Postmodernism

1. Postmodernism 1946-present

2. What is Postmodernism? (No one really knows) • 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. • Discontinuity, alienation, existentialism, solipsism • Peaked around the 1960s and 1970s with the release of Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse Five

3. 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

4. Postmodern Literature: Common Themes • Patiche • Authors often combine multiple elements in the postmodern genre. • Paranoia -The belief that there is something out of the ordinary, while everything remains the same.

5. Irony, playfulness, black humor, Antihero, Antinovel, Literature of the absurd

6. 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 Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse Five, the first chapter is about the writing process of the novel.

7. A blurring of distinction between genresJackson Pollock’s drip paintings

8. Postmodern Literature:Influential works/authors • Catch 22 – Joseph Heller • Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut • The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien • The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon • Jorge Luis Borges • Samuel Beckett • Vladimir Nabokov