John Grisham: A Postmodern Author

The American literary period of Postmodernism is extremely important to literature today because it is the period that is currently happening and we have been experiencing it for nearly half a century. This literary time period deals with real life problems and issues and shows how various people react differently to the same situations based on social, economic, and cultural backgrounds and differences (Literary Movements for Students 246). Therefore no single aspect or belief can be true. No one meaning is correct. John Grisham is an exceptional portrayal of an American postmodern author because he manages to include a diverse arrangement of the many facets of our society today in his many novels.

Postmodernism, as the name suggests, is the literary period that comes after the modern period. It is said to have first appeared sometime after World War II, most likely in the 1950s, as a reaction to the modern era of literature. It reached its peak sometime during the 1960s and 1970s with all of the social and political unrest in the world (Literary Movements for Students 246). The release of Catch 22, by Joseph Heller, and Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, marked the approximate peak of the period (Literary Movements for Students 247).

There are no real leaders or organizations of Postmodernism and that is why it is so hard to tell what its characteristics are, when exactly it started, and when it will end or if it already has. It began as a response to modernism and its ideas as well as new technological advances (Literary Movements for Students 246). Like literature from the modern period, postmodernism is usually told from an objective or omniscient point of view. It denies existence of any real, certain princip...

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... literature such as his great works of courtroom drama and suspense as well as his other novels of various nature that litter the airports and bookstores. He includes such a diverse arrangement of postmodern characteristics in each novel that there is no doubt that it is of a postmodernist. Being that the postmodern period is not limited to specific aspects and characteristics it is also clear that he has enough diversity in each and every one of his works that he is most definitely of the postmodern period. The literary period may be in a transition or may even be over but John Grisham has made a name for himself as one of the greatest authors of the postmodern period.

Works Cited

"Postmodernism." Literary Movements for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Literary Movements. Ed. David Galens. Vol. 2. New York: Gale, 2002. 246-72. Print.