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.
Macey, David. “Postmodernity.” The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. London: Penguin Books, 2001. 307-309. Print.
Postmodernism can be defined as a rejection of the idea that there are certain unequivocal truths or grand narratives (such as capitalism, faith or science) and as a belief that there are multiple ways of understanding anything, whether it be it culture, philosophy, art, literature, films, etc, or even television... Television reflects the mass-produced society we live in and certain shows exhibit many of the archetypes of postmodernism that have become prevalent in other art forms. Postmodernism can be useful for understanding contemporary television it can help us to relate to the ever-changing world we live in. Television shows like ABC’s Lost (ABC, 2004-2010) dabble in matters of intertextuality, questioning of grand narratives and, amongst others, a manipulation of time through use of flashbacks, flash-forwards and, uniquely to Lost, the flash-sideways.
Morley, D. 1996, ‘Postmodernism: the rough guide’, in J. Curran, D. Morley & V. Walkerdine (eds) Cultural Studies and Communication, Arnold, New York
The Postmodernist movement begun after World War II in which, high and low culture are questionable in the view of society and Art. The postmodernist movement in literature creates a new set of ideals for fiction, such as the metafiction, the fable like representation in novels, the pastiche, irony, and satire. Fredric Jameson speaks about the movement and its theory in his essay “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”. He questions postmodernism in society as it creates the new societal norm of popular culture. On the other hand, Jean Baudrillard analyzes the simulacra of postmodernism in “The Precession of Simulacra”. Baudrillard speaks of the “truth” and “reality” also as a questionable representation for the reader. Yet, both critics agree that postmodernist literature is depthless. Spiegelman’s Maus series is a metafiction, which tells the story of Art Spiegelman’s journey of writing this novel through the present-day retelling of Vladek Spiegelman’s life during the Holocaust. However, as a postmodernist text, Jameson and Baudrillard calls it depthless and an “unreal” representation. Nevertheless, the representation of Maus presents the characteristics of a postmodernist text, but argues that it is not depthless because of the representation of an authoritative view, a historical continuum, and the text does not depict itself as a mode of pop culture.
Another important sign of postmodernism in literature is the abandonment of strict time lines, sometimes called discontinuous time. Often an author will construct a sequence of events that have no time relationships to e...
Postmodernism movement started in the 1960’s, carrying on until present. James Morley defined the postmodernism movement as “a rejection of the sovereign autonomous individual with an emphasis upon anarchic collective anonymous experience.” In other words, postmodernism rejects what has been established and makes emphasis on combined revolutionary experiences. Postmodernism can be said it is the "derivate" of modernism; it follows most of the same ideas than modernism but resist the very idea of boundaries. According to our lecture notes “Dominant culture uses perception against others to maintain authority.”
Another important characteristic of postmodern literature is the mixing of styles. Many literary styles such as “[ . . . ] tone, point of view, register, and logical sequence; apparently random unexpected intrusions and [ . . ...
In the beginning of the twentieth century, literature changed and focused on breaking away from the typical and predicate patterns of normal literature. Poets at this time took full advantage and stretched the idea of the mind’s conscience on how the world, mind, and language interact and contradict. Many authors, such as Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, and Twain, used the pain and anguish in first hand experiences to create and depict a new type of literature, modernism. In this time era, literature and art became a larger part of society and impacted more American lives than ever before. During the American modernism period of literature, authors, artists, and poets strived to create pieces of literature and art that challenged American traditions and tried to reinvent it, used new ways of communication, such as the telephone and cinema, to demonstrate the new modern social norms, and express the pain and suffering of the First World War.
In the 1950s, authors tended to follow common themes, these themes were summed up in an art called postmodernism. Postmodernism took place after the Cold War, themes changed drastically, and boundaries were broken down. Postmodern authors defined themselves by “avoiding traditional closure of themes or situations” (Postmodernism). Postmodernism tends to play with the mind, and give a new meaning to things, “Postmodern art often makes it a point of demonstrating in an obvious way the instability of meaning (Clayton)”. What makes postmodernism most unique is its unpredictable nature and “think o...
Post modernism is a very difficult concept to define. A French philosopher once defined post modernism as an "incredulity toward all meta narratives," which basically means a skeptical attitude toward all claims of absolute truth. Post modern writers use elements and techniques that provoke the reader to question their reading experience and scrutinize their own personal understanding of life and the values of their society. There are excellent examples of post modern writers using elements of post modern writing, such as irony, magic realism and fragmentation in the short stories read in Ms. Reynolds's English 4U class. The use of post modern elements in these short stories forces the reader to further their reading experience by going more in depth into the writing and figuring out how the story is significant to them and their view on the world.
Postmodernism is perhaps the most difficult thing to define at this point in time. That is in large part due to the fact that we are currently still in the movement, political view, or economy (to classify postmodernism as only one of the above is to have already defeated your definition). One of the few things that have been empirically proven is that it indeed focuses on culture. Jameson once argued that postmodernism was a more of a cultural dominant than anything else (Storey, p. 184). This would tend to classify postmodernism as an assimilation of all cultures, with a survival of the fittest effect. Take for example the effects of one culture, regardless of that culture's size, on mass culture ISA's. A battle occurs between the established ISA's and the new subculture ISA's until finally a victor has been declared. Which ever has gained more favor drowns the weaker, and all ISA's of the weaker genre will be discredited. Postmodernism is seen as the cultural dominant of our era, however this has not always been the case. One particular group attempted to attach cultural dominance, or rather cultural understanding, to their already established political body: the Marxists. While the cultural studies that were performed by the Frankfurt School were probably the first studies that ever addressed culture, their findings have not stood the test of time. One of the most important things to understand is that Marxism is generally a political body, while postmodernism is similar to a movement. Marxism has it's own views of culture that were developed through the Frankfurt School, but the movement of postmodernism disregards the Frankfurt school's theories. Postmodernism has in fact taken the...
The word “postmodernism” first surfaced in architecture and the fine arts, perhaps in the 1950’s, referring to a new style. Later it acquired a meaning in the world of literature as well. It is not a theory or a creed: it is more like an attitude or a way of looking at things. Postmodernism is essentially a philosophy, which declares there is no absolute truth or objective truth particularly in the realm of spirituality or religion. Often times when a postmodern is confronted with an individual claiming an objective or absolute truth you would here them say the common phrase, “That may be true for you, but it is not for me.” One could easily utilize this phrase in more arbitrary and less important matters of our every day life (ex. Food, clothing choices) though this is a difficult course to navigate because it confuses matters of opinion with matter of truth.
Jameson's analysis of postmodernism (you will find a synopsis below) synthesizes two articles: his original "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" (1983) and "Postmodernism: The Cultural Logic of late Capitalism" (1984), the same title as his monumental book on the topic. In these works, Jameson expands his analysis to include popular culture, architecture, theory, and other texts, and thus can be seen as part of a movement toward cultural studies as a replacement for canonical literary studies. In the version included here, Jameson links current intellectual, social, and spatial disorientation to the technological reinvigoration of capitalism and globalization. He considers present arrangements with critical rationality and calls for a demystifying political aesthetic of "cognitive mapping" (Gray and McGuigan, 1997, pp. 176-77).
Postmodernism is a style of art that first became popular in the late 20th century. When seeing the word postmodernism, it might have to do with any one medium of art-- literature, philosophy, history, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. Lyotard, a founder of postmodernism in philosophy, is quoted as saying, “Simplifying to the extreme, I define the postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.” By saying this, Lyotard simply meant that, as a postmodernist, he was against the ways of thinking of modernists and wanted to see something new philosophically and artistically. Postmodernity demonstrates a departure from the art style modernism.
Postmodernism attempts to call into question or challenge the notion of a single absolute unified master narrative without simply replacing it with another. It is a paradoxical, recursive, and problematic method of critique.