Post Modernism yay.

1. Post Modernism yay. By: Bree Burnette

2. When and Where? • The Postmodernism era began around…… wait for it almost there after Modernism. But in all seriousness the time period began from the 1950s to infinity and beyond. • Well since it’s the most recent literary period no one on Google told me a specific place- so Imma guess probably in ‘Murica ?

3. P-O-S-t-m-o-d-e-r-n-i-s-m do you know what that mean ? • A style of literature, philosophy, art, and architecture, or the situation of Western society in a late capitalist or postcapitalist age. • The French theorist Jean-François Lyotarddefined postmodernism as "incredulity towards metanarratives"; or in simpler terms, a skepticism toward the "grand narratives" that seek to explain and plot human life and history. • It’s different from Modernism by branching away from the traditional styles of non-fiction books and realism, Postmodernism focused more on fictional and made up stories and characters.

4. Caracteristicas • An emphasis on impressionism, how reading or perception takes places (Instead of what is perceived) Ex: Stream-of-consciousness writing • Pastiche- Many postmodern authors combined or “pasted” elements of previous genres and styles of literatures to create a new narrative voice. • Blurring of distinctions between genres, so that poetry seems more documentary (as in T.S. Eliot or EE Cummings) and prose seems more poetic. • An emphasis on fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives, and random-seeming collages of different materials. • Irony, playfulness, and black humor…hoorah. • Metafiction- writing about writing, an attempt to make the reader aware of its fictionality. • Temporal distortion- author may jump back and forth in time • Paranoia- authors write under the assumption that modern society cannot be explained or understood • Technoculture and hyperreality

5. historical/social environments • Developed in the second half of the twentieth century, it is largely influenced by a number of events that marked this period. Genocide that occurred during the Second World War, Soviet gulags, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, mass destruction caused by atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, insecurity of Cold War Era, post colonialism issue, as well as the supremacy of multinational corporations and post-industrialism with new technologies, violence, counter culture and consumer culture shaped the perception of new authors.

6. Important Figures/works (Kindof)well they were some random names from the internet but we will call them major and important • Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse) (1969) • Joseph Heller Catch-22 (1961) • John Barth (Lost in the Funhouse) (1968) • Thomas Pynchon The Crying Lot 49 (1966) • Italo Calvino (1972) Invisible Cities • Tomcat in Love (1998) (Tim O’brien) • 2666 (Roberto Bolano) (2004) • Bleeding Edge (2013) by Thomas Pynchon

7. A Poem ALL WATCHED OVER BY MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE by Richard Brautigan (1968) • http://classes.berklee.edu/llanday/spring02/tech/pomopoetry.htm

8. Catch-22 summary because I was too lazy to actually read the entire thing • Catch-22 follows Captain John Yossarian in his exploits as a bombardier (that is, a member of a fighter plane crew that is in charge of aiming and releasing bombs) in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. Yossarian has one wish: to survive the madness of wartime culture. He's convinced that everyone is trying to kill him, a notion that sometimes arises in a war where…everyone is trying to kill one another. Yossarian has to survive the dangerous combat missions he flies, while Colonel Cathcart continues to increase the number of missions his men must complete. • The novel does not flow in chronological order, but instead involves frequent flashbacks. Sound confusing? That's the idea – so is war. The first part concentrates on the narrative present, the second part on the scene of the Great Big Siege of Bologna, the third part returns to the present, the fourth part centers on the actions of Milo, and finally on Yossarian's escape from the military. Many of Yossarian's actions are in response to the death of a fellow soldier, or as a tactic to avoid flying dangerous missions. The Air Force administration's actions, on the contrary, are based on improving the ranks of the individual officers or making America look good in the war.

9. Catch-22 quotesThese were the funniest “They’re trying to kill me,” Yossarian told him calmly. “No one’s trying to kill you,” Clevinger cried. “Then why are they shooting at me? Yossarian asked. “They’re shooting at everyone,” Clevinger answered. “They’re trying to kill everyone.” ‘And what difference does that make?” Major Major never sees anyone in his office while he’s in his office. Women killed Hungry Joe. His response to them as sexual beings was one of frenzied worship and idolatry. They were lovely, satisfying, maddening manifestations of the miraculous, instruments of pleasure too powerful to be measured, too keen to be endured, and too exquisite to be intended for employment by the base, unworthy man. He could interpret their naked presence in his hands only as a cosmic oversight destined to be rectified speedily, and he was driven always to make what carnal use of them he could in the fleeting moment or two he felt he had before Someone caught wise and whisked them away. He could never decide whether to furgle them or photograph them, for he had found it impossible to do both simultaneously. (6.8) Hungry Joe has such lust for women that he captures their images forever in photographs. His desire to photograph them is as strong as his desire to take women sexually – he is caught between the two choices indecisively.

10. Works Cited • http://classes.berklee.edu/llanday/spring02/tech/pomopoetry.htm • http://writershistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=4&id=29&Itemid=42 • http://www.shmoop.com/catch-22/