...
Is it sad that I can write an 8-page paper in a little under two hours? God, it's no wonder I procrastinate so much.
It is difficult to pin down a true meaning of the term 'postmodern,' as it thrives in many different environments, taking its own meaning here and there and manipulating it, changing it, adjusting it. Many disciplines have what they call the postmodern, but for every category, the word creates a different response, triggers a different idea or thought process. For this reason, what is postmodern in art may not be so in music, and neither of those may be the same as the postmodern traits of fiction and literature. However, I believe that this in itself is one of the main driving forces behind postmodernism-its easy adaptability to whatever environment it happens to find itself in is a characteristic that allows it to survive from one genre to the next.
In this class, we have faced many texts that would qualify as 'postmodern,' yet we have no good way to say why they are indeed postmodern, and not modern or classical, or what have you. Yet somehow we know that they are all related, that there is a voice somewhere, saying, "this is it, I am the postmodern." This paper will attempt to find the ideas that are prevalent in our texts and set them down to give what is at least the basic groundwork for defining the postmodern in literature.
The first (and perhaps most obvious) trait we will address is the presence of metafiction in postmodern literature. Metafiction is "a term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality" (quot Theories). In a nutshell, this means that metafiction openly acknowledges and even discusses with the reader the fact that it is a fictional work, and does so to make some sort of point. In addition, metafiction tends to call reality into question; it also sees language as arbitrary, addresses the power or lack thereof of the author, brings up the fictionality of reality, and works with the intertextual. (Theories) Each of these features can be observed and defined through one or more of the works that we read for this class.
The questioning of reality is one of the most prominent features of so many of the texts we have read this semester. A prime example lies in the movie The Matrix. Never before has this essential facet of metafiction been thrust into the mainstream. The duality of worlds that only a select few have the ability to manipulate has somehow caused many of us to stop and think occasionally "Is this really real?" Not only does this movie call its own universe's reality into question, but it also makes the "reader" stop and consider their own lives, making this aspect of metafiction a part of the minds of millions. Another text that exemplifies the questioning of reality is Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. At any given point, the real reader is questioning the actions of the Reader as he makes his quest-wondering if what is said is true, trying to understand how it all fits together. These and other examples (such as Jack Gladney's conversation with the nun about religion and its illusions) also fulfill the 'foregrounding of reality and fiction' aspect of the metafictional work. This inevitable questioning of reality continues to greater or lesser degrees throughout the rest of the text list for the class.
A second feature of metafiction that features prominently in our texts is the arbitrariness of language. In Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, we see one story that becomes a series of stories told by myriad individuals. As the reader delves deeper and deeper into the work, the number of quotations marks around each statement increase, even to the point of distraction to the reader. It does, however, make the reader think about what is being said, how much of it could be made up, etc-in this way tying back to the questioning of reality aspect we discussed earlier.
Turning once more to Calvino, we see the third aspect of metafiction, the questioning of the author's power, this time through the eyes of Silas Flannery. He says simply that he wishes that he could write without thinking, simply channeling the great thoughts of the universe. The reader (and maybe the Reader) begins to question whether this is really the character speaking, or is it the author, as in Calvino. Another way this occurs is in the beginning and end of the book, at which point Calvino addresses the reader directly, conversationally-a feature that is somewhat unique and certainly grabbed the attention of at least a few readers. This odd use of the author's voice is certainly an aspect of metafiction that marks the postmodern.
Finally, intertextuality is the final feature of the metafictional. Many texts produced in the postmodern period are decidedly self-referential and also extend reference to other works, creating, to borrow a phrase from Calvino, a network of lines that intersect. The text-to-text haphazard bouncing of the Reader is unique as it occurs inside only one text, but is only one example of this intertextuality. Another can be found in Salman Rushdie's Fury, as he strives to reference modern works and modern events. Solanka references P.G. Wodehouse, William Shakespeare, the movie Gladiator, and many others. White Noise is another book with a lot of intertextuality in it-it lies firmly rooted in mass media references-television, radio, etcetera. Interextuality is key when seeking out the metafictional.
Through this examination, we see that metafiction is indeed one of the key characteristics in the postmodern-in fact, the other aspects discussed here can also most likely be classified within one of the categories already listed. However, as they are also of utmost important to the definition of the postmodern, they deserve to be discussed individually.
The first of these remaining features is the broad category of outstepping boundaries. In this case, we will regard it as a deep need in one or more of the main characters to go where others have not, to push past set emotional lines and limits, to create something new and exciting-ideals held fast in the heart of the postmodern writer which expose themselves on the page. A secondary feature of this is almost always enlightenment from a situation that the character was not aware of until they got away from the normal. While this may not be an entirely new concept to literature, in the past we commonly dealt with characters who dealt within their current situation and had no desire or ability to have their entire lives changed in the blink of an eye. Now, we see this as a prevailing theme in postmodern works.
Neo is an exceptional example in this situation. His world quite literally collapses around him in the bat of an eyelid, or rather, upon the consumption of that little pill. He near-fearlessly trusts Morpheus, and in doing so, irreversibly altering his way of life and the way he thinks about the world. We also see this need to escape the expected in, of all characters, the Rat Thing of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. When Y.T. is in trouble, a Kourier calls in a Code for her defense. Through the barking of other dogs, Rat Thing knows that she is in trouble, and with little nod to the physical damage it might receive (and not much consideration of the fact that in the past it never wanted to escape because of said damage) it goes to her rescue, achieving the freedom it was deluded into thinking it did not really want.
The next broad feature of the postmodern is the challenging of tradition. It seems that no one these days is happy with their lot in life, so many writers make their characters just a little off the norm, or take part in some kind of practice that sets their work apart from the more traditional. This challenge of tradition may take the form of strange plot devices, odd narrative (or even a lack thereof), innovative casting, open and frank discussion of "taboo" subjects, and much more. Each and every one of the texts presented in this class exemplifies this category in some way.
In Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, we see very easily this challenging of tradition. Never before has anyone been willing to try to get women to talk about such personal issues, let alone make a stage show out of it that would later, remarkably, become a worldwide hit. Ensler pushes the boundaries of the audience and herself in this play, drawing attention to an oft-hushed subject. The non-traditional in Cloud 9 is fairly obvious-the odd casting (women playing men, men playing women, adults playing children, a white man playing a black man) is certainly a cue from Churchill to the audience that they need to be thinking about the relationships presented and how the chosen cast changes what the reader might normally perceive or think. Finally, Lost in the Funhouse is another of these works with a very odd sense of narrative voice and plot. Indeed, the first chapter is not really a story at all, but instead a 'project' for the reader, a Mobius strip-which poses its own interpretational queries all by itself. This lack of traditional narrative in this case, and a lack of "expected" or traditional storylines is widely explored in the postmodern.
Our third facet of postmodernism is the redefinition of narrative, which is so important so as to deserve its own section here. Whereas in the past stories had a beginning, a middle, and an end, stories today seem to have more options. Some may have only a series of beginnings, others may have multiple-choice endings, and so on and so forth. Many stories we have encountered this semester seem to have endings that are unexpected or dissatisfactory, at least to the reader accustomed to the non-postmodern.
As previously mentioned, the lack of a consistent narrator in Lost in the Funhouse can prove disorienting to many readers-the shift in voice, style, and just about everything else is definitely an experience in the postmodern. The Vagina Monologues has not one narrator, but infinitely many, as Ensler echoes women worldwide. While Fury keeps the narrative fairly consistent, the ending is puzzling and unexpected to many-a sign of the willingness of the postmodern to discard traditional expectations. In addition, we once again see Calvino, refusing to stick to any 'normal' narrative, with his many beginnings, but a plot that somehow makes sense anyway. The reader is actually perhaps a bit disappointed when Calvino succumbs to tradition and gives the story a "happy ending." At this point, we begin to see that the reader has begun to notice these traits of the postmodern.
The final theme of postmodernism we will discuss is the blatant (or not-so-blatant) exploration of sexuality-something so prominent in the literature of now that it worms its way into just about everything. At some point, around the time when the modern started being the postmodern, there was a sexual revolution. Once-taboo subjects were openly addressed, everyone was having sex, and modesty became a sort of antiquity. This cultural change could not help but to be expressed in the literature of the time, and we have countless examples of it in the texts of this course.
The most blatant and obvious is, of course, Eve Ensler. Her Monologues discuss so many issues in such an open and honest light, that the reader manages to suspend their shock at the choice of subject matter and begins to hear what she is saying. Additionally, we discussed the 'penetration' of Neo in The Matrix (Philosophy of The Matrix). His sexuality is mainly left unexplored, but the whole movie hints (along with the trailers for the new one) that his own kind of sexual revolution is still to come. Neo is a feminine man, paired with a powerful woman; each has their own talents and powers. The exploration of the feminine side of the male gender is something normally found more often than not in the postmodern. Cloud 9 also features a wide variety of sexual explorations and exploitations, from masturbation to homosexuality, to pedophilia, to cross-racial and everywhere in between. In Snow Crash, sexuality is a weapon. Y.T. is the only person in either 'verse that can subdue the dangerous Raven. How does she do it? By having sex with him. The implications and argument over women's sexual power, however, is best left to another discussion. This list could continue on and on with references only from this class, but for the sake of brevity, we will stop here. The sexual is, as we can see, a definitive part of what we have come to see as postmodern literature.
At the end of this discussion, at the end of this class, we have perhaps begun to only shed a pinprick of light onto postmodern literature. However, by paying attention to detail and seeking out similarities between our texts, and differences between them and other works, we have come to begin, at least, to lay our hand to defining what is newer than new. Postmodern is now. Metafiction, tradition (or lack thereof), narrative, sexuality, seeking the new and different-all these things have become real to us through this course, and all we can hope is to look at our world through slightly-different colored glasses and take what lessons we will from it. In the end, the postmodern is what we make of it-it seems that our reality is in our own hands. If one chooses to see it simply as a literary device, then fine. However, one may also choose to embrace it, immerse themselves in it, and see the world in an entirely new light, full of brand-new possibilities. This is the power of the postmodern; it has changed the face of literature, and now has the power to change the lives of the masses. We are living the postmodern, and to be able to define it gives us perhaps a little more power over our environment-by understanding, we too can see just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Wow. I'm damn proud of that thing. Now all I need to do is finish my Editing project for tomorrow afternoon and I'll be in tip-top shape. Well, that and study my ass off tomorrow for my TEL test. Comprehensive...urk.
Anyway, I'll have a real update eventually. :B
It is difficult to pin down a true meaning of the term 'postmodern,' as it thrives in many different environments, taking its own meaning here and there and manipulating it, changing it, adjusting it. Many disciplines have what they call the postmodern, but for every category, the word creates a different response, triggers a different idea or thought process. For this reason, what is postmodern in art may not be so in music, and neither of those may be the same as the postmodern traits of fiction and literature. However, I believe that this in itself is one of the main driving forces behind postmodernism-its easy adaptability to whatever environment it happens to find itself in is a characteristic that allows it to survive from one genre to the next.
In this class, we have faced many texts that would qualify as 'postmodern,' yet we have no good way to say why they are indeed postmodern, and not modern or classical, or what have you. Yet somehow we know that they are all related, that there is a voice somewhere, saying, "this is it, I am the postmodern." This paper will attempt to find the ideas that are prevalent in our texts and set them down to give what is at least the basic groundwork for defining the postmodern in literature.
The first (and perhaps most obvious) trait we will address is the presence of metafiction in postmodern literature. Metafiction is "a term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality" (quot Theories). In a nutshell, this means that metafiction openly acknowledges and even discusses with the reader the fact that it is a fictional work, and does so to make some sort of point. In addition, metafiction tends to call reality into question; it also sees language as arbitrary, addresses the power or lack thereof of the author, brings up the fictionality of reality, and works with the intertextual. (Theories) Each of these features can be observed and defined through one or more of the works that we read for this class.
The questioning of reality is one of the most prominent features of so many of the texts we have read this semester. A prime example lies in the movie The Matrix. Never before has this essential facet of metafiction been thrust into the mainstream. The duality of worlds that only a select few have the ability to manipulate has somehow caused many of us to stop and think occasionally "Is this really real?" Not only does this movie call its own universe's reality into question, but it also makes the "reader" stop and consider their own lives, making this aspect of metafiction a part of the minds of millions. Another text that exemplifies the questioning of reality is Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. At any given point, the real reader is questioning the actions of the Reader as he makes his quest-wondering if what is said is true, trying to understand how it all fits together. These and other examples (such as Jack Gladney's conversation with the nun about religion and its illusions) also fulfill the 'foregrounding of reality and fiction' aspect of the metafictional work. This inevitable questioning of reality continues to greater or lesser degrees throughout the rest of the text list for the class.
A second feature of metafiction that features prominently in our texts is the arbitrariness of language. In Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, we see one story that becomes a series of stories told by myriad individuals. As the reader delves deeper and deeper into the work, the number of quotations marks around each statement increase, even to the point of distraction to the reader. It does, however, make the reader think about what is being said, how much of it could be made up, etc-in this way tying back to the questioning of reality aspect we discussed earlier.
Turning once more to Calvino, we see the third aspect of metafiction, the questioning of the author's power, this time through the eyes of Silas Flannery. He says simply that he wishes that he could write without thinking, simply channeling the great thoughts of the universe. The reader (and maybe the Reader) begins to question whether this is really the character speaking, or is it the author, as in Calvino. Another way this occurs is in the beginning and end of the book, at which point Calvino addresses the reader directly, conversationally-a feature that is somewhat unique and certainly grabbed the attention of at least a few readers. This odd use of the author's voice is certainly an aspect of metafiction that marks the postmodern.
Finally, intertextuality is the final feature of the metafictional. Many texts produced in the postmodern period are decidedly self-referential and also extend reference to other works, creating, to borrow a phrase from Calvino, a network of lines that intersect. The text-to-text haphazard bouncing of the Reader is unique as it occurs inside only one text, but is only one example of this intertextuality. Another can be found in Salman Rushdie's Fury, as he strives to reference modern works and modern events. Solanka references P.G. Wodehouse, William Shakespeare, the movie Gladiator, and many others. White Noise is another book with a lot of intertextuality in it-it lies firmly rooted in mass media references-television, radio, etcetera. Interextuality is key when seeking out the metafictional.
Through this examination, we see that metafiction is indeed one of the key characteristics in the postmodern-in fact, the other aspects discussed here can also most likely be classified within one of the categories already listed. However, as they are also of utmost important to the definition of the postmodern, they deserve to be discussed individually.
The first of these remaining features is the broad category of outstepping boundaries. In this case, we will regard it as a deep need in one or more of the main characters to go where others have not, to push past set emotional lines and limits, to create something new and exciting-ideals held fast in the heart of the postmodern writer which expose themselves on the page. A secondary feature of this is almost always enlightenment from a situation that the character was not aware of until they got away from the normal. While this may not be an entirely new concept to literature, in the past we commonly dealt with characters who dealt within their current situation and had no desire or ability to have their entire lives changed in the blink of an eye. Now, we see this as a prevailing theme in postmodern works.
Neo is an exceptional example in this situation. His world quite literally collapses around him in the bat of an eyelid, or rather, upon the consumption of that little pill. He near-fearlessly trusts Morpheus, and in doing so, irreversibly altering his way of life and the way he thinks about the world. We also see this need to escape the expected in, of all characters, the Rat Thing of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. When Y.T. is in trouble, a Kourier calls in a Code for her defense. Through the barking of other dogs, Rat Thing knows that she is in trouble, and with little nod to the physical damage it might receive (and not much consideration of the fact that in the past it never wanted to escape because of said damage) it goes to her rescue, achieving the freedom it was deluded into thinking it did not really want.
The next broad feature of the postmodern is the challenging of tradition. It seems that no one these days is happy with their lot in life, so many writers make their characters just a little off the norm, or take part in some kind of practice that sets their work apart from the more traditional. This challenge of tradition may take the form of strange plot devices, odd narrative (or even a lack thereof), innovative casting, open and frank discussion of "taboo" subjects, and much more. Each and every one of the texts presented in this class exemplifies this category in some way.
In Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, we see very easily this challenging of tradition. Never before has anyone been willing to try to get women to talk about such personal issues, let alone make a stage show out of it that would later, remarkably, become a worldwide hit. Ensler pushes the boundaries of the audience and herself in this play, drawing attention to an oft-hushed subject. The non-traditional in Cloud 9 is fairly obvious-the odd casting (women playing men, men playing women, adults playing children, a white man playing a black man) is certainly a cue from Churchill to the audience that they need to be thinking about the relationships presented and how the chosen cast changes what the reader might normally perceive or think. Finally, Lost in the Funhouse is another of these works with a very odd sense of narrative voice and plot. Indeed, the first chapter is not really a story at all, but instead a 'project' for the reader, a Mobius strip-which poses its own interpretational queries all by itself. This lack of traditional narrative in this case, and a lack of "expected" or traditional storylines is widely explored in the postmodern.
Our third facet of postmodernism is the redefinition of narrative, which is so important so as to deserve its own section here. Whereas in the past stories had a beginning, a middle, and an end, stories today seem to have more options. Some may have only a series of beginnings, others may have multiple-choice endings, and so on and so forth. Many stories we have encountered this semester seem to have endings that are unexpected or dissatisfactory, at least to the reader accustomed to the non-postmodern.
As previously mentioned, the lack of a consistent narrator in Lost in the Funhouse can prove disorienting to many readers-the shift in voice, style, and just about everything else is definitely an experience in the postmodern. The Vagina Monologues has not one narrator, but infinitely many, as Ensler echoes women worldwide. While Fury keeps the narrative fairly consistent, the ending is puzzling and unexpected to many-a sign of the willingness of the postmodern to discard traditional expectations. In addition, we once again see Calvino, refusing to stick to any 'normal' narrative, with his many beginnings, but a plot that somehow makes sense anyway. The reader is actually perhaps a bit disappointed when Calvino succumbs to tradition and gives the story a "happy ending." At this point, we begin to see that the reader has begun to notice these traits of the postmodern.
The final theme of postmodernism we will discuss is the blatant (or not-so-blatant) exploration of sexuality-something so prominent in the literature of now that it worms its way into just about everything. At some point, around the time when the modern started being the postmodern, there was a sexual revolution. Once-taboo subjects were openly addressed, everyone was having sex, and modesty became a sort of antiquity. This cultural change could not help but to be expressed in the literature of the time, and we have countless examples of it in the texts of this course.
The most blatant and obvious is, of course, Eve Ensler. Her Monologues discuss so many issues in such an open and honest light, that the reader manages to suspend their shock at the choice of subject matter and begins to hear what she is saying. Additionally, we discussed the 'penetration' of Neo in The Matrix (Philosophy of The Matrix). His sexuality is mainly left unexplored, but the whole movie hints (along with the trailers for the new one) that his own kind of sexual revolution is still to come. Neo is a feminine man, paired with a powerful woman; each has their own talents and powers. The exploration of the feminine side of the male gender is something normally found more often than not in the postmodern. Cloud 9 also features a wide variety of sexual explorations and exploitations, from masturbation to homosexuality, to pedophilia, to cross-racial and everywhere in between. In Snow Crash, sexuality is a weapon. Y.T. is the only person in either 'verse that can subdue the dangerous Raven. How does she do it? By having sex with him. The implications and argument over women's sexual power, however, is best left to another discussion. This list could continue on and on with references only from this class, but for the sake of brevity, we will stop here. The sexual is, as we can see, a definitive part of what we have come to see as postmodern literature.
At the end of this discussion, at the end of this class, we have perhaps begun to only shed a pinprick of light onto postmodern literature. However, by paying attention to detail and seeking out similarities between our texts, and differences between them and other works, we have come to begin, at least, to lay our hand to defining what is newer than new. Postmodern is now. Metafiction, tradition (or lack thereof), narrative, sexuality, seeking the new and different-all these things have become real to us through this course, and all we can hope is to look at our world through slightly-different colored glasses and take what lessons we will from it. In the end, the postmodern is what we make of it-it seems that our reality is in our own hands. If one chooses to see it simply as a literary device, then fine. However, one may also choose to embrace it, immerse themselves in it, and see the world in an entirely new light, full of brand-new possibilities. This is the power of the postmodern; it has changed the face of literature, and now has the power to change the lives of the masses. We are living the postmodern, and to be able to define it gives us perhaps a little more power over our environment-by understanding, we too can see just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Wow. I'm damn proud of that thing. Now all I need to do is finish my Editing project for tomorrow afternoon and I'll be in tip-top shape. Well, that and study my ass off tomorrow for my TEL test. Comprehensive...urk.
Anyway, I'll have a real update eventually. :B