Applying postmodern lense. But postmodern applications already existed in ancient times.
Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues. This style of experimental literature emerged strongly in the United States in the 1960s through the writings of authors such as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Philip K. Dick, Kathy Acker, and John Barth. Postmodernists often challenge authorities, which has been seen as a symptom of the fact that this style of literature first emerged in the context of political tendencies in the 1960s.[1] This inspiration is, among other things, seen through how postmodern literature is highly self-reflexive about the political issues it speaks to.
Sometimes the term "postmodernism" is used to discuss many different things ranging from architecture to historical theory to philosophy and film. Because of this fact, several people distinguish between several forms of postmodernism and thus suggest that there are three forms of postmodernism: (1) Postmodernity is understood as a historical period from the mid-1960s to the present, which is different from the (2) theoretical postmodernism, which encompasses the theories developed by thinkers such as Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and others. The third category is the “cultural postmodernism,” which includes film, literature, visual arts, etc. that feature postmodern elements. Postmodern literature is, in this sense, part of cultural postmodernism.[7]
POSTMODERN | GREEK MYTH |
Irony, playfulness, black humor - characterized by the ironic quote marks, playfulness, often including silly wordplay, within a serious context | Aristophanes homer |
Intertextuality - can be a reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style | everything |
Pastiche - to combine, or "paste" together, multiple elements, involves the mixing of genres, can be a homage to or a parody of past styles | Aristophanes The Argonautica The Aeneid |
Metafiction - writing about writing or "foregrounding the apparatus", often employed to undermine the authority of the author, for unexpected narrative shifts, to advance a story in a unique way, for emotional distance, or to comment on the act of storytelling. | Homer’s epics referring to the bard |
Fabulation - sometimes used interchangeably with metafiction and relates to pastiche and Magic Realism, literature is a created work and not bound by notions of mimesis and verisimilitude. | Interactions with the gods, transformations |
Poioumena - "product" story is about the process of creation | Homer’s epics |
Historiographic metafiction - works that fictionalize actual historical events or figures; - (Linda Hutcheon) | Troy stories |
Temporal distortion - Time may also overlap, repeat, or bifurcate into multiple possibilities | Everywhen Everynow |
Magic realism - may be literary work marked by the use of still, sharply defined, smoothly painted images of figures and objects depicted in a surrealistic manner. The themes and subjects are often imaginary, somewhat outlandish and fantastic and with a certain dream-like quality. Some of the characteristic features of this kind of fiction are the mingling and juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastic or bizarre, skillful time shifts, convoluted and even labyrinthine narratives and plots, miscellaneous use of dreams, myths and fairy stories, expressionistic and even surrealistic description, arcane erudition, the element of surprise or abrupt shock, the horrific and the inexplicable. | myth |
Technoculture and hyperreality - simulations have replaced the real. In postmodernity people are inundated with information, technology has become a central focus in many lives, and one's understanding of the real is mediated by simulations of the real. | Gods in disguise |
Paranoia - the belief that there's an ordering system behind the chaos of the world is another recurring postmodern theme - paranoia often straddles the line between delusion and brilliant insight - may be "coincidence or conspiracy – or a cruel joke".- Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, | Will of the gods is unknowable |
Maximalis - sprawling canvas and fragmented narrative | What is extant What is extinct
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Minimalism - focus on a surface description where readers are expected to take an active role in the creation of a story - "slice of life" stories | Fragments extant |
Fragmentation - Various elements, concerning plot, characters, themes, imagery and factual references are fragmented and dispersed throughout the entire work.[59] In general, there is an interrupted sequence of events, character development and action which can at first glance look modern. Fragmentation purports, however, to depict a metaphysically unfounded, chaotic universe. It can occur in language, sentence structure or grammar. | Fragments extant |
We don't need postmodernism because we have the Greeks who already did all this.
We have been using postmodernism as a lens to view Greek myth but we could be flipping this and doing it the other way around. Use Greek myth to view postmodernism.
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