Postmodernism British Literature An Overview

Literary Movements Outline THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (1200 BCE - 455 CE) I. HOMERIC or HEROIC PERIOD (1200-800 BCE) II. CLASSICAL GREEK PERIOD (800-200 BCE) III. CLASSICAL ROMAN PERIOD (200 BCE-455 CE IV. PATRISTIC PERIOD (c. 70 CE-455 CE)

B. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD (455 CE-1485 CE) I. THE OLD ENGLISH (ANGLO-SAXON) PERIOD (428-1066) II. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD (c. 1066-1450 CE)

C. THE RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION (c. 1485-1660 CE) I. Early Tudor Period (1485-1558) II. Elizabethan Period (1558-1603) III. Jacobean Period (1603-1625) IV. Caroline Age (1625-1649) V. Commonwealth Period or Puritan Interregnum (1649-1660)

D. The Enlightenment (Neoclassical) Period (c. 1660-1790) I. Restoration Period (c. 1660-1700) II. The Augustan Age (c. 1700-1750) III. The Age of Johnson (c. 1750-1790)

E. ROMANTIC PERIOD (c. 1790-1830) F E. ROMANTIC PERIOD (c. 1790-1830) F. VICTORIAN PERIOD And The 19th Century (c. 1832-1901) G. MODERN PERIOD (c. 1914-1945?) H. POSTMODERN PERIOD (c. 1945? onward)

MODERN PERIOD (c. 1914-1945?(subject to debate) Was a sharp break from the past and its traditions. In literature it was presented in the rejection and experimentation. The avant-gardes adopted new complex forms and styles that disturbed the readers. They used fragmentation, collage, juxtaposition, flash backs, multiple point of view, allusion, and stream of consciousness.

A. Content(still evolving): 1. Dystopia/utopia 2 A. Content(still evolving): 1. Dystopia/utopia 2. Freedom/protests/anti-government sentiment 3. Racial tensions 4. Technology 5. Politics—democracies/global challenges 6. Interconnectedness

B. Genres/Styles: poetry: free verse epiphanies begin to appear in literature speeches memoirs novels stream of consciousness

D. Historical Context: 1. British Empire loses 1 million soldiers to World War I 2. Winston Churchill leads Britain through WW II, and the Germans bomb England directly 3. British colonies demand independence

E. A Sampling of Key Literature and Authors:  James Joyce  Virginia Woolf  T. S. Eliot  Joseph Conrad  D.H. Lawrence  Graham Greene  Dylan Thomas  George Orwell

Modernism VS Postmodernism Frederick Jameson “Modernism and Postmodernism are cultural formations the accompany specific stages of capitalism” Market capitalism: 18th- 19th C Steam locomotive»»» Realism Monopoly capitalism: Late 19thC to WWII Electricilty and automobile »»» Modernism Multinational/ consumer capitalism: Nuclear and electronics»»» Postmodernism

1.Modernism is a school of thought that took place in late 1800s and early 1900s while postmodernism is a school of thought that took place after World War II. 2.Modernism advocated rational thinking and the use of science and reason for the advancement of man while postmodernism believed in the irrationality of things. 3.The modernist era was characterized by the simple and elegant original works of gifted artists while the postmodernist era was characterized by the advancement in technology and its use in different media. 4.Modernists believed in universal truth while postmodernists did not. 5.Postmodernists were very political while modernists were not.

Many critics and scholars find it best to define postmodern literature against the popular literary style that came before it: modernism. In many ways, postmodern literary styles and ideas serve to dispute, reverse, mock and reject the principles of modernist literature. For example, instead of following the standard modernist literary quest for meaning in a chaotic world, postmodern literature tends to eschew, often playfully, the very possibility of meaning. The postmodern novel, story or poem is often presented as a parody of the modernist literary quest for meaning. Thomas Pynchon's postmodern novel The Crying of Lot 49 is a perfect example of this. In this novel, the protagonist's quest for knowledge and understanding results ultimately in confusion and the lack of any sort of clear understanding of the events that transpired.

H. POSTMODERN PERIOD (c. 1945? onward) Postmodern Literature Defined Postmodern literature is a form of literature which is marked, both stylistically and ideologically, by a reliance on such literary conventions as fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators, often unrealistic and downright impossible plots, games, parody, paranoia, dark humor and authorial self-reference. Postmodern authors tend to reject outright meanings in their novels, stories and poems, and, instead, highlight and celebrate the possibility of multiple meanings, or a complete lack of meaning, within a single literary work.

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.

T. S. Eliot, Morrison, Shaw, Beckett, Stoppard, Fowles, Calvino, Ginsberg, Pynchon, and other modern writers, poets, and playwrights experiment with metafiction and fragmented poetry. Multiculturalism leads to increasing canonization of non-Caucasian writers such as Langston Hughes, Sandra Cisneros, and Zora Neal Hurston. Magic Realists such as Gabriel García Márquez, Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Günter Grass, and Salman Rushdie flourish with surrealistic writings embroidered in the conventions of realism.

stylistic techniques Postmodern literature also often rejects the boundaries between 'high' and 'low' forms of art and literature, as well as the distinctions between different genres and forms of writing and storytelling. Here are some examples of stylistic techniques that are often used in postmodern literature:

• Pastiche: The taking of various ideas from previous writings and literary styles and pasting them together to make new styles. • Intertextuality: The acknowledgment of previous literary works within another literary work. • Metafiction: The act of writing about writing or making readers aware of the fictional nature of the very fiction they're reading. • Temporal Distortion: The use of non-linear timelines and narrative techniques in a story. • Minimalism: The use of characters and events which are decidedly common and non-exceptional characters. • Maximalism: Disorganized, lengthy, highly detailed writing. • Magical Realism: The introduction of impossible or unrealistic events into a narrative that is otherwise realistic. • Faction: The mixing of actual historical events with fictional events without clearly defining what is factual and what is fictional. • Reader Involvement: Often through direct address to the reader and the open acknowledgment of the fictional nature of the events being described.