Postmodern Literary Movement: Defining Characteristics and Historical Context

Characteristics of Postmodernism and Related Authors

Defining Postmodernism: Timeframe and Distinction from Modernism

Postmodernism is a literary movement originating in the post-1950s, a time marked by the Cold War and excessive consumption. The period is generally considered to begin in the early 1960s and extend into the 1990s.

It differs significantly from Modernism by blurring the conventional boundary between “high” and “low” culture, employing a completely loosened structure in both time and space, and favoring multiple openings rather than a closed structure. It rejects conformity to popular taste and combines heterogeneous elements, catering to a more sophisticated readership.

Core Philosophical Tenets and Relativism

The movement is characterized by an attempt to establish transhistorical or transcultural validity, yet simultaneously claims that the search for reality is pointless, as the “real” is conditioned by time, place, race, class, gender, and sexuality. Consequently, there is no knowledge or experience that is superior or inferior to another.

Historical Events Shaping Postmodern Thought

Developed in the second half of the twentieth century, the movement was largely influenced by a number of defining events: the genocide of the Second World War, Soviet gulags, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, mass destruction caused by atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the insecurity of the Cold War Era, post-colonialism issues, the supremacy of multinational corporations, post-industrialism with new technologies, violence, counter-culture, and consumer culture. These factors shaped the perception of the new authors.

Impact on Literature: Focus on Fiction

While Postmodernism had little relevance to poetry and only a limited influence on modern drama (applied primarily to the Theatre of the Absurd), it had a huge impact on fiction, especially the novel.

Key Characteristics of Postmodern Literature

• Topics dealing with the complex absurdity of contemporary life, including moral and philosophical relativism, loss of faith in political and moral authority, and alienation.
• Employing literary techniques such as black humor, parody, and travesty.
• Erasing boundaries between “low” and “high” culture.
• Lack of a grand narrative (metanarrative).
• Avoiding traditional closure of themes or situations.
• Condemning commercialism, hedonism, mass production, and economic globalism.
• Reality represented primarily through language.

Other characteristics include an openness to spiritual matters and the acceptance of different lifestyles.

Language, Power, and Ideology

Postmodernism emphasizes the role of language in relation to power, relations, and motivations. In particular, it attacks the use of sharp classifications such as male versus female, straight versus gay, and white versus black.

In the postmodern period, there is a much stronger emphasis on relativism. The notions of ideology and power come to the foreground. There is no universal truth because any statement, value judgment, or version of events depends on the ideology and power position of the speaker.

Postmodern Authors

The authors of this period are: