Postmodern and Contemporary Literature

Definition of Postmodernism There is no one definition. It is easier to classify this as a philosophy/literary criticism rather than a true movement. a late-20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism that represents a countermovement from modernism and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematical relationships between ideas. Postmodernism encourages the use of elements from historical styles to create satire, illusion, decoration, and complexity.

Origins It overlapped with Modernism for the purpose of this class we will classify the origin as 1945—the year WWII ended. Influenced by modernist writers such as: Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and T.S. Eliot. It peaked in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a debate over whether postmodernism has ended, or if we are still in the postmodern era. Contemporary literature—like postmodern literature, the answer depends on who you ask.

Use Serves to dispute, reverse, mock, or reject modernist ideas and social constructs. For example: Good vs. Evil Male vs. Female Power Beauty Race

Characteristics Authorial self- reference/Reader involvement Dark humor/dark satire Faction Fragmentation Hyperreality

Characteristics Intertextuality-there are two relationships going on whenever we read a text: between us and the author (the horizontal axis) and between the text and other texts (the vertical axis). It's the vertical axis that gives us our definition of intertextuality Magical Realism-a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy. Metafiction- fiction in which the author self-consciously questions the relationship between reality and fiction. Maximalism –more is more Minimalism- less is more Historiographic metafiction

Characteristics Paradox-a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true. Paranoia-suspicion and mistrust of people or their actions without evidence or justification. Parody-deliberate exaggeration for comic effect. Pastiche-the taking of various ideas from previous writings and pasting them together to make new styles.

Characteristics Temporal Distortion- uses a nonlinear timeline; the author may jump forwards or backwards in time, or there may be cultural and historical references that do not fit. Unrealistic plots Unreliable narrators

Authors and Works: Simone de Beauvoir- The Feminine Mystique David Foster Wallace- The Broom of the System / Infinite Jest Kurt Vonnegut- Cat's Cradle/ Slaughter- house Five Thomas Pynchon- V. / The Crying of Lot 49 Margaret Atwood- The Handmaid's Tale Salman Rushdie- Shalimar the Clown / Midnight's Children Samuel Beckett- Waiting for Godot James Joyce- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man / Finnegan's Wake Toni Morrison- Beloved/ Recitatif Tim O'Brien- Ambush/The Things They Carried Joseph Heller-Catch-22 Orhan Pamuk-Snow Flannery O'Connor- A Good Man is Hard to Find (The Life you Save May be Your Own) J.D. Salinger- Cather in the Rye Chuck Palahniuk-Fight Club Joanna Russ- Why Women Can't Write

Leonid Afremov

Andy Warhol

Roy Lichtenstein

Banksy

Robert Rauschenberg