From Modernism to Postmodernism Ceremony From Modernism to Postmodernism

Ceremony First Edition (1977) Discussion What connections do you see between Ceremony and the modernist works we’ve read? What differences do you see between Ceremony and the modernist works we’ve read? Ceremony First Edition (1977)

Postmodernity vs. Postmodernism Historical period from 1960s- present Events (Cold War, civil and women’s rights movements, Vietnam, growing diversity of U.S. population, shift from industrial to service economy, television as dominant information and entertainment technology, introduction of computer) that caused fundamental shift in way we see world Thematic concerns and stylistic traits in the arts, philosophy, theory, etc. Connected to contemporary changes Debate regarding postmodernism’s dominant feature “Tentative”

Lyotard: Postmodernism and Grand Narratives Postmodernism defined by skepticism toward metanarrative—“single conceptual system or discourse through which we might aspire to understand the totality of the world” (The Postmodern Condition xx). “If any one common thread unites the diverse artistic and intellectual movements that constitute postmodernism, it is the questioning of any belief system that claims universality or transcendence” (The Postmodern Condition xx). Drawing of Lyotard Image source: Postmodernidad at Xtec.Cat

Questions What grand narratives does Ceremony critique? How does the novel advance its critique?

Derrida: Postmodernism and Language Derrida and deconstruction: Language shaping perception of reality, our construction of subjectivity. Language mediates our relationship to the world. Contingency of meaning Slippage between word or “signifier” and thing it identifies, or “signified” (as meaning accretes over a sentence, for example, or via connotations that attach to “signifiers”) Contradictory meanings within texts or systems of meaning Meaning of text not under the control of single author or reader Meaning localized, can take out of local context and made to mean something radically different

Questions How does Ceremony treat the relationship between language and reality? Language and subjectivity? How does the novel explore the contingency of language and meaning?

Postmodernism and Writers of Color Identity as linguistic and cultural construction Critiques of “whiteness” and masculinity as norms Emphasis on hybridity of form and expression marks PM writers of color

Questions How does Ceremony emphasis hybridity? Why is hybridity important? Leslie Marmon Silko Image source: West Virginia University Native American Studies Department