Post-Modernism

“Language is unstable and ambiguous, and is therefore inherently contradictory.”

S. Barnet

What is Post-modernism?

Post-modernism is a theory of knowledge.

It embodies a belief that there are no certain single truths about the world.

Instead, every question has an infinite number of answers, each being equally as valid as the others.

3 main concepts of PM: Contradictory ideas all true at once:

PM texts do this on purpose. Brain development—perfect age for PM.

Kids wouldn’t get it—too black/white. Plays with time, assumptions

Riddle about surgeon’s son Self-referential. Metafiction=fiction

about fiction. How to tell a true war story.

Common characteristics of Post-modernist texts:

Fragmented or chaotic timeline (not in chronological order)

Have questionable narrators (can we trust him/her?)

Paradoxical. Grey area—nothing for certain, everything true at once

Metafiction (fiction referring to itself as fiction—writing a book about someone writing this book)

Common topics of Post-modernist literature:

Alienation of the individual Chance or coincidence (opposite of

“everything happens for a reason”) Futility of “solving” the chaos or

restoring order—characters may instead just “play” within the chaos. Chaos and unpredictability are not seen as problems to be solved, no social order to restore.

Know any post-modernist movies or books?

Matrix Memento Pulp Fiction Fight Club Clockwork Orange Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut) Metamorphosis (Kafka)

Deconstruction: A post-modernist literary lens (like

feminist, Marxist, New-Critical) …”seeks to show that a literary work is

usually self-contradictory.” Appleman Can do this to any text, not just a post-

modernist text

Deconstruction shows that:

Text unravels into contradictions (Huck Finn).

Text reveals more than author intended. Texts don’t “mean” only one thing, even if

author intended it to. Can support multiple, contradictory

readings. All are “true” at same time.