Postmodernism in Literature - 5514 Words

Postmodern literature The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain tendencies in post-World War II literature. It is both a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of the modernist period (relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature. Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define and there is little agreement on the exact characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodern literature. However, unifying features often coincide with Jean-Franà §ois Lyotards concept of the meta-narrative and little narrative, Jacques Derridas concept of play, and Jean†¦show more content†¦Surrealist Rene Magrittes experiments with signification are used as examples by Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. Foucault also uses examples from Jorge Luis Borges, an important direct influence on many Postmodernist fiction writers. He is occasionally listed as a Postmodernist though he started writing in the 1920s. The influence of his experiments with metafiction and magical realism was not fully realized until the postmodern period.[2] Comparisons with modernist literature Both modern and postmodern literature represent a break from 19th century realism, in which a story was told from an objective or omniscient point of view. In character development, both modern and postmodern literature explore subjectivism, turning from external reality to examine inner states of consciousness, in many cases drawing on modernist examples in the stream of consciousness styles of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, or explorative poems like The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot. In addition, both modern and postmodern literature explore fragmentariness in narrative- and character-construction. The Waste Land is often cited as a means of distinguishing modern and postmodern literature. The poem is fragmentary and employs pastiche like much postmodern literature, but the speaker in The Waste Land says, these fragments I have shored against my ruins. Modernist literature sees fragmentation and extreme subjectivity as an existential crisis, or FreudianShow MoreRelatedPostmodernism An d The Future Of Literature1214 Words   |  5 PagesPostmodernism and the Future of Literature During the 19th and early 20th, Western world experienced numerous historical events and influential changes, including the Word Wars and technological revolutions. These phenomenons affected the society at large, including in the aspect of art and literature. Literary historians often classified literature from late 19th century until the end of World War II as modernism and literature after World War II as postmodernism. Although there are no explicitRead MorePostmodernism in American Literature Essay1390 Words   |  6 PagesPostmodernism in American literature The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison often makes us question the credibility of what is being told, and uses many striking, sudden shifts between the past and present, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction. This blurring of the truth is a common element of postmodern fiction. In fact, many scholars would say that Beloved is a great example of postmodernism. (Ebrahimi 2005) Morrison uses this technique to bring about the sufferingRead MorePostmodernism And Adolescence : The Outsiders1196 Words   |  5 PagesPostmodernism refuses to be pinned down and defined by a set of definitive characteristics or parameters. Its fluid definition begs to be poked and prodded, unwilling to offer a solid answer of what constitutes a Postmodern text. 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