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Postmodernism 1945 / 1960 to today - Coggle Diagram
Postmodernism 1945 / 1960 to today
After second world war
Because of the horrible things people did
People felt that all meaning had disappeard from the world
Second World War shattered the belief in a world that was progressing and strengthened the loss of faith
Many Postmodern writers dealt with this paradox of how Man somehow used reason to destroy himself.
A world divided
After WWII the world was divided into eastern bloc and western bloc
Both had weapons of mass destruction
he world could never return to its former state. Man somehow seemed to be a murderous and suicidal being.
the new reality of living in constant fear of annihilation, signaled a crisis in European values
Americanization of Europe
Consumer goods became accessible to middle class Americans after the war
Americans and the television, cars, refrigerators etc. all became material symbols that encompassed the American Dream.
American life became a great inspiration for especially British and European youngsters.
The rise of counterculture
A new generation emerged that distrusted authoritarian systems both in America and Britain
They believed their parents' good upbringing with its core values being respect for authorities, obedience and discipline was to blame.
Instead, the youngsters turned their attention elsewhere and the focus became more centered on the individual and his or her responsibility to create meaning in their own lives.
in 1968 the youth rebellion was at its peak. The youth generation's break away from their parents' way of doing things became a reality.
Individuality and the Search for Self
Today, individualism seems more important than ever
how to unlock your true potential have never been more popular.
Discovering your own true potential and becoming the best and most successful person
yet there is anxiety and depression and so on more than ever
These tendencies in society have also led to a renewed focus on existentialism and the question of "who am I?"
The world becoming connected
Since the 1990s, the world's economy has become more and more globalized and a crisis in the East immediately affects the markets in the West
We live in a globalized world where the same products can be bought everywhere and through the internet, the globe has become one large network.
Information technology
The revolution of information technology during the 1990s is in many ways what boosted globalization.
The information flow around the world today has completely changed how we interact with each other, and how we perceive ourselves.
The issue of identity is also up for interpretation; who you want to be online is now a choice you can make and the issue of identity has become more fragmented than ever.
Migration
Globalization has also caused social challenges due to massive migration. Since 1945, tens of millions of people have migrated from one part of the world to another.
This theme of "who can you really trust" is often mirrored in Postmodern fiction
Literary Background
The Break-up of the Grand Narratives
People had lost faith in the grand narratives that somehow tried to explain the world to us.
All the narratives had focused on a progressive history where knowledge was a means to liberate us, but all had failed and were no longer able to portray an adequate, whole and realistic image of the world.
Modernists had been concerned with the search for coherent meaning, Postmodernists accepted that this was a futile search and perhaps that meaning instead was to be found in the small narratives.
It is mostly the readers job
Stories could now be interpreted in many different ways
It was the readers jobb to decide what they wanted from the story
Every person had their own idea and truth
embraces the idea of fragmentation and uses it to create playful texts that reflect and explore the chaos of the world. There is no attempt at finding some sort of grand meaning or insight.
The search for self
he lack of a stable identity is a theme, it is about finding the self
Not knowing who we are, not being contained in one subject, but in many subjectivities.
Playfullness and free form
The rules are faded
ironic, playful disregard of genre boundaries and stylistic rules, are allowed and used
Breaking boundaries
the Postmodern writer does not necessarily have to stick to one genre but may change it during his story.
Postmodern fiction mixes different styles and forms with no respect for traditional boundaries of genre, high culture or low culture. This is referred to as
de-hierarchisation
where anything goes.
Postmodern way of depicting society, culture and reality.
Metafiction
The author clearly signals to his reader that what he or she is reading is nothing more than a text and thereby nothing more than fiction.
and often goes to great lengths trying to pull the reader away from the illusion of the fictional world and instead focus his attention to the processes of writing and reading.
They do it as an example by adding a story inside a story (Memento for instance does this)
Intertextuality
Mixing up different texts or making parodies or reffrences
According to the Postmodernists, everything has already been written/said/painted before and whatever you do, somebody has done it before – there is nothing new under the sun.
All the writer or artist is able to do then is use things that have already been used to describe a given situation. This is done by putting other stories (or characters from them) into their main text.
closely linked to the period of Modernism in the sense of feelings of meaninglessness, uncertainty and loss of faith in humanity. Both explore a world gone modern, industrial and technological and both deal with themes of anxiety and concerns for the future.
Whereas the Modernists still maintained a timid hope that they were able to portray something real and true, the Postmodernists' attitude is different. Instead of engaging in a search for meaning and truth, they accept there is none, and instead comment on the meaninglessness and play around with it.