Your Place in History

• Modern

Timeline

TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING

Modernism Postmodernism

14th C 1900 2000

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Postmodernism: Basic Concepts

• Life just is

• Rejection of all master narratives

• All “truths” are contingent cultural constructs

• Skepticism of progress; anti-technology bias

• Sense of fragmentation and de-centered self

• Multiple conflicting identities

• Mass-mediated reality

The End of Master Narratives

POSTMODERNISM

Postmodern Culture• Create your own values—no right, wrong, sin, etc.• No right or wrong lifestyle• What is truth? Okay to dismiss whatever doesn’t

feel compatible with personal journey

Postmodernism: Basic Concepts

• All versions of reality are SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS

• Concepts of good and evil

• Metaphors for God

• Language

• The self

• Gender

• EVERYTHING!

The End of Master Narratives

POSTMODERNISM

Postmodern Literature

• Experimental mixtures of novels, short stories, poems, nonfiction- blending of genres

• Search for identity is a common theme• Mixing of fantasy and reality• Embraces popular culture • deals with political and social issues • development of such concepts as the absurd, the anti-hero, antinovel,

magic realism

PostModern Literature

• Extreme freedom of form and expression

• Repudiation of boundaries of narration & genre

• Intrusive, self-reflexive author

• Parodies of meta-narratives (a meta-narrative is one that claims to explain various events in history, gives meaning by connecting disperse events and phenomena by appealing to some kind of universal knowledge or schema)

• EX: Bible, Arthurian legend, Quran, categorizing history (Fall of Roman Empire, Renaissance, etc)

• Deliberate violation of standards of sense and decency (which are viewed as methods of social control)

• Integration of everyday experience, pop culture

Play and Parody

POSTMODERNISM