Postmodernism

1946-present

What is Postmodernism? (No one really knows)

• Postmodernism is a term that encompasses a wide-range of developments in philosophy, film, architecture, art, literature, and culture.

• Originally a reaction to modernism, referring to the lack of artistic, intellectual, or cultural thought or organized principle.

• Discontinuity, alienation, existentialism, solipsism

• Peaked around the 1960s and 1970s with the release of Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse Five

Postmodern Literature

• There are a few similarities to modernist literature.

- Like modernist literature, both are usually told from an objective or omniscient point of view.

- Both literatures explore the external reality to examine the inner states of consciousness of the characters

- Both employ fragmentation in narrative and character construction

Postmodern Literature: Common Themes

• Patiche - Authors often combine multiple elements

in the postmodern genre. • Paranoia -The belief that there is something out of the

ordinary, while everything remains the same.

Irony, playfulness, black humor,Antihero,Antinovel,Literature of the absurd

Postmodern Literature: Common Themes

• Metafiction- Writing about writing, often used to undermine

the authority of the author and to advance stories in unique ways.

Example: In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse Five, the first chapter is about the writing process of the novel.

A blurring of distinction between genres

Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings

Postmodern Literature: Influential works/authors

• Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

• Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut

• The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

• The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon

• Jorge Luis Borges

• Samuel Beckett

• Vladimir Nabokov