Postmodernism in English Literature

POSTMODERNISM IN ENGLISH LITERATURE Postmodernism is a complicated term, or set of ideas, one that has only emerged as an area of academic study since the mid­1980s. Postmodernism is hard to define, because it is a  concept that appears in a wide variety of disciplines or areas of study, including art,  architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communications, fashion, and technology. It's  hard to locate it temporally or historically, because it's not clear exactly when postmodernism begins. Perhaps the easiest way to start thinking about postmodernism is by thinking about  modernism, the movement from which postmodernism seems to grow or emerge. Modernism has two facets, or two modes of definition, both of which are relevant to understanding  postmodernism. The first facet or definition of modernism comes from the aesthetic movement broadly  labeled "modernism." This movement is roughly coterminous with twentieth century.  Modernism is the movement in visual arts, music, literature, and drama which rejected the  old Victorian standards of how art should be made, consumed, and what it should mean. In  the period of "high modernism," from around 1910 to 1930, the major figures of modernism  literature helped radically to redefine what poetry and fiction could be and do: figures like  Woolf, Joyce, Eliot, Pound, Stevens, Proust, Mallarme, Kafka, and Rilke are considered the  founders of twentieth­century modernism. From a literary perspective, the main characteristics of modernism include: 1. an emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in writing (and in visual arts as well); an  emphasis on HOW seeing (or reading or perception itself) takes place, rather than on WHAT  is perceived. An example of this would be stream­of­consciousness writing. 2. a movement away from the apparent objectivity provided by omniscient third­person  narrators, fixed narrative points of view, and clear­cut moral positions. Faulkner's multiply­ narrated stories are an example of this aspect of modernism. 3. a blurring of distinctions between genres, so that poetry seems more documentary (as in  T.S. Eliot or E.E Cummings) and prose seems more poetic (as in Woolf or Joyce). 4. an emphasis on fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives, and random­seeming collages  of different materials. 5. a tendency toward reflexivity, or self­consciousness, about the production of the work of  art, so that each piece calls attention to its own status as a production, as something  constructed and consumed in particular ways. 6. a rejection of elaborate formal aesthetics in favor of minimalist designs (as in the poetry of  William Carlos Williams) and a rejection, in large part, of formal aesthetic theories, in favor  of spontaneity and discovery in creation. 7. A rejection of the distinction between "high" and "low" or popular culture, both in choice 

of materials used to produce art and in methods of displaying, distributing, and consuming  art. Postmodernism, like modernism, follows most of these same ideas, rejecting boundaries  between high and low forms of art, rejecting rigid genre distinctions, emphasizing pastiche,  parody, bricolage, irony, and playfulness. Postmodern art (and thought) favors reflexivity and self­consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity (especially in narrative structures),  ambiguity, simultaneity, and an emphasis on the destructured, decentered, dehumanized  subject. While postmodernism seems very much like modernism in these ways, it differs from  modernism in its attitude toward a lot of these trends. Modernism, for example, tends to  present a fragmented view of human subjectivity and history (The Wasteland, for instance, or Woolf's To the Lighthouse), but presents that fragmentation as something tragic, something  to be lamented and mourned as a loss. Many modernist works try to uphold the idea that  works of art can provide the unity, coherence, and meaning which has been lost in most of  modern life; art will do what other human institutions fail to do. Postmodernism, in contrast,  doesn't lament the idea of fragmentation,provisionality, or incoherence, but rather celebrates  that. The world is meaningless? Let's not pretend that art can make meaning then, let's just  play with nonsense. Another way of looking at the relation between modernism and postmodernism helps to  clarify some of these distinctions. According to Frederic Jameson, modernism and  postmodernism are cultural formations which accompany particular stages of capitalism.  Jameson outlines three primary phases of capitalism which dictate particular cultural  practices (including what kind of art and literature is produced). The first is market  capitalism, which occurred in the eighteenth through the late nineteenth centuries in Western  Europe, England, and the United States (and all their spheres of influence). This first phase is  associated with particular technological developments, namely, the steam­driven motor, and  with a particular kind of aesthetics, namely, realism. The second phase occurred from the late nineteenth century until the mid­twentieth century (about WWII); this phase, monopoly  capitalism, is associated with electric and internal combustion motors, and with modernism.  The third, the phase we're in now, is multinational or consumer capitalism (with the emphasis placed on marketing, selling, and consuming commodities, not on producing them),  associated with nuclear and electronic technologies, and correlated with postmodernism. the second facet, or definition, of postmodernism comes more from history and sociology  than from literature or art history. This approach defines postmodernism as the name of an  entire social formation, or set of social/historical attitudes; more precisely,this approach  contrasts "postmodernity" with "modernity," rather than "postmodernism" with "modernism."  "Modernism" generally refers to the broad aesthetic movements of the twentieth century;  "modernity" refers to a set of philosophical, political, and ethical ideas which provide the  basis for the aesthetic aspect of modernism. "Modernity" is older than "modernism;" the label "modern," first articulated in nineteenth­century sociology, was meant to distinguish the  present era from the previous one, which was labeled "antiquity." Scholars are always  debating when exactly the "modern" period began, and how to distinguish between what is  modern and what is not modern; it seems like the modern period starts earlier and earlier 

every time historians look at it. But generally, the "modern" era is associated with the  European Enlightenment, which begins roughly in the middle of the eighteenth century.  (Other historians trace elements of enlightenment thought back to the Renaissance or earlier,  and one could argue that Enlightenment thinking begins with the eighteenth century.  Modernity is fundamentally about order: about rationality and rationalization, creating order  out of chaos. The assumption is that creating more rationality is conducive to creating more  order, and that the more ordered a society is, the better it will function (the more rationally it  will function). Because modernity is about the pursuit of ever­increasing levels of order,  modern societies constantly are on guard against anything and everything labeled as  "disorder," which might disrupt order. Thus modern societies rely on continually establishing  a binary opposition between "order" and "disorder," so that they can assert the superiority of  "order." But to do this, they have to have things that represent "disorder"­­modern societies  thus continually have to create/construct "disorder." In western culture, this disorder becomes "the other"­­defined in relation to other binary oppositions. Thus anything non­white, non­ male, non­heterosexual, non­hygienic, non­rational, (etc.) becomes part of "disorder," and has to be eliminated from the ordered, rational modern society. In many ways, postmodern artists and theorists continue the sorts of experimentation that we  can also find in modernist works, including the use of self­consciousness, parody, irony,  fragmentation, generic mixing, ambiguity, simultaneity, and the breakdown between high and low forms of expression. In this way, postmodern artistic forms can be seen as an extension  of modernist experimentation. However, others prefer to represent the move into  postmodernism as a more radical break, one that is a result of new ways of representing the  world including television, film (especially after the introduction of color and sound), and the computer. Many date postmodernity from the sixties when we witnessed the rise of  postmodern architecture. Some of the things that distinguish postmodern aesthetic work from modernist work are as  follows:

1) Extreme self­reflexivity Postmodernists tend to take this even further than the modernists but in a way that tends often to be more playful, even irreverant (as in Lichtenstein's "Masterpiece"). This same self­ reflexivity can be found everywhere in pop culture, for example the way the Scream series of  movies has characters debating the generic rules behind the horror film. In modernism, self­ reflexivity tended to be used by "high" artists in difficult works (eg. Picasso's painting). In  postmodernism, self­reflexive strategies can be found in both high art and everything from  Seinfeld to MTV. In postmodern architecture, this effect is achieved by keeping visible  internal structures and engineering elements (pipes, support beams, building materials, etc.).  For example, Frank Gehry's postmodern Nationale­Nederlanden Building, which plays with  structural forms but in a decidedly humorous way (which has led to the nickname for the  building, Fred and Ginger, since the two structures—clearly male and female—appear to be  dancing around the corner).

2) Irony and parody

 Connected to the former point, is the tendency of postmodern artists, theorists, and culture to be playful or parodic. (Warhol and Lichtenstein are, again, good examples.) Pop culture and  media advertising abound with examples; indeed, shows or films will often step outside of  mimetic representation altogether in order to parody themselves in mid­stride. 

3) A breakdown between high and low cultural forms.  Whereas some modernists experimented with this same breakdown, even the modernists that played with pop forms (eg. Joyce and Eliot) tended to be extremely difficult to follow in their experimentations. Postmodernists by contrast often employ pop and mass­produced objects in more immediately understandable ways, even if their goals are still often complex (eg. Andy  Warhol's commentary on mass production and on the commercial aspects of "high" art  through the exact reproduction of a set of Cambell's Soup boxes). 

4) Retro  Postmodernists and postmodern culture tend to be especially fascinated with styles and  fashions from the past, which they will often use completely out of their original context.  Postmodern architects for example will juxtapose baroque, medieval, and modern elements in the same room or building. In pop culture, think of the endlessly recycled tv shows of the past that are then given new life on the big screen (Scooby­Doo, Charlie's Angels, and so on).  Jameson and Baudrillard tend to read this tendency as a symptom of our loss of connection  with historical temporality.

5) A questioning of grand narratives Lyotard sees the breakdown of the narratives that formerly legitimized the status quo as an  important aspect of the postmodern condition. Of course, modernists also questioned such  traditional concepts as law, religion, subjectivity, and nationhood; what appears to distinguish postmodernity is that such questioning is no longer particularly associated with an avant­ garde intelligentsia. Postmodern artists will employ pop and mass culture in their critiques  and pop culture itself tends to play with traditional concepts of temporality, religion, and  subjectivity. 

6) Visuality and the simulacrum vs. temporality Given the predominance of visual media (tv, film, media advertising, the computer), both  postmodern art and postmodern culture gravitate towards visual (often even two­dimensional) forms, as in the "cartoons" of Roy Lichtenstein. A good example of this, and of the  breakdown between "high" and "low" forms, is Art Spiegelman's Maus, a Pulitzer­prize­ winning rendition of Vladek Spiegelman's experiences in the Holocaust, which Art (his son)  chooses to present through the medium of comics or what is now commonly referred to as the "graphic novel." Another symptom of this tendency is a general breakdown in narrative  linearity and temporality. Many point to the style of MTV videos as a good example. As a  result, Baudrillard and others have argued (for example, through the notion of the  simulacrum) that we have lost all connection to reality or history. This theory may help to  explain why we are so fascinated with reality television. Pop culture also keeps coming back 

to the idea that the line separating reality and representation has broken down (Wag the Dog,  Dark City, the Matrix, the Truman Show, etc.).

7) Late capitalism There is also a general sense that the world has been so taken over by the values of capitalist  acqusition that alternatives no longer exist. One symptom of this fear is the predominance of  paranoia narratives in pop culture (Bladerunner, X­Files, the Matrix, Minority Report). This  fear is, of course, aided by advancements in technology, especially surveillance technology,  which creates the sense that we are always being watched.

8) Disorientation MTV culture is, again, sometimes cited as an example as is postmodern architecture, which  attempts to disorient the subject entering its space. Another example may be the popularity of films that seek to disorient the viewer completely through the revelation of a truth that  changes everything that came before (the Sixth Sense, the Others,Unbreakable, the Matrix).

Postmodern Culture or "Postmodernity"  Our current period in history has been called by many the postmodern age (or  "postmodernity") and many contemporary critics are understandably interested in making  sense of the time in which they live. Although an admirable endeavor, such critics inevitably  run into difficulties given the sheer complexity of living in history: we do not yet know which elements in our culture will win out and we do not always recognize the subtle but insistent  ways that changes in our society affect our ways of thinking and being in the world. One  symptom of the present's complexity is just how divided critics are on the question of  postmodern culture, with a number of critics celebrating our liberation and a number of  others lamenting our enslavement. In order to keep clear the distinction between  postmodernity and postmodernism, each set of modules includes an initial module on how  each critic makes sense of our current postmodern age (or "postmodernity").

Postmodern Theory or "Postmodernism" "Postmodernism" also refers to the aesthetic/cultural products that treat and often  critique aspects of "postmodernity." The modules introduce some of the important concepts  that have been introduced by postmodernist theorists to supplant or temper the values of  traditional humanism. Given how the "postmodern" refers to our entire historical period,  some of the theorists who have influenced postmodern theory are included not in the Modules but in other sections of this Guide to Theory. Judith Butler's use of the concept of  performativity has been extremely influential on postmodernism.

Postmodernism is a broad range of: a. Responses to modernism, refusals of some of its totalizing premises and effects, and of its  implicit of explicit distinction between ,,high,, culture and commonly lived life b. Responses to such things as a world lived under nuclear threat and threat to the

geosphere, to a world of faster communication, mass mediated reality, greater diversity of cultures and mores and a consequent pluralism c. Acknowledgments of and in some senses struggles against a world in which, under a spreading technological capitalism, all things are are commodified and fetishized (made the object of desire), and in which genuine experience has been replaced by simulation and spectacle d. Reconceptualizations of society, history and the self as cultural constructs, hence as rhetorical constructs

Postmodern literature is literature characterised by heavy reliance on techniques like fragmentation, paradox and questionable narrators and often is defined as a style or trend which emerged in the post World War II Era. Postmodern works are seen asa reaction against Enlightenment thinking and Modernist approaches to literature. Postmodern literature, like Postmodernism as a whole is tending to resist definition or classification as a movement. Postmodern literature is commonly defined in relation to a precursor. For instance post-modern literary work tends not to conclude with the neatly tied - up ending as is often found in modernist literature (Woolf, Joyce, Faulkner) but often parodies it. Authors are trying to celebrate chance over craft. Another characteristic of postmodern literature is the questioning of distinctions between high and low culture through the use of pastiche, the combination of subjects and genres not previously deemed fit for literature. Both modern and postmodern literature represent a break from 19th century realism. In character development both modern and postmodern literature explore subjectivism turning from external reality to examine inner states of consciousness from the works of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce or explorative poems like The Waste Land by T.S Eliot. Both literatures explore fragmentariness in narrative and character construction. Modernist literature sees fragmentation and extreme subjectivity as an existential crisis, a problem that must be solved and the artist is often cited as the one to solve it. Postmodernists demonstrate that the chaos is insurmountable, the artist is impotent and the only recourse against ,,ruin,, is to play within chaos. Playfulness is present in many modernist works and seem very similar to postmodern works but with postmodernism playfulness becomes central and the actual achievement of order and meaning becomes unlikely. As with all stylistic eras, there is no definite date which tells us when was the rise and fall of postmodernism’s popularity. As the rough boundary for the start of postmodernism is often taken the year when Irish novelist James Joyce and English novelist Virginia Woolf died, the year of 1941. Others argue that the beginning of postmodern literature could be marked by significant publications or literary events. For example the first publication of John Hawkes’ ,, The Cannibal,, in 1949, ,, Waiting for Goddot,, in 1955, the first publication of ,,Howl,, in 1956. Although many postmodern

works have developed out of modernism, modernism is characterised by an epistemological dominant while postmodernism are primarily concerned with questions of ontology. Although postmodern literature doesn’t include everything written in the postmodern period several post - war developments have significant similarities, like the Theatre of Absurd, the Beat Generation, and Magic Realism. Or some key figures like Samuel Beckett, William S. Burrpughs, Gabriel Marquez are cited as significant contributors to the postmodern aesthetic. The term Theatre of Absurd was describing a tendency in theatre in 1950s and is related to Albert Camus’s concept of the absurd. The most important figure as both Absurdist and postmodern is Samuel Beckett. His work is often seen as marking the shift from modernism to postmodernism in literature. He was considered as one of the fathers of the postmodern movement in fiction which has continued undermining the ideas of logical coherence in narration. The Beat Generation was the youth of America during the materialistic 1950s. It includes several groups of post - war American writers who have occasionally been referred to as the postmoderns. One writer more often appeared on this list of postmodern writers and his name is William S. Burroughs. His work ,,Naked Lunch,, published in Paris in 1959 and America in 1961 is by some considered the first truly postmodern novel because it is fragmentary with no central narrative arc, it is full of parody, paradox and playfulness. He is also noted for the creation of the ,, cut up ,, technique in which words and phrases are cut from a newspaper or other publication and then rearranged to form a new message. Magic Realism is a technique popular among Latin American writers in which supernatural elements are treated as mundane. This technique has its roots in traditional storytelling it was a centre piece of the Latin American boom a movement coterminous with postmodernism. Some of the major figures of the ,,Boom,, and Magic Realism are Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Julio Cortazar and are sometime listed as postmodernists.

Postmodernism in literature doesn’t represent organised movement with leaders or central figures so we cannot say if it is ended or when it will end. It reached its peak in the 60s and 70s with the publication of some very important woks, Catch 22, Lost in the Funhouse, Slaughterhouse Five, Gravity’s Rainbow, …

Common Themes and Techniques used in Postmodernism

Irony, playfulness, black humour - although the idea of employing these in literature didn’t start with the postmodernists ( the modernists were often playful and ironic), they became central features in many postmodern works. Postmodern novelists labeled as black humorists were John Barth, Joseph Heller, Bruce Jay Friedman. Intertextuality - is actually the relationship between one text (a novel) and another or one text within the interwoven fabric of literary history. Intertextuality in postmodern literature can be a reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended discussion of a work or the adoption of a style. In postmodern literature this manifests as references to fairy tales. example of intertextuality which influenced later postmodernists is “Pierre Menard Author of the Quixote” by Jorge Louis Borges, a story

with significant references to Don Quixote which is also a good example of intertextuality with its references to Medieval romances. Another examples of intertextuality in postmodernism are The Sot - Weed Factor by John Barth, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Pastiche - pastiche means ,, to combine,, or ,,to paste,, together multiple elements. In postmodernist literature this can be an homage to or a parody of past styles. It can be a combination of multiple genres to create a unique narrative or to comment on situations in postmodernity. Metafiction - is writing about writing or ,, foregrounding the apparatus ,,. Metafiction is often employed to undermine the authority of the author, to advance the story in a unique way or to comment of the act of the storytelling. Fabulation - is a term sometimes used interchangeably with metafiction and relates to pastiche and Magic Realism. It is a rejection of realism which embraces the notion that literature is a created work and not bound by notions of mimesis and verisimilitude. Fabulation challenges some traditional notions of literature—the traditional structure of a novel or role of the narrator, for example—and integrates other traditional notions of storytelling, including fantastical elements, such as magic and myth, or elements from popular genres such as science fiction. The term was coined by Robert Scholes in his book The Fabulators. Poioumena - Poiuomenon (plural: poioumena from Ancient Greek meaning product, a term coined by Alastair Fowler to ever to a specific type of metafiction in which the story is about the process of creation. It offers opportunities to explore the boundaries of fiction and reality - the limits of narrative truth. Temporal Distortion - a common technique in modernist fiction: fragmentation and non-linear narratives are central features in both modern and postmodern literature. In postmodern fiction was used in a variety of ways often for the sake of irony. Magic Realism - may be literary work marked by the use of still, sharply defined, smoothly painted images of figures and objects depicted in a surrealistic manner. The themes and subjects are often imaginary, somewhat outlandish and fantastic and with a certain dream-like quality. Some of the characteristic features of this kind of fiction are the mingling and juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastic or bizarre, skillful time shifts, convoluted and even labyrinthine narratives and plots, miscellaneous use of dreams, myths and fairy stories, expressionistic and even surrealistic description, arcane erudition, the element of surprise or abrupt shock, the horrific and the inexplicable. Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez is also regarded as a notable exponent of this kind of fiction—especially his novel One Hundred Years of Sollitude. Paranoia - The sense of paranoia or the belief that there is an ordering system behind the chaos of the world is another recurring postmodern theme. For the postmodernists, no ordering is extremely dependant upon the subject so paranoia often straddles the line between delusion and brilliant insight. Fragmentation - another important aspect of postmodern literature. Various elements, concerning plot, characters, themes, imagery and factual references are fragmented and dispersed throughout the entire work. In general, there is an interrupted sequence of events, character development and action which can at first glance look modern, it purports, however, to depict a metaphysically unfounded, chaotic universe. Fragmentation can occur in language, sentence structure or grammar.

Conclusion - Different perspectives

John Barth , wrote an influential essay in 1967 ,, The Literature of Exhaustion,, where he stated about the need for the new era in literature after modernism had exhausted itself. Many of the well - known postmodern novels deal with WWII, one of the most famous was Joseph Heller’s Catch 22. The antiwar and anti government feelings in the book belong to the period following the WWII. The general disintegration of belief took place then and it affected Catch 22 in that the form of the novel almost disintegrated. The novelist Umberto Eco explains his idea of postmodernism as a kind of double coding and as a transhistorical phenomenon in his book ,, The Name of the Rose,,. Barbara Cartland thinks that postmodernism is not a trend to be chronologically defined but as a ideal category or a way of operating. Postmodernism ... can be used at least in two ways – firstly, to give a label to the period after 1968 and secondly to describe the highly experimental literature produced by writers beginning with Lawrence Durrell and John Fowles in the 1960. Examples of postmodern literature: •

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes