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American Literary History Postmodern Pluralizations: Impact on Literature …
American Literary History Postmodern Pluralizations: Impact on Literature
Postmodern Literatures (Glimpses)
linked to different and diverse media and forms of expression
Post-Modern and Contemporary Art
Andy Warhol, Pollock,Allan Kaprow, Kara Walker, Barbara Kruger
Frames and perspectives
postmodernism
experimental aesthetic movements of the post WWII era
postmodernism claims that modernism did not follow through with its own objectives and goals
modernism is an unfinished project that needs to be finished in postmodernism
multiple meanings
multiple truths, multiple ways of living, multiple interpretations
no consensus
precursors
Gertrude Stein
Stands for radical experiment
A dissolution of forms
a focus on association
A play with language
Jean-Francois Lyotard (The Postmodern Condition. 1979)
end of grand/master narrative
end of a belief in one narrative that explains the world, one narrative that explains how a society works
examples
The American Dream
The condition at the frontier
from rags to riches
the self-made man
life isn't as simple as that
not this one explanation that accounts for everything and everyone
determined by not believing in these master narratives/ideologies anymore
lit.: arbitrariness, absurdity
poststructuralism
multiplicity of meanings
the notion that literature does not just have one meaning/interpretation
depends on the contexts/audiences/environment/context of the audiences
deep distrust in the possibility of representation
no authentic/true representation
the death of the author
no focus on intention/message by the author anymore
no matter what the intention is, it does not mean that the reader will interpret/ will be impacted this way
The focus shifts to the reader/birth of the reader and reader's interpretation
1 more item...
interpretations are important/effective/impactful
Conventional ways of writing/expressing are used up/used too much
new forms of expression are needed
BUT there "is nothing new anymore"
potential solution: re-use/new use of old strategies
new kind of juxtaposition/collage techniques
taking styles from previous writings and combining them in new ways
intertextuality
snippets/strategies/characters from other texts and combining them with your own texts
hybridity/fusion of different forms and media
fusion and dissolution
dissolves the distinction between art and pop-culture/high and lower art
both are impactful and important
no distinction between what is real/true what is reality/fiction
both fuse, the real and fantasy
-> fact and fiction = faction
new Journalism
Ideas and Characteristics
Experiments
improvisation, new juxtapositions/combinations
processes more important than the final product
more important than the plot
process of creation an often open ended one
the body as a source of art
witness an increasing emphasis on the unconscious, on chance/randomness
self-reflexive tendencies
writing about the process of writing
including a paragraph for example where you talk about the process of creating fiction/the text
playful
parody
structural experiments and language gains
chronology is dissolved
critiques history, rewrites history, exposes the grand narratives and stresses the distrust in the Grand Narratives
stresses arbitrariness
existence/life is arbitrary/contingent
word and life as a chaos
loss of halse and reaction
loss of metaphysical/spiritual orientation
new form of non-explanation
After 9/11 we observe a particular wave of reactions and art, which is characterized by postmodernist styles, but also moves further into a different reality and writing
Manifestos
Ideas what literature is about/cultural expression is about for postmodernists
Ronald Sukenick
"Innovative Fiction/Innovative Criteria,"
1974
Older fiction is no longer adequate
seeking something new to react to the circumstances of the times after 1945
fiction is and apt way of capturing, of talking about the experiences of the time as an
expressive medium
it is the best form to express the responses of people to the times
focus on multiplicity, not one new fiction, but many
doing something, finding a way of writing that is not old
not the traditional formula of plot etc.
going away from traditional story lines/plots
recombinations, more focus on process, on experimentation and new combinations
not plot, but ongoing incident
Innovative fiction represents the progressive struggle of art to rescue the truth of our experience
Charles Olson, "Projective Verse," 1950
focus on openness
does not adhere to conventional forms
experimental
innovative
driven
energetic
its about energy, the kinetics of things
a feeling of mobility, energy, movement that the poem expresses, shifts and transfers to the reader
it needs to be driven and progressive
focus on process and movement
keep things at speed
breath
symbolizes that this is not just something for the page, some kind of life character/performative character
poetry becomes spoken, is performed, turns into something you experience just once
together with the author, breath links the body of the author/performer to the poetry
a joint experience between the poet/performer and the audience that takes away different interpretations
Audre Lorde,
Poetry is Not a Luxury,"
1977/8
lesbian, feminist, poet, cancer survivor and social activist
Poetry as a vital necessity of the existence of women
dissolves the distinction between social activism, political engagement and poetry/literature/writing
writing poetry does not mean you are in the realm of fiction that is somewhere else, poetry is a part of reality and activist expression/action
poetry is a way of phrasing their experience and their observations/evaluation of reality
When writing the experience/perspective, the idea will emerge about how to act in reality and this will then turn into action
poetry is a way of giving a way to the nameless
triggering and creating action
a vital necessity for creating new social conditions for the existence
Linda Hogan, "To Light," (1985)
An experience of violent encounters and a non-acceptance of indigenous identity
an experience of also having "once been silenced"
See the rising of the voice and a cultural pride
Diversity
Identity
authors who identify with different communities express these contents in literature
draws on diverse language contexts
discusses topics such as
the holocaust
the civil rights movement
trickster stories
migratory work
immigrations
Ethnic
Migration
experience of undocumented immigrants
borders as forces/ as lines/ border lands as an actual space
Where different cultures meet but are also separated
a space of cultural encounters and hibridity
also become a metaphor for hybrid identities/cultural exchange/Multiplicity
Generations
debates differences
collective memory
A counter version of history to discriminatory versions of history
complicates white master narratives/Anglo-Centered narratives
Example
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, 1952
Ellison describes the surge of a black protagonist for an identity in American society
being
invisible
describes the Black experience in America
not being able/allowed to participate, not being seen, not being heard
I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fibre and liquids
he shows that African American identity is equal human identity
Mainstream America does not allow the Black identity to participate in America
"peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come into contact"
White America does not let him participate, non acceptance of his identity because of racist White America
Gwendolyn Brooks, "We Real Cool," 1960
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, 1987
A Mexican philosopher, envisaged
discusses identities that are hybrid
opposite to the policy of racial purity that white America practices and to the pure Aryan
She attacks that some/oftentimes society does not and can not accept mixed identities
conflicts for mixed identities
attacks notion of categorization
celebrates mixed identities
theory of inclusivity
two or more genetic streams
mixture of races, rather than resulting in an inferior being, provides a rich gene pool
" a new mestiza consciousness, "the consciousness of the Borderlands""
the struggle of borders, because the expectation of America do not accept the hybrid identity
clash of voices results in mental and emotional states of perplexity
multiple personality
tricultural
monolingual, bilingual, multilingual
mixed breed: which collectivity does the daughter of a darkskinned mother listen to?
closed groups, not something that can be crossed over, that can be both at the same time
sandwiched between cultures
inner war
transfer of outside realities and structures to the emotional experience of identity
societies see established borders between the nations and cultural groups
sometimes, some cultures and nations are not accepted in certain societies
while culture attack commonly held beliefs of the Mexican culture, and both attack commonly held beliefs of the indigenous culture
it is possible to be a hybrid identity, but it is the outside world that attacks for example Mexican or Indigenous culture
identity struggles/conflicts
A new consciousness-a mestiza consciousness, because the future depends on the breaking down of paradigms, straddling of two or more cultures
hybridity as an enriching and empowering vision for society, breaking down boundaries between differences
healing the split that originates in the very foundation of our lives/culture/languages/thoughts
seeing the mestiza/hybrid identity as the ideal
togetherness can also be the ideal for different groups in the world
hope for the end of rape, violence and war
differences that do not have to be there, that people construct
if we forget about categories, if we stop constructing differences/borders between us, this togetherness will also bring an end to these struggles
gone from being the sacrificial goat