1. Authors and Literature
Postmodernism
Authors and Literature

2. What is Postmodernism?
Postmodernism is a term that encompasses a wide-range of developments in philosophy, film, architecture, art, literature, and culture.
Originally a reaction to modernism, referring to the lack of artistic, intellectual, or cultural thought or organized principle.
Started around 1940s, exact date is unknown.
Peaked around the 1960s and 1970s with the release of Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse Five

3. Postmodern Literature
What is it?
- Used to describe the different aspects of post WW2 literature (modernist literature).
- There is not a clear and defined definition of postmodernism because of the little agreement of the concepts and characteristics and ideas within postmodernism.

4. Postmodernist Literature
Postmodernist Literature contains a broad range of concepts and ideas that include:
- responses to modernism and its ideas
- responses to technological advances
- greater diversity of cultures that leads to cultural pluralism. (small groups within a larger society maintain their culture identity).
- reconceptualizations of society and history

5. Postmodern Literature
There are a few similarities to modernist literature.
Like modernist literature, both are usually told from an objective or omniscient point of view.
Both literatures explore the external reality to examine the inner states of consciousness of the characters
Both employ fragmentation in narrative and character construction

6. Postmodern Literature: Common Themes
Irony, playfulness, black humor
- Example: The Crying Lot of 49, Pynchon uses childish wordplay while discussing serious subjects. An example of his wordplay can be found in the names of his characters: Mike Fallopian, Stanley Koteks, Mucho Maas, and Dr. Hilarius.

7. Postmodern Literature: Common Themes
Pastiche
- Authors often combine multiple elements in the postmodern genre.
Example: Pynchon includes elements from science fiction, pop culture references, and detective fiction to create fictional cultures and concepts.

8. Postmodern Literature: Common Themes
Metafiction
- Writing about writing, often used to undermine the authority of the author and to advance stories in unique ways.
Example: In Italo Calvino’s novel, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, is about a reader attempting to read a novel of the same name. In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse Five, the first chapter is about the writing process of the novel.

9. Postmodern Literature: Common Themes
Paranoia
-The belief that there is something out of the ordinary, while everything remains the same.
Example: In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Breakfast of Champions, a character becomes violent when he imagines everyone else as a robot and he is the only human.

10. Postmodern Literature: Influential works
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
Lost in the Funhouse – John Barth
The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
White Noise – Don DeLillo
Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon