2. Postmodern Fiction
� In Modernism, People are living in a fragmented world, nothing left to rely upon, but
they are trying to find a solution.
� T. S. Eliot’s works, e.g., The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock
� And indeed there will be time
� To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
� Time to turn back and descend the stair,
� With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —
� (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)
� My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
� My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —
3. Cont…
� In contrast, in the Postmodern world, there are problems everywhere,
people distrust everything that exists around them, fragmentation is also
worse than what it could be in the modern era, but there is no search for
the solution of the problems.
� Problematizing the problem.
4. Features of Postmodernism
� Waiting for Godot is a perfect example of PM fiction.
� We are said to be the product of our society. We are not born on a clean slate.
Therefore, there will be different on the basis of what we have learnt from our
diverse environments.
� Embracing the contradiction: 1 of the major/key tenets of PM.
� “Total Search of knowledge leads to delusion”.
� On the first hand, knowledge is fluid, it is not static. Secondly, delusions have
false basis; prejudice also has a false basis, so does bigotry…
� Jean Baudrillard, 1929 to 2007, French philosopher, social scientist,
photographer…
� Subject (human beings) are in search of an Object (knowledge). People are led
away believing in certain facets of the knowledge.
5. Jean Baudrillard
� Simulacra and Simulation 1981
� Simulacra are copies that depict things that either had no original or that no longer have an
original. Simulation is the imitation of the operation of real world process over time.
� Hyper-reality is the copy / imitation of an original which does not exist in the first place,
for example, minion, mickey mouse, Disney world, etc. Another example may be,
Hardware vs Software…
� Gulf War Did Not Take Place 1990s
� Difference: Things are only understood by being different. For example, Night is night
because it is not day. A girl is a girl because she is not a boy, nor a table, furniture, nor
a tree, nor a bear or horse, etc.
� Inter-textuality….
6. Key Features of PM Literature
1. Metafiction:- A form of fiction which emphasizes on its own constructedness in a way
that continually reminds the readers that they are reading fiction. A device which
explores the question of how human beings construct their experience. Canterbury
Tales, Don Quixote, Vanity Fair, A Handmaid’s Tale
2. Unreliable Narration:- 1st person
3. Self-reflexivity:- A way to explain some troublesome or wrong act of protagonist
probably done in the past, revealed when the character is trying to come clean and
admit their mistakes.
4. Intertextuality:- Shaping of a text’s meaning by another text. An interrelationship
between texts by means of allusion, quotation, translation, parody, calque, plagiarism,
etc.
7. Cont…
5. Thematizing of historical and political issues
6. Techno-culture & Hyper-reality:- The inability of consciousness to distinguish reality
from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced societies.
7. Magical Realism:- Mixing of fantastical with the real/physical world. Example will
be A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
8. Cont…
8. Pastiche:- To combine or paste together different elements, mixing of
genres, in order to achieve some comic sense or to make parody
9. Paranoia
10.Maximalism:- Odyssey
11.Minimalism:- Instead of providing every minute details, the author provides
a general context and allows readers’ imagination to shape the story.
12.Fragmentaion:- Waiting for Godot
13.Temporal Distortion:- When the time is not given in a chronological order in
a piece of literature. Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-five is filed with
time distortion.
14.Irony:- A Gift of Magi, Othello
15.Playfulness, Black Humour:- A style of comedy that makes light of subject
matter which is considered taboo, serious, or painful to discuss. Black
Comedy refers to a genre which has themes such as death, discrimination,
violence, disease, human sexuality, etc.
9. Postmodern elements
16. Disappearance of the Self is another important element which may sometimes be
understood as the crisis of identity. In postmodern fiction, one generally finds a
fragmented self.
17.Postmodern fiction opposes the idea of absoluteness which means that there is no
truth at all. It is also a criticism of this chapter of literature that it promotes
obscurantism instead of relying on knowledge.
