Characteristics of postmodern literature

1. POSTMODERNISM

2. CONTEXT & BACKGROUND
• After the WW II (after 1945)
• Reaction towards the new state of the
world
• Reaction against realism & modernism
“High art”, “High culture” & everyday life
Language as a reflection of reality

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF
POSTMODERN LITERARTURE
• Reality is chaotic. Human condition:
meaningless.
• The artist “plays” within chaos.
• Themes:
Memory
Loss & death
The sense of paranoia
Meaninglessness of human existence

4. CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN
LITERATURE
Alienation of individuals
Lack of communication
Feelings of anxiety
Attachment to illusions of security to
conceal the void of our lives
Fragmentation & discontinuity
Uncertitude

5. CHARACTERSITICS OF POSTMODERN
LITERATURE
• Defiance of conventional traditions
through experimentation:
Point of view: more limited
Fragmentation: no linear narration
Intertextuality
Decentering & deconstruction

6. CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN
LITERATURE
The absurd
Magical realism
Pastiche
Political protest literature (postcolonial)
Irony, black humor & sarcasm
The antinovel
Re-writes
Metalepsis

7. POSTMODERN ISSUES
• Experimentation
• Reaction against modernist’s conception
of “high art”
• Reaction against a totally new world
• Chaotic reality
• Intertextuality

8. Metalepsis in Drama
DRAMA
_________________________________
Real > Implicit >Mimesis > Implicit > Real
Playwright Diegesis Audience
=
Ontological frames
• Mimesis: showing, enacting.
• Diegesis: telling, recounting.