Postmodernism
- 1950
We dont’t know the exact date
- Higher level of enlightenment
- Reaction to modernism
- Hard to describe
- A reaction movement like romanticism but more updated than it
Romantcs believed va truth
They also turned intı the tradition they hated throughout time
- Not a new thing
- To recreate the values of the past with the technology of the modern times
Not a fully true description
- Extreme relativism
Peak point
Against the thought of there is a truth
To reach this you need to be desperate
60’s generation is important*
Remained within third-class countries
Postmodernism is racism
They were against postmodernism
- There is no such thing as literary criticism
- Against description
- It is a discourse-spesific reaction
More than once
- Generally irrational and anti-humanist
Depends on the author
- Not like the movements we have seen before
- People saw universe like it was in a harmony before 20th century
This changed after the WWII
There is no harmonic universe or a single truth
- Every discipline and artistic action have their own criticism on postmodernism
So we dont have a specific description for postmodernism
- Every movement had their special features until postmodernism
Elitism
Post modernism is eglectic
- “ what is the meaning?”
The one that author wrote or the reader read
Author turned into reader
Their thoughts are not important
- It takes parts from the works that before it and use them within new setting, plot etc.
They dont care if the work is original or not
20th century
- Language was discussed in western philosopy
- Linguistics started
- Semantic and linguistic areas started
We produce all philosophy with language
- Language is not a tool that tell the meaning
It produces them
- Diagronic; art zaman; the change of a term through time
Linguistic studies until sausser were diagronic
- Sausser created syncronic approach
It investigates the languages’s construct within a specific moment
- Signifier; written or audial
Signified: the thing that written or audial
Together: sign
He said we should understand the connection between these terms to understand a
language
Structeralism
- There were economic and cultural conservatism
Helped the economy
- Postmodern culture analysis
Became a tradition after 90’s
- Discentered;
To understand postmodernism truly we should focus on its environment, not the center
Centered culture
- After the westerner women had their rights, the rights of immigrant women were focused
Representative authors
Jacques Derrida
- 1930-2004
- Language is unreliable
There are more than one meaning within a text
- The meaning of a sign can’t be stable
There are meaning even in minimal terms
- We can find different meanings in every time
Also our habits can affect it
- Author writes incorrect
Reader reads incorrect
- First generation postmodernist
- Found the deconstruction
1962
- Of grammatology
1967
The interplay of multiple meanings in the texts of present-day culture
Exposed the unspoken assumptions that underlie much of contemporary social thought
- There is nothing except text
The peak point of relativism
- Every text can be deconstructed like it was constructed
Terry Eagleton
- 1943-
- Literary criticist
- Marxist
- Criticizes postmodernism
- Criticizes the new culture without a center approach
- One of the foremost exponents of Marxist criticism
Michel Foucault
- 1926-1984
- Wrote about the hierarchies within society and how to destroy them
Fredric Jameson
- 1934-
- He was influenced by Jean Baudrillad
- Criticizes the postmodernism
- Marxist
the leading exponent of it in the United States
- Postmodernism or the cultural logic of late capitalism
Julia Kristeva
- 1941-
- Third generation feminist
- Literary criticist
Toni Morrison
- 1931-
- Afro-american
- Novelist
Fictional*
- We see that new generation authors have academic sides
She had literature doctorate
Fiction authors know the theory well
Critic and fictional writings were two different things until 70’s
Then author turned into a criticist
Thomas Pynchon
- 1937-
- Gravity’s Rainbow
- Beat generation
Against the materializatiıon of the West
Mystic seekings
- Fiction
Ishmael Reed
- 1938-
- Afro-american
- Fiction
- Mumbo Jumbo
Note: a movement of a work and the ideologies of the author who has written it can be different
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- 1922-2007
- He broke the liner or rational timeline understanding
- Slaughterhouse Five
Representative Works
Beloved
- 1987
- About the bad consequences of racism
- Historical novels are under the control of White men
So others tell stories with fiction
- Magic realism
Different from fantastic literature
There is political criticism
- Creates a environment to be the voice of people who can’t speak out
So it is postmodernist
Cat’s Cradle
Of Grammatology
- The beginning of deconstructionism
- Contains the basis for deconstructive analysis of language
- Two more important issuees;
Logocetrism of language;
The spoken Word is important than text
He wants to destroy the binary set;
->we make our ideas over opposite situatioins and binaries. It is wrong
The core of the written and spoken different
Speech is a form of unrecorded script
A text has many meaning according to number of people who read it
After releasing the book; the author loses control
So every reading is wrong
So no text is stable
Has problem with the signifier and signified relationship that comes from structuralism*
They cant have a stable relationship
Sausser found it
Then the poststructuralism; against it
The problem; when a written Word represents a spoken Word turn into the object
Use of binary oppositions in western culture
- Random play of signifiers
The thing we call meaning
Gravity’s Rainbow
Themes
Deconstruction
- By Derrida
- A reviewing method
- Defines the basic premise of postmodern
- When it started, cannot be stopped
Have to dig into the basics of the philosophy
- There is no definitive link between the signifier and the signified
So all communications are uncertain
- A text ceases to have a meaning until a reader reads it
- There is nothing but the text acc to Derrida
- Derrida; there is no such thing as truth
Rumored that he is nihilist
Against nihilism
- Also focuses at the internal uncertainties of the work
- He comments on issues of identity in western civilization that derive from the reliance o
binary oppositions
Disintegration
- One of the main outgrows
- Of concepts that used to hbe taken for granted and assumed to be stable
- The nature of language, the idea of knowledge and the Notion of a universal truth
- Gives freedom to terms that have been disintegrated
- Affirmation
- Authors often disrupt expected time lines or change points of view and speakers in ways that
disrupt and cause disintegration in literature
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Cultural Studies
- Culture understanding in the West
1- The most advanced habits developed by a society
Cultural person is the greatest
2- All values produced by a society
- Literary studies is a sub-branch of cultural studies
- These are sometimes directly related to specific areas on the planet
Multiculturalism
- Combinin specific interest areas into one area of study
Style
Schizophrenia
- In literature and entertainment media is the relaxation of strict time lines, sometimes called
discontinuos time
- Soul division
- Postmodernism works are Schizophrenic
Fredric Jameson
Man of the high castle
An anachronic work
- Anachronism;
What if scenario
Taking characters who did not live in a certain region or time and placing them in those
settings
Characters dont match with the historical findings
Recurring characters
- Some authors introduce a single character into several different works
- Postmodern authors can easily copy authors’ works
They argue that what they write is different from the original because of environment and
time
Irony
- The opposite of the literal meaning is intended
Authorial Intrusion
- Author will speak directly to the audience or to a character
Self-reflexivity
- Works make comments about the works themselves, reflecting on the writing or the
meaning of the work
- Refer to themselves
Collage
- An often random association of dissimilar objects without any intentional connection
between them or without a purpose
- The characters from different works within one singular work
Prose poetry
- The passage looks like a paragraph of prose writing but the content is poetic in language and
structure
Parody and Pastiche
- Writers will take the work of another and restructure it to make a dfferent impression on the
reader
- Parody; the imitation of other styles with a critical edge
- Pastiche; like parody but it is neutraş
Without humor
Simulacra
- False copy
- Debased reflection of the original that is inferior to the original
- No similarity with the original one
