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Postmodernism

Postmodernism. (insert subtitle here). Also, he’s an IRS agent. So… …death and taxes anyone?. Introduction. A(n ) dishonest irrational man. Defining Postmodernism. You absolute wanker. The first sentence of every novel should be:

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Postmodernism

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  1. Postmodernism (insert subtitle here)

  2. Also, he’s an IRS agent. So… …death and taxes anyone?

  3. Introduction A(n) dishonest irrational man

  4. Defining Postmodernism You absolute wanker The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human. Meander if you want to get to town. In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje

  5. Modernism A brief explanation Slide 1

  6. Victorian Era • Strong values • Religion • Capitalism • Progress • Decorum • Narrative – middle class’s favourite Slide 2

  7. Modernism Characteristics Impressionism; subjectivity; stream of consciousness Reflexivity Lack of objectivity; fixed narration Blurring of genres Blurring of distinction between “high” and “low” Slide 3

  8. The End JamesBond “Meta” will return in… Slide 4

  9. Postmodernism Traits Impressionism; subjectivity; stream of consciousness Reflexivity Lack of objectivity; fixed narration Blurring of genres Blurring of distinction between “high” and “low”

  10. High Art, Low Art “Oh stay and hear! your true-love’s coming That can sing both high and low”

  11. Postmodernism Traits which may have inspired the depiction of Harold Crick’s thoughts on the world itself? Charlie Kauffman takes the cake… though Calvino, Barth, Vonnegut, Hofstadter, Pirandello… novel and film, for example? “I swear to God I had something for this…” …Sammy Gay-visJr?... No… Impressionism; subjectivity; stream of consciousness Reflexivity Lack of objectivity; lack of fixed narration Blurring of genres Blurring of distinction between “high” and “low”

  12. Modernism Characteristics Impressionism; subjectivity; stream of consciousness Reflexivity Lack of objectivity; fixed narration Blurring of genres Blurring of distinction between “high” and “low”

  13. Postmodernism Traits • Fragmentation; ambiguity Impressionism; subjectivity; stream of consciousness Reflexivity Lack of objectivity; fixed narration Blurring of genres Blurring of distinction between “high” and “low”

  14. Awkward… Awkward? No! • The difference is the attitude. • Modernism: lamentation  • Art creates meaning in a meaningless world • Postmodernism: celebration  • Parody, irony, pastiche, playfulness • “Let’s not pretend that art can make meaning, let’s just play with the nonsense!”

  15. Modernity Order! Fairly sure that’s why there are so many mathematicians in this film… • Social era/formation/attitude • Set of philosophical, political and ethical ideas • European Enlightenment • Science is truth; road to perfection • Order, reason, rationality • Dualities: order and disorder, good and bad

  16. Grand Narratives Five people stranded on an island must determine how to govern themselves. One person says “I will be dictator in a dictatorship”. The other four say “No, we want a democracy. Let’s put it to a vote”. The vote passes four to one. • Jean-François Lyotard: La Conditionepostmoderne: Rapport sur le savoir • Meta-narratives = grand narratives • Don’t get confused with metafiction! • Postmodernism = critique of grand narratives • Favours mini-narratives

  17. Meta ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED • Metaphysics, by Aristotle, was thus named by Adronicus of Rhodes because it followed Physics. • Metaphysics was misinterpreted as “the science of what is beyond physics”. • Meta now has the meaning of “beyond” or “about”, and thanks to Hofstadter, is related to “self-reference”. ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED ABED

  18. Metafiction I’m So Meta, Even This Acronym All glory, praise and honour to Randall Munroe and Douglas Hofstadter, who inspired this in the first place. I’m So Meta, Even This Acronym IS META Create a fiction and comment on the creation World “of” the fiction vs world “outside” the fiction Construction of illusion AND disclosure of illusion

  19. How to start… Which you could say I did when talking about the history of these things in the first place! A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. The End of the Affair, Graham Greene

  20. Life of the Author • Author as one true god • Definitive interpretative of novel, based on author’s intent • Author apparently only describing events, not necessarily creating things • Suspension of disbelief

  21. Author as God

  22. Characters Creation ampersand Description It would be senseless for the author to try to convince the reader that his characters once actually lived. They were not born of a mother’s womb; they were born of a stimulating phrase or two or from a basic situation. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera

  23. Names • Francis Crick (DNA); Blaise Pascal (maths); Gustave Eiffel (engineer); M.C. Escher (artist); David Hilbert (maths); Leopold Kronecker (maths); Benjamin Banneker (maths); Arthur Cayley (maths); Euclid (maths) Professor Hilbert creates 23 questions for Harold Crick to answer. Professor Hilbert proposed 23 famous problems for mathematicians.

  24. Death of the Author reader response criticism? signifiers, signifieds – Saussure should I say anything more? • Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author” • Author not the single right interpretation of everything • “To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text, and furnish it with a final signified, to close the writing” • Postmodernism relishes in this death • Authors explicitly reveal themselves, no longer pretending to be ultimate sources of meaning, but rather just normal people telling a story

  25. Death of the Author The French Lieutenant’s Woman • Postmodern period novel based off Victorian literature • Strong presence of narrator • Intermittent commentary on Victorian life • Loaded with reflexivity • Doesn’t always control the characters: Charles Smithson often disobeys the author’s orders • Two endings – how to decide?

  26. Death of the Author Six Characters in Search of an Author • Six characters burst onto a stage, interrupting actors in their rehearsal • Characters desperately seeking the end of their story • Reality of characters vs reality of actors • Which group gives the better show? • Harold Crick desperately searches for his author • Also see Letters, by John Barth, in which characters from his previous novels write to each other and Barth!

  27. Death of the Author The Flight of Icarus Raymond Queneau deserves more comments! He has written the most sonnets than anyone in the history of the universe; has written the same story 100 times in Exercises in Style; and founded the Oulipo(Ouvroir de littératurepotentielle– workshop of potential literature) • Novel in play form (blending genres!) • Hubert Lubert hates plays; but with him missing, the novel fragments… • Hubert Lubert (funny, right?) searches for his lost character Icarus, only 10-15 pages old! • Incredibly playful, always

  28. Comedy or Tragedy

  29. Comedy or Tragedy Oh, those Italians… The ultimate meaning to which all stories refer has two faces: the continuity of life, the inevitability of death. Se unanotted’inverno un viaggiatore, Italo Calvino

  30. Table of Contents • Introduction • Defining Postmodernism • Interlude 1: Modernism • Modernity and Postmodernity • Metafiction • Meta • The Life and Death of the Author • Comedy and Tragedy

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