- Until the 1920s, the term modern meant new or contemporary, but after that, it referred to the period between the two World Wars (1914-1945).
- Following this period, the term post-modern emerged, indicating the era after modernism.
- This naming is problematic as it raises questions about how many "post" terms will be used for future periods of literary history.
- For our purpose of discussing the history of literature, we will leave the naming issue to more qualified critics.
- The period between 1945 and 1965 had no consciousness of what is now called "post-modern."
- Critics date the period of post-modernism from the mid-1960s, with some extending it to the 1980s.
- Dealing with contemporary literature is challenging because the closer we are to an object, the more details we see. With distance, the outline becomes clearer.
- Critics have noted historical changes in literary styles from decade to decade and from author to author.
- It may take another half a century to make broader generalizations about the latter half of the twentieth century.
- For now, we will accept what has become almost conventional in the historical writing of English literature.
The Meaning of Post-modernism
- In his essay "The Post-Modern Condition," Krishan Kumar clarifies some confusion about post-modernism:
- Contemporary societies show a new or heightened degree of fragmentation, pluralism, and individualism.
- This can be linked to the decline of the nation-state and dominant national cultures.
- Political, economic, and cultural life is now influenced by global developments, leading to the renewed importance of local and regional cultures.
- Post-modernism proclaims multi-cultural and multi-ethnic societies, promoting the politics of difference.
- Identity is not unitary or essential but fluid and shifting, fed by multiple sources and taking multiple forms.
The Debate on Post-modernism
- The debate on whether contemporary society is "post-industrial," "post-modern," "post-structuralist," "post-colonial," "pluralistic," "multi-cultural," or "fragmented" continues.
- Theoretical discussions of post-modernism have proliferated, pushing literature to the periphery and leaving little space for actual human narratives.
- Historically, literary theory came from leading literary writers, but during the post-modern period, it has come from non-literary thinkers.
- This shift has made the meaningful application of post-modern theory to literary works problematic.
Frederic Jameson's Perspective
- Frederic Jameson articulates the reader's dilemma about post-modernism:
- Despite being tired of the term, he acknowledges that no other concept dramatizes the issues as effectively and economically as post-modernism.
- In the absence of a more useful concept, and because the term has become established, we continue using it while leaving its problems to future solutions.
- We must understand how and why the term post-modernism emerged and what characteristics it describes for the post-War period.
The Growth of Post-modernism
- According to Charles Jencks, a major theorist of architecture, the growth of post-modernism has been "a sinuous, even tortuous, path."
- It twists, turns, and branches out like a spreading root or a meandering river, making it difficult to pin down its exact definition.
- From its inception in Arnold Toynbee's "A Study of History" (1947), the term has accumulated many meanings, some of which are contradictory.
- Understanding post-modernism requires examining the term's various definitions and recognizing its complex and evolving nature.
The Relationship Between Modernism and Post-modernism
- Tim Woods explains that the prefix "post" suggests that post-modernism is either a replacement of modernism or comes after it chronologically.
- Post-modernism can be seen as a critical engagement with modernism rather than its end.
- The relationship is akin to a host-parasite dynamic, where post-modernism needs modernism to survive.
- Defining post-modernism depends on one's prior definition of modernism.
- Post-modernism can be understood as a self-reflective or knowing modernism, embracing the same phenomena but with a mood of celebration rather than repentance.
- Post-modernism differs from modernism in attitude rather than chronology or aesthetic practices.
Core Issues in the Debate
- The debate between post-modernism and modernism centers on the value of Enlightenment principles.
- Romantic philosophers like Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel believed in man's ability to reason as a means of securing freedom.
- Modernist philosophers later questioned this faith in reason.
- Jean-Francois Lyotard's work associates post-modernism with an attack on reason.
Post-modernism's Rejection of Enlightenment Values
- Post-modernism rejects the Enlightenment idea of a universal human reason and the unity of the human race striving for moral and intellectual self-realization.
- Instead, it posits fragmented, plural, and incommensurable reasons, challenging the notion of a unified, coherent self as the standard of rationality.
- Post-modern theory is skeptical of the idea that reasoning subjects can drive historically progressive change.
Post-modernism vs. Post-modernity
- Post-modernity describes the socio-economic, political, and cultural conditions of the present-day West, characterized by post-industrial, service-oriented economies and technology-mediated interactions.
- Post-modernism, on the other hand, refers to aesthetic and intellectual beliefs and attitudes often presented in theory.
Characteristics of Post-modernism
- Post-modernism, a term in use since the 1960s, designates cultural forms displaying certain characteristics:
- The denial of an all-encompassing rationality.
- Distrust of meta-narratives.
- Challenge to totalizing discourses, or suspicion of attempts to offer a universal account of existence.
- Rejection of modernism and its beliefs in infinite progress, moral and social advancement, and rigorous standards of intelligibility, coherence, and legitimacy.
- Post-modernism seeks local or provisional forms of legitimation rather than universal and absolute ones.
Intellectual Background of Postmodernism
Jean-Francois Lyotard (1724-98)
Jean-Francois Lyotard is a key figure in the debates surrounding postmodernism in philosophy and cultural theory. His work, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979), is central to discussions on the philosophical effects and theoretical impact of postmodernism. Lyotard's argument centers on rejecting the search for logically consistent, self-evident truths in philosophical discourse. Instead, he advocates for ad hoc tactical maneuvers to justify what are often seen as eccentricities. He is highly suspicious of all claims to proof or truth, famously stating, "Scientists, technicians, and instruments are purchased not to find truth, but to augment power" (Postmodern Condition, p.46). Lyotard believes that beneath the facade of objectivity lies a dominant discourse of realpolitik, which he describes as "the exercise of terror" (p.64). For him, any kind of legitimation is ultimately an issue of power, illustrating a close connection between power and the rhetoric of truth or value. Key Concepts:Modernism vs. Postmodernism
According to Lyotard, modernism is characterized by an aesthetic of the sublime, albeit a nostalgic one. It presents the unpresentable as missing content, but its recognizable form offers solace or pleasure to the reader or viewer. In contrast, postmodernism denies itself the solace of good forms, instead searching for new presentations to impart a stronger sense of the unpresentable. Summary of Lyotard's View on Postmodernism:Jean Baudrillard (1929—)
Jean Baudrillard, another prominent French intellectual, is known for his contributions to postmodernism through his concept of simulations and new communication technologies. Baudrillard argues that contemporary culture is dominated by images from electronic mass media, leading to a situation where simulated events and opportunities shape our lives. According to Baudrillard, simulations, or 'manufactured' realities, become more real than reality itself. This collapse of distinction between image and reality results in what he calls hyper-reality, where only simulacra remain. Key Concepts:Jacques Derrida (1930-2004)
Jacques Derrida is perhaps the most influential postmodernist intellectual, known as the principal theorist of deconstruction. His major works, including Writing and Difference, Of Grammatology, and Of Speech and Phenomena (all published in 1967), laid the foundation for deconstruction. Derrida challenges fundamental philosophical concepts such as knowledge, truth, and identity, as well as traditional notions of a coherent individual consciousness and a unitary self. Key Concepts:Michael Foucault (1926-84)
Michael Foucault, self-described as a specialist in the history of systems of thought, is often recognized as a French philosopher and historian. His extensive writings cover a range of topics from science to literature, but his most influential works in Postmodern literature and criticism include:
- The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)
- The Order of Things (1966)
- Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975)
- History of Sexuality (1976)
- Power/Knowledge (1980)
- "What is an Author?" (1977)
- Madness and Civilization (1961)
In "Madness and Civilization," Foucault examines how madness is socially constructed through various discourses that shape collective attitudes and define insanity. His central thesis suggests that, like the lepers of the Middle Ages, the mad are excluded to help construct modern society and its notion of reason.
Foucault's major works delve into why, in specific periods, it becomes necessary to think about madness, illness, sexuality, or prisons in certain ways. Implicitly, he questions if it is possible to think about these topics differently. His influence has led to a critical view of what is considered essential, universal, or natural, interpreting them instead as social constructs reflecting the values of different cultures and societies.
Key Concepts:
- Power/Knowledge: Foucault posits that knowledge is always a form of power, and even fields like psychiatry and mental health serve to control deviant behaviors.
- Genealogy: Inspired by Nietzsche, this method examines the historical development of power relations and social practices.
- Discourse: Systems of knowledge that define and control various social practices.
- Biopower: The regulation of populations through institutions and practices like medicine and the prison system.
Roland Barthes (1915-80)
Roland Barthes, a French literary critic and theorist, has been highly influential among Postmodernist writers and critics. Despite his varied writings, his main focus is on the relationship between language and society and the literary forms that mediate between the two. He posits that no literary work can be studied in isolation as it reflects the ruling discourse of its culture. Therefore, studying a text is most effective when related to other contemporary practices of the same culture, including everyday activities like fashion, smoking, or wrestling.
Barthes' famous work, "Mythologies" (1957), along with his first essay on writing in 1953, demonstrates that no writing form or style is a free expression of an author's subjectivity. Instead, writing is always marked by social and ideological values, and language is never innocent. The impulse behind "Mythologies" is the need for a critique of writing forms that mask the historical-political features of the social world by making them appear natural or inevitable.
Barthes' other notable works include:
- Elements of Semiology (1964)
- Writing Degree Zero (1953)
- The Pleasure of the Text (1975)
- "The Death of the Author" (1968), later included in Image-Music-Text (1977) edited by Stephen Heath
In "The Death of the Author," Barthes argues for abandoning the conventional author-and-works approach in favor of an anthropological and psychoanalytical reading of canonical texts. He insists that literature, literary criticism, and language itself are never neutral. The specificity of literature can only be examined within the context of a semiology or a general theory of signs, promoting cultural studies and reader-response theory.
Key Concepts:
- Mythologies: Everyday cultural phenomena that construct ideological meanings.
- Death of the Author: The idea that a text's meaning lies not in the author's intentions but in the reader's interpretation.
- Textuality: The view that texts are interwoven with cultural and ideological meanings.
- Semiotics: The study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior.
Jacques Lacan (1901-81)
Jacques Lacan, a French psychoanalyst, has been immensely influential in literary theory, philosophy, feminism, and psychoanalysis since Freud. His major writings are compiled in "Ecrits" (1966). Lacan's writings, which include numerous allusions to Surrealism, assert that the unconscious is structured like a language. His concept of the Fragmented Body demonstrates his debt to Surrealism.
Lacan elaborates a broad synthetic vision in which psychoanalysis incorporates the findings of philosophy, structural anthropology (as seen in the works of Levi-Strauss), and linguistics (particularly Saussure). He also heavily relies on Jakobson's work on phoneme analysis and metaphor/metonymy. Lacan defines language as a synchronic system of signs generating meaning through their interaction. Meaning exists within a chain of signifiers and does not reside in any single element, leading to the conclusion that there is never a direct correspondence between signifier and signified, and meaning is always at risk of slipping out of control.
Key Concepts:
- The Mirror Stage: The phase in which an infant recognizes their reflection as themselves, crucial for identity formation.
- The Real, the Imaginary, and the Symbolic: Lacan's three orders of human reality, shaping our perceptions and experiences.
- The Unconscious: Structured like a language, with meaning derived from a network of signifiers.
- Desire: A central concept in Lacan's theory, shaped by language and the Other.
Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975)
Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian literary theorist, has significantly influenced contemporary discourse analysis. His best-known works include:
- The Dialogic Imagination (1981)
- Speech Genres and Other Late Essays (1986)
- Rabelais and His World (1968)
- Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics (1984)
Bakhtin's studies critique Russian Formalism, emphasizing its abstraction, inability to analyze literary content, and difficulty in addressing linguistic and ideological changes. He extends this critique to linguistics, particularly Saussurean linguistics, which he views as limited in scope due to its focus on isolating linguistic units or literary texts from their social context.
Bakhtin proposes a historical poetics or "translinguistics" that shows how social interactions arise from verbal communication and interaction. He argues that linguistic signs are conditioned by the social organization of participants. In his later work, Bakhtin develops his historical poetics into a theory of "speech genres" or "typical forms of utterances," claiming that Saussurean linguistics' weakness lies in its inability to analyze the combination of individual utterances into relatively stable types. Although his speech theory remains incomplete, Bakhtin aimed to apply it to all forms of verbal communication, from proverbs to long novels.
Key Concepts:
- Dialogism: The idea that texts and meanings are shaped by their interactions with other texts and voices.
- Heteroglossia: The presence of multiple voices or perspectives within a single text.
- Chronotope: The intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships in literature.
- Speech Genres: Typical forms of utterances conditioned by social context and communication.
Postmodern Literature
With these major intellectual influences in the background, Postmodern literature in the second half of the twentieth century grew to show greater impact of new ideas on the continent and in America, with comparatively less impact on British literature. Mostly used as a periodizing concept to mark literature in the latter half of the twentieth century, Postmodernism also describes literary and formal characteristics such as:
- Linguistic Play: Emphasizing the playful nature of language and its instability.
- Narrational Self-Reflexivity: Texts that reflect on their own narrative processes.
- Fragmentation: Disjointed or non-linear narrative structures.
- Intertextuality: The shaping of a text's meaning by other texts.
- Pastiche: Imitating various genres and styles in a celebratory manner.
- Metafiction: Fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction.
These features make Postmodern literature distinct, reflecting the complex, fragmented, and media-saturated contemporary world. By exploring and often blurring the boundaries between high and low culture, reality and fiction, Postmodern texts invite readers to question the nature of reality, representation, and authorship itself.
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