POST-
MODERN
PERIOD
GROUP 7
Acruz, Christal Mae
Benemerito, Dianne
Cuizon, Xyrah
INTRODUCTION
The term Postmodern literature is used to
describe works of literature that were produced
after World War II (after 1945). The main objective
of postmodern literature is to break away from
conventional traditions through experimentation
with new literary devices, forms, genres, styles
etc.
Postmodernism springs from a
number of variables::
A reaction against modernism:
Especially against the distinction
between “high art” and everyday
life. That is why postmodernists
appealed to popular culture.
Cartoons, music, pop art, and
television have thus become
acceptable for postmodernist artistic
expression.
Postmodernism springs from a
number of variables::
A reaction against a totally
new world after WWII:
It implies a reaction to significant
post-war events: the nuclear
bombing and the massacre of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the
beginning of the Cold War, the civil
rights movement in the United
States, postcolonialism, and
globalization. Also, a reaction
against capitalism, technology and
Postmodernism springs from a
number of variables::
A reaction against realists:
Realists believed that reality was
objective and could be differentiated
from the subjective status of each
subject’s vision. Realism believed
that language could represent
reality, while postmodernists
believed in the randomness of
human experience. Postmodernist
literature holds the view that literary
language is its own reality, not a
CHARACTERISTICS
OF POST-MODERN
PERIOD
Point Of Fragmentation
View
The postmodern point No linear narration
of view becomes more
limited.
Intertextualit Pastiche
y
The idea that every This can be a parody of past
text is the result of styles.
pre-existing texts It can be seen as a
whose meanings it re- representation of the chaotic,
works and transforms. pluralistic aspects of
Embrace Playfulness
randomness
Post modern often Used of black humor, irony, and
employ unreliable sarcasm to dizzy readers and
narrators to further muddle the story
muddy the waters with
extreme subjectivity
Magical Time and
Realism Space
Supernatural elements are Authors play with the
treated as mundane. concepts of time and space in
their storytelling.
Parody Identity &
Individualism
Takes something, we all Shows characters who are
know and twists it in a struggling
way that makes us laugh with their identity.
or think.
The Antinovel The
absurd
Postmodern novels are Absurd literature rejects the
called antinovels because traditional idea that
they attempt to present narratives
the reader with experience should tell stories in a logical
itself, unfiltered by way.
metaphor or other vehicles
THEMES OF
POSTMODERN PERIOD
Identity Search for goodness Feelings of anxiety
in humanity
Meaninglessness of Fragmentation &
Memory
human existence discontinuity
Alienation of
Loss & death
individuals
LITERARY AUTHORS
JOHN HERSHEY
Author of Hiroshima, The
Wall, A Single Pebble, The
War Lover, and Fling and
Other Stories
LITERARY AUTHORS
LAWRENCE
FERLINGHETTI
Author of “Constantly Risking
Absurdity,” City Lights, Howl and
Other Poems, and A Coney Island
of the Mind
LITERARY AUTHORS
THEODORE ROETHKE
Author of “Cuttings,” Open
House, The Waking, The Far
Field, The Lost Son, and Words
for the Wind
LITERARY AUTHORS
ROBERT HAYDEN
Author of “Frederick Douglass,”
and A Ballad of
Remembrance
LITERARY AUTHORS
JAMES BALDWIN
Author of “The Rockpile,” and
Go
Tell It on the Mountain
LITERARY AUTHORS
JOHN FITZGERALD
KENNEDY
Author of his Inaugural
Address
LITERARY AUTHORS
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Author of “Letter from
Birmingham City Jail”
LITERARY AUTHORS
Arthur Miller
Author of All My Sons,
Death of a Salesman, The
Crucible, and
The Last Yankee
Postmodernist literary developments defy the
conventions of literary cohesion and even
coherence. Postmodernist literature involves a
deconstruction of certain already existing literary
forms and genres, and also the invention of new
The
ones.
title of “Postmodernism” fits well within this
era because it depicts how people reacted to the
events of the modern era. During the modern era,
two major World Wars and The Great Depression
left many Americans looking for hope in society.
The holocaust and the atomic bombs left
Americans searching for hope in humanity. Authors
tried to reflect society and humanity in a way that
showed that there was still some goodness left in
it.
THANK
YOU
GROUP 7
