of playing with the reader’s expectations
– The Things They Carried is a novel, but not in the
typical sense of the word


Other PoMo Characteristics
• Comments upon itself
– PoMo writers are often intensely self-conscious, and
therefore comment upon the art they are creating AS
they are creating it
– “How to Tell a True War Story”


Other PoMo Characteristics
• Blends and overlaps fiction and non-fiction
– This idea ties in with the concept of multiple worlds

existing simultaneously, thus these two historically
separate genres are seen more fluidly by PoMo
writers
– Tim O’Brien the author…Tim O’Brien the character


Other PoMo Characteristics
• Features cultural diversity
– PoMo writing has been more “open” to writers of
various cultures and genders
– Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alice Walker, Amy Tan,
Toni Morrison, etc.