POSTMODERNISM Vincenzo D’Angelo 5°A

HYSTORICAL BACKGROUND After the World War II general rethinking over the function of literature and arts characterized the european cultural atmosphere. REACTIONS : - flourishing of Existentialism (a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will) - Revitalisation of realism, under the name of Neorealism. It produces masterpieces in theatre, fictions and movies

When the effects of the war were over Three tendencies appeared in writing: return and revision of Modernism return of the avant-gardes insistence on literature as a weapon to reform society, deconstruct history and demolish barriers between peoples Modernism reappeared as the important contribution of the first half of the century to arts The great Modernists were revalued and the avant-gardes entered museum and fame (1960s). beginning of a mass protest made by young people against materialism and consumerism, the protest of women against inequality, the protest of blacks against segregation and racism and the arrival on the literary scene of writers who wanted to represent the voices of people not yet englobed in the world of tecnology. - mass protest made by young people against materialism and consumerism - protest of women against inequality - protest of blacks against segregation and racism - arrival on the literary scene of writers who represent the voices of people not yet englobed in the world of tecnology.

DEFINITION AND FEATURES - rejects the rigid genre distinctions - emphasizes parody, bricolage, irony and playfulness - favors reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation, discontinuity and ambiguity Modernism was the previous movement which rejected the old Victorian standards At first the manifestation of Postmodernism are visible mainly in architeture but later it involved also other fields like philosophy, theology and sociology. POSTMODERNISM is still alive, it can not be define in retrospect it grew from Modernism

MODERNISM considered reason sufficient to understand the nature of life and man POSTMODERNISM rejection against the confidence in reason is a weak tool and cannot lead to truth

POSTMODERNISM AND CAPITALISM According to Frederic Jameson, modernism and postmodernism are cultural formations which accompany particular stages of capitalism FIRST STAGE: particular technological development and realism SECOND STAGE: electric and internal combustion motors and modernism THIRD STAGE: nuclear and electronic technologies and postmodernism economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

POSTMODERNISM IN LITERATURE Postmodernism adopts a post-structuralist and deconstructive point of view. ANY CHARACTER IS MIXTURE OF MULTIPLE DIFFERENT IDENTITIES, IN RELATION TO THE SITUATION THE CHARACTER IS LIVING. To deconstruct = to take off the mental construction considered true It puts into discussion the idea of a character as unique self.

There is no real a truth, there are different truths according to the position of he who looks. THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE THE TEXT ALL TEXTS ARE THE PRODUCT OF INTERTEXTUALITY A CHARACTER IS WHAT SPEAKS HIM/HER a reader understands a character in a text from: - what he says - what he does (even from what he is not aware of) - from the signs in the text Reality exists only through signs dependent on systems of communication What we think we are is not always what people perceive of us