X-Postmodernism

1. 1-Features of Postmodernism

      According to Britannica, postmodernism, in Western philosophy, a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power. In literature,  this has amounted to a reaction against an ordered view of the world and therefore against fixed ideas about the form and meaning of texts. In its reaction against Modernist ideals  such as autotelic art and the original masterpiece, postmodern writing and art emphasize devices such as pastiche and parody and the stylized technique of the antinovel and magic realism. Postmodernism has also led to a proliferation of critical theories, most notably deconstruction and its offshoots, and the breaking down of the distinction between “high” and “low” culture. (Britannica)

      The term postmodernism was coined by Arnold Toynbee in 1939. Postmodernism is an umbrella term therefore it is very difficult to define it. Different critics give different definitions of the postmodernism. There are a number of definitions, claims and counterclaims. The term Postmodernism is not to be confused with the term Postmodernity. There is a conceptual distinction between postmodernity and postmodernism. Postmodernity is a fusion of the contemporary socio cultural experiences of certain society whereas postmodernism is an approach or framework to understand and explain not only the postmodern condition but its stylistic representation. (Pardeshi2).

     Postmodernism is characterized by key features such as fragmentation, discontinuity, plurality, and a sense of indeterminacy. Postmodern critical theory often emphasizes ambiguity, focuses on textual complexities, and is sometimes criticized for its detachment from concrete social issues. The term "postmodernism" refers both to a specific historical era and to a mindset or cultural condition marked by particular social and aesthetic tendencies. It reflects the diverse intellectual and artistic developments shaping the current cultural landscape. (3)

      Postmodernism appears in a wide variety of disciplines of study. It is very hard to locate it historically or temporally, because it is not clear when postmodernism exactly began. The salient attributes of postmodernism are fragmentation, decentralization, indeterminacy, novelty in subject matter, break with tradition, self- consciousness, free verse, discontinuous composition, distracted and dehumanized subject, ambiguity, absurdity, incoherence, relativism, anti-form, anti-narrative and irony. (3). These are postmodernism features:

1. Postmodernism is a cultural movement in its own right. Considering it solely as a successor of modernism, thus putting it as a hyphenated word, i.e., post-modernism, would be reductive and misleading, and would do gross injustice to its unique richness and complexity. Nevertheless, if one is to theorize a major point of difference between the two movements, one could state that postmodern poetics is marked by “playfulness” whereas modernism could be characterized as an “aesthetics of anxiety.” (Mandal 1)

2. Postmodern literature is marked by metafictionality, involving self-referentiality. Metafiction is a narrative that does not simply tell a story but punctuates the very act of story-telling by blurring the binary of fact/fiction, by problematizing the relation between author and characters, by questioning the notion of authorship, and overall, by including reflections on the theory of fiction within the so-called fictional space itself.

3. Postmodernism has been defined as an “incredulity towards metanarratives.” Metanarratives, otherwise known as grand narratives or master narratives, aim to offer a totalizing schema for interpretation of events and experiences – historical or contemporary. For instance, Marxism could run the risk of being a metanarrative insofar as all the problems of the world are reduced to the question “class”; or, scientism could be defined as metanarrative insofar as the truth/authenticity of every experience or every event is asked to be measured in terms of scientific findings. The postmodernist considers metanarratives to be the product of totalitarian intentions and dismiss them as involving the fallacy of essentialism. Narratives subvert the assumption of any discourse being coherent or monolithic and promote the possibility of pluralism. (Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition)

4. Postmodern experience is constituted by inevitable exposure to “hyperreality.” Broadly speaking, hyperreality refers to the world of simulation and the world of the virtual. In these worlds, images constitute reality – be it the proliferation of images on news channels or on the internet. Images, in the postmodern world, do not necessarily represent a given reality. Images are reality. A simulacrum is a copy without an original. These images can be doctored and edited, and can even be created on the desktop, for instance. Images and videos on social media, for example, have a tremendous impact on determining our sense of reality. Thus the difference between the virtual and the actual/physical reality collapses. The virtual does not correspond to the actual; the virtual creates the actual. (Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation)

5. Postmodernism problematizes the notion of truth, at least in two ways. First, the questioning of metanarrative is reflected in how postmodernism, both in theory and in practice, interrogates the idea of an absolute Truth with an upper-case “T,” and demonstrates that truths always exist in plural versions. Truth is not a “universe,” but a kind of a “multiverse”  having multiple versions and variations. However, in the final analysis, the supremacy of one particular truth over others is determined by the structures of power in a given socio-economic situation. Secondly, the hyperreal and the virtual realities, in the postmodern world, influence the construction of a world of “post-truth” where truth-claims, devoid of objective and traditional idea of “facticity,” can be made, and even discursively substantiated, with control over information and data which can be generated by any and every user. (Foucault, Power/Knowledge)

6. Postmodernism questions the notion of a singular “centre.” For instance, there is no central meaning to a text; a text is always already open to multiple readings. Since the notion of an “authorial intention” promotes the idea of central meaning, the institution of the Author, with an upper-case “A,” is declared dead. At best, the biography of an author could be considered as biographemes – small narrative units comprising discursive codification of events – which, in the end, are nothing but one set of textual units among hundred others which could be used to intertextually engage with literature. The Author is redefined as “paper author” or a discursive construct. (Barthes “Death of the Author” & “From Work to Text”; Derrida, “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences”)

7. Inconclusiveness is the hallmark of postmodernism. The postmodern narrative not only problematizes the Aristotelian formula of a chronological and tripartite division of a plot (beginning, middle, and end); more fundamentally, it subverts the idea of “narrative closure” by evoking, as in Fowles’s text, the possibility of multiple endings. In general, definitive and conclusive statements are considered reductive and essentialist, and ideally, a postmodernist ought to doubt/avoid such statements.

8. Postmodernism blurs binaries, particularly the binary of low culture/high culture. Ideally, a postmodern narrative, unlike a Joycean text, would be accessible and readable to anybody and everybody. However, a hermeneutically equipped reader would find more reasons to appreciate a postmodern text.

9. Postmodern narratives employ the technique of rewriting an existing narrative. Such rewriting could be politically subversive, or in some cases, could be “empty parody” or “pastiche.” Examples include Foe, Wide Sargasso Sea, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead etc.

10. Reader, as opposed to Author, becomes a crucial site for meaning production in postmodernism. The reader is not just a theoretical discourse for a Roland Barthes or a Stanley Fish but, both in personal and impersonal terms, he/she/it remains a constant point of reference in postmodern texts. (Mandal 1-3)

     Comparisons with Modernist 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, in many cases drawing on modernist examples in the "stream of consciousness" styles of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, or explorative poems like The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot. In addition, both modern and postmodern literature explore fragmentariness in narrative- and character-construction. The Waste Land is often cited as a means of distinguishing modern and postmodern literature. The poem is fragmentary and employs pastiche like much postmodern literature, but the speaker in The Waste Land says, "these fragments I have shored against my ruins". Modernist literature sees fragmentation and extreme subjectivity as an existential crisis, or Freudian internal conflict, a problem that must be solved, and the artist is often cited as the one to solve it. Postmodernists, however, often demonstrate that this chaos is insurmountable; the artist is impotent, and the only recourse against "ruin" is to play within the chaos. Playfulness is present in many modernist works  and they may seem very similar to postmodern works, but with postmodernism playfulness becomes central and the actual achievement of order and meaning becomes unlikely. (Sharma and Chaudhary 190)

 

2. 2-Prominent Techniques, Authors and Works

      All of these themes and techniques are often used together. For example, metafiction and pastiche are often used for irony. These are not used by all postmodernists, nor is this an exclusive list of features. Irony, playfulness, black humor. Linda Hutcheon claimed postmodern fiction as a whole could be characterized by the ironic quote marks, that much of it can be taken as tongue-in-cheek. This irony, along with black humor and the general concept of "play" (related to Derrida's concept or the ideas advocated by Roland Barthes in The Pleasure of the Text) are among the most recognizable aspects of postmodernism. Though the idea of employing these in literature did not start with the postmodernists (the modernists were often playful and ironic), they became central features in many postmodern works. In fact, several novelists later to be labeled postmodern were first collectively labeled black humorists. It's common for postmodernists to treat serious subjects in a playful and humorous way: for example, the way Heller, Vonnegut, and Pynchon address the events of World War II. A good example of postmodern irony and black humor is found in the stories of Donald Barthelme; "The School", for example, is about the ironic death of plants, animals, and people connected to the children in one class, but the inexplicable repetition of death is treated only as a joke and the narrator remains emotionally distant throughout. The central concept of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is the irony of the now-idiomatic "catch-22", and the narrative is structured around a long series of similar ironies. Thomas Pynchon in particular provides prime examples of playfulness, often including silly wordplay, within a serious context. The Crying of Lot 49, for example, contains characters named Mike Fallopian and Stanley Koteks and a radio station called KCUF, while the novel as a whole has a serious subject and a complex structure. ("Postmodernism")

  Intertextuality

       Since postmodernism represents a decentered concept of the universe in which individual works are not isolated creations, much of the focus in the study of postmodern literature is on intertextuality: the relationship between one text (a novel for example) and another or one text within the interwoven fabric of literary history. Critics point to this as an indication of postmodernism’s lack of originality and reliance on clichés. 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 commonly manifests as references to fairy tales – as in works by Margaret Atwood, Donald Barthelme, and many other – or in references to popular genres such as sci-fi and detective fiction. An early 20th century example of intertextuality which influenced later postmodernists is “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” by Jorge Luis Borges, a story with significant references to Don Quixote which is also a good example of intertextuality with its references to Medieval romances. Don Quixote is a common reference with postmodernists, for example Kathy Acker's novel Don Quixote: Which Was a Dream. Another example of intertextuality in postmodernism is John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor which deals with Ebenezer Cooke’s poem of the same name. Often intertextuality is more complicated than a single reference to another text. Robert Coover’s Pinocchio in Venice, for example, links Pinocchio to Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. Also, Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose takes on the form of a detective novel and makes references to authors such as Aristotle, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Borges. (Pardeshi 6). 

        Pastiche

      Related to postmodern intertextuality, pastiche means to combine, or "paste" together, multiple elements. In Postmodernist literature this can be an homage to or a parody of past styles. It can be seen as a representation of the chaotic, pluralistic, or information-drenched aspects of postmodern society. It can be a combination of multiple genres to create a unique narrative or to comment on situations in postmodernity: for example, William S. Burroughs uses science fiction, detective fiction, westerns; Margaret Atwood uses science fiction and fairy tales; Umberto Eco uses detective fiction, fairy tales, and science fiction, Derek Pell relies on collage and noir detective, erotica, travel guides, and how-to manuals, and so on. Though pastiche commonly refers to the mixing of genres, many other elements are also included (metafiction and temporal distortion are common in the broader pastiche of the postmodern novel). For example, Thomas Pynchon includes in his novels elements from detective fiction, science fiction, and war fiction; songs; pop culture references; well-known, obscure, and fictional history mixed together; real contemporary and historical figures (Mickey Rooney and Wernher von Braun for example); a wide variety of well-known, obscure and fictional cultures and concepts. In Robert Coover's 1977 novel The Public Burning, Coover mixes historically inaccurate accounts of Richard Nixon interacting with historical figures and fictional characters such as Uncle Sam and Betty Crocker. Pastiche can also refer to compositional technique, for example the cut-up technique employed by Burroughs. Another example is B. S. Johnson's 1969 novel The Unfortunates; it was released in a box with no binding so that readers could assemble it however they chose. ("Postmodernism")

      Metafiction

      Metafiction is essentially writing about writing or "foregrounding the apparatus", making the artificiality of art or the fictionality of fiction apparent to the reader and generally disregards the necessity for "willful suspension of disbelief". It is often employed to undermine the authority of the author, for unexpected narrative shifts, to advance a story in a unique way, for emotional distance, or to comment on the act of storytelling. For example, Italo Calvino's 1979 novel If on a winter's night a traveler is about a reader attempting to read a novel of the same name. Kurt Vonnegut also commonly used this technique: the first chapter of his 1969 novel SlaughterhouseFive is about the process of writing the novel and calls attention to his own presence throughout the novel. Though much of the novel has to do with Vonnegut's own experiences during the firebombing of Dresden, Vonnegut continually points out the artificiality of the central narrative arc which contains obviously fictional elements such as aliens and time travel. Similarly, Tim O'Brien's 1990 novel/story collection The Things They Carried, about one platoon's experiences during the Vietnam War, features a character named Tim O'Brien; though O'Brien was a Vietnam veteran, the book is a work of fiction and O'Brien calls into question the fictionality of the characters and incidents through out the book. One story in the book, "How to Tell a True War Story", questions the nature of telling stories. Factual retellings of war stories, the narrator says, would be unbelievable and heroic, moral war stories don't capture the truth. ("Postmodernism")

     Fabulation

     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. Thus, 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. By some accounts, the term was coined by Robert Scholes in his book The Fabulators. A good example of fabulation is Salman Rushdie´s Haroun and the Sea of Stories. ("Postmodernism")

   Temporal Distortion

      This is a common technique in modernist fiction: fragmentation and non-linear narratives are central features in both modern and postmodern literature. Temporal distortion in postmodern fiction is used in a variety of ways, often for the sake of irony. Historiographic metafiction is an example of this. Distortions in time are central features in many of Kurt Vonnegut's non-linear novels, the most famous of which is perhaps Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five becoming "unstuck in time". In Flight to Canada, Ishmael Reed deals playfully with anachronisms, Abraham Lincoln using a telephone for example. Time may also overlap, repeat, or bifurcate into multiple possibilities. For example, in Robert Coover's "The Babysitter" from Pricksongs & Descants, the author presents multiple possible events occurring simultaneously in one section the babysitter is murdered while in another section nothing happens and so on yet no version of the story is favored as the correct version.

      Magic realism

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. It has been applied, for instance, to the work of Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentinian who in 1935 published his Historia universal de la infamia, regarded by many as the first work of magic realism. A fusion of fabulism with magic realism is apparent in such early 21st century American short stories as Kevin Brockmeier's "The Ceiling" ("Postmodernism")

Technoculture and Hyperreality 

Fredric Jameson called postmodernism the "cultural logic of late capitalism". "Late capitalism" implies that society has moved past the industrial age and into the information age. Likewise, Jean Baudrillard claimed postmodernity was defined by a shift into hyperreality in which simulations have replaced the real. In postmodernity people are inundated with information, technology has become a central focus in many lives, and our understanding of the real is mediated by simulations of the real. Many works of fiction have dealt with this aspect of postmodernity with characteristic irony and pastiche. For example, Don DeLillo's White Noise presents characters who are bombarded with a "white noise" of television, product brand names, and clichés. The cyberpunk fiction of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and many others use science fiction techniques to address this postmodern, hyperreal information bombardment. Steampunk, a subgenre of science fiction popularized in novels and comics by such writers as Alan Moore and James Blaylock, demonstrates postmodern pastiche, temporal distortion, and a focus on technoculture with its mix of futuristic technology and Victorian culture. ("Postmodernism")

      Paranoia

This is demonstrated most famously and effectively in Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and the work of Thomas Pynchon, the sense of paranoia, the belief that there's an ordering system behind the chaos of the world is another recurring postmodern theme. For the postmodernist, no ordering system exists, so a search for order is fruitless and absurd. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon has many possible interpretations. This often coincides with the theme of technoculture and hyperreality. For example, in Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, the character Dwayne Hoover becomes violent when he's convinced that everyone else in the world is a robot and he is the only human.