What is "post-modern literature"?

There is a lot of content. Please read it patiently.

On Postmodernism

The background of postmodernism

The word "postmodernism" was first seen by Christopher? Anisz's Selected Poems of Spain and Spain America, edited by 1934. Charles, the main theorist of the "Black Mountain Poetry School" in the United States in the 1950s? Olson often uses the word "postmodernism", which makes it more and more influential. At this time, the concept of postmodernism is just a backlash against the modernist literary trend of thought implied in literature, and there is no clear connotation definition. In 1960s, American critics had a profound discussion on postmodernism. The debate between Lyotard and Habermas in 1970s and 1980s raised this debate from North American critics to the level of philosophy, aesthetics and cultural criticism. Hassan tried his best to "summarize" the connotation, essence and extension characteristics of postmodernism. In the mid-1980s, the International Society for Comparative Literature organized three international seminars, which formally took it as a cutting-edge theoretical research topic and pushed the debate on postmodernism to a climax. Since then, postmodernism has become a well-known and widely used cultural term in the West, which is widely used in philosophy, aesthetics, literature and art. On the one hand, bread contains the continuation and development of modernism, and tends to extremes, with the meaning of absurdity, collapse and complete decadence; On the other hand, it shows the meaning of "pioneer", "newest" and modernization, and becomes a universal humanistic context and cultural tendency in post-modern society.

Postmodernism literature is the product of western industrial society. The theory of post-industrial society is a representative figure of futurism, Daniel, who was popular in the United States from 1950s to 1960s. Bell first proposed that human society has entered post-industrial society (or late capitalist society) from pre-industrial society, industrial society (or capitalist society). The post-industrial society is dominated by scientific knowledge and information technology, and characterized by informationization, computerization and automation of production affairs. The knowledge industry will become the leading industry of society. In the post-industrial society, all traditional lifestyles, cultural customs, value judgments, aesthetic standards, etc. Will be abandoned, all the traditional theoretical methods of class social analysis are outdated, social classes will be re-divided, and the combination of knowledge and education will be the standard. A brand-new era of technology and information has arrived. Bell's post-industrial society theory is generally accepted by western society. All kinds of humanities and theoretical propositions formed on the basis of post-industrial social theory are collectively called postmodernism. Post-modern literature, as the product of post-industrial society, is also the core and subject of post-modern literary trend of thought.

Since the 1950s, with the rapid development of science and technology, mankind has entered the fourth technological revolution with electronic computers as the core, that is, the era of electronic technology. The unprecedented development of science and technology has profoundly influenced and even standardized human behavior and values. Scientific achievements make everything lose its sacredness, mystery and historicity. Knowledge and education, science and information have become the centers of post-industrial society. On the other hand, after the 1950s, there were many crises in world wars, local wars, thermonuclear wars and cold war trade between the East and the West. Westerners turned from pessimism of fear and despair to radicalism of drug abuse, fighting, sexual liberation and rock music, hoping to get rid of their crazy venting. People give up paranoid beliefs and absolute social goals, and are unwilling to shoulder the heavy responsibility of politicians and philosophers, thus forming a diversified standard of living. The variation of value, the transformation of freedom, the popularity of various liberation movements, the division and factional struggle on a global scale, the wanton arrogance of terrorism, and the prevalence of nihilism and anarchy constitute a world picture without authority, loss of center and decomposition. The randomness and diversity of social psychology have become the main characteristics of post-modern society, which has greatly influenced post-modern literature.

Characteristics of post-modern literature

Postmodernism literature is the inheritance, transcendence and deviation from modernism literature, which is based on irrationalism and shows a fierce anti-traditional tendency. In contrast, modernist literature tries to establish new rules and paradigms centered on "expressionism" after abandoning the creative principle centered on "reflection theory" in traditional literature. Postmodernism, on the other hand, pushes the anti-tradition to the extreme, opposing both the old tradition of realism and the new rules of modernism. Deny the integrity, certainty, standardization and purpose of works, advocate unlimited openness, diversity and relativity, and oppose the restrictions of any norms, models and centers on literary creation. Even trying to deconstruct traditional forms such as novels, poems and dramas, and even the narrative itself. In post-modern literature, the aesthetic scope of art is infinitely expanded, including street culture, popular literature, underground culture, advertising language, common sense of consumption, life guide and so on. , have been carefully packaged and boarded the sacred palace of literature and art. After the culture has been "technical" and "industrialized", a large number of cultural masterpieces originally created by writers and artists have now been designed and produced by computers. Especially with the popularization of computers and the mass production of audio, video and laser discs, literature and art are no longer Chun Xue, but become daily consumption and commodities that everyone can enjoy at will. The development of science and technology has changed the position of culture in social life and people's cultural consciousness, resulting in a wide range of anti-culture, anti-aesthetics and anti-art tendencies. Although there are different opinions on the phenomenon of post-modernism literature, we can still see some artistic features of it as a whole from the theoretical opinions and creative practices of writers and from the aesthetic photos of their works.

Author: 60.55. 12. Reply to this speech.

-

10 reply: What is postmodernism?

In the relationship between literature and social life, postmodernism no longer tries to express its understanding of the world, neither observes and criticizes the external world as calmly as realism, nor feels the inner self as painfully as modernism. It pays attention to the living state of the subject, and thinks that the world is absurd and disorderly and existence is unknown. The original factors of things, society, things and people are only displayed, not evaluated and not imposed with preset meaning. Its aesthetic value and connotation make readers think and summarize. Not only do you not believe in the external material or historical world, but you also no longer believe in human intelligence or imaginary inner world. From epistemology to ontology, then doubt everything and deny everything. Postmodern writers no longer pursue the ultimate value of literature, and regard all lofty beliefs and ideals as the product of short-lived words. Treat seriousness as a poor imitation and pretend to abandon it deeply. Faced with the chaotic objective world and the alienation of people themselves, they no longer seriously think about social, historical, life, moral and other issues, no longer try their best to understand and explain the world, and no longer undertake the lofty and sacred social responsibility and historical mission of literary artists. On the one hand, postmodern works show the fusion of literature and philosophy, which is profound and philosophical. On the other hand, it reproduces illusion, violence, decadence and death in large quantities, and shows the absurd pain of life. That kind of arty, serious and solemn, elite consciousness is gone forever. The works are full of decadence, nihilism, anarchism and pessimism.

In characterization, it emphasizes the discourse desire of self-confession, and breaks the people-centered telling of complete stories. People's history and historical people, people's personality, feelings and life experiences have been replaced by fragmented feelings. From the alienation of human nature to nothingness, man has become an outsider in society. The pursuit of life destiny and future ideal becomes naive and meaningless. People live with indifference, feel rebellion and freedom as strongly as possible, and have no sense of responsibility, guilt, sympathy, hope and future. The protagonist clearly realizes that he is just an insignificant role in life. They drift with the tide and laugh at themselves. Characters no longer think about "survival and destruction", value and significance, from bottom-up pain to free choice, from suicide for justice and dignity to drag out an ignoble existence, and no longer show sighs, sadness and nostalgia for the loss of subject and personality. From the alienation and decline of human nature, it has become a "bug" and a "thing". Characters are distorted and often appear in the form of self-parody, satirizing and identifying with absurd social real life, showing the characteristics of self-mockery, silence, decadence and anti-hero. The subject of literature has disappeared, and people no longer have subjective consciousness. Instead of reason, science has become an invisible and ubiquitous absolute force, which regulates and rules people. Man has become a big symbol system of science, that is, a slave and victim of social order. People are always under the control of "order", and any kind of deviance and resistance will lead to personal devastating tragedy. The fate of the characters is full of tragic colors, and life has become a tragic farce. People have lost their intellectual feeling, elegance and majesty, gentleness and beauty, but become trivial and ridiculous.

In the plot content of the work, it has obvious characteristics of fiction and absurdity. Pure fiction and specific plots replace the plots surrounding the relationship and fate of characters in traditional literature, and also replace the conflicts between the protagonist and others and himself. Pull the characters out of the meaningless and unbearable reality, and a meaningless and barbaric world full of nightmares and fantasies appears. Stagnation and repetition replace dynamics and changes, and as a fictional "experience field", they replace real life and social environment. Postmodernism doubts or even denies the value and noumenon of literature, and advocates "zero writing", that is, the content disappears and turns to neutrality, treating the world as a worthless "fragment" and denying the existence of center and structure. Advocating the creation of meta-novels, constantly showing that the works are fictional novels, and turning to the ontological display of writing to expose the deception of writing. While displaying fiction, explore the "intrinsic value of narrative". Make literature a game that plays with readers, reality and literary rules, thus showing resistance to the reality of life and maintaining the fullest freedom. In addition, postmodern writers believe that to express the chaos of the world and the tragedy of life, we only need to express the absurdity of life. The various components in the work are decomposed upside down, the content is repeated, the characters are weird, the plot development is chaotic and absurd, it is not restricted by causality, the content is inconsistent and incomplete, and there is no consistent ultimate meaning to be found.

Postmodernism literature has broken the boundary between elite literature and popular literature, and there has been an obvious tendency of subculture. The boundaries between "pure literature" and "serious literature" and popular literature, popular literature and local literature are increasingly blurred, and there is no clear and absolute distinction. Postmodernist literature draws more nourishment from science fiction, western novels, popular novels and some genre works regarded as sub-literature, and various literary styles such as meta-novels, super-novels, fables, new and new novels, "black humor", absurd plays, pornographic novels, western novels and popular literature have emerged. Some even appear in the form of greeting cards, postcards, popular lyrics, film and television literature, advertisements and other popular cultural consumer goods. , thus forming a diversified literary pattern.

In terms of artistic techniques, postmodern literature pays attention to the innovation of artistic forms and techniques, showing the characteristics of randomness and uncertainty. The writer's artistic attitude of pursuing happiness in writing. The content of the work is replaced by form, that is, by stylistic words, syntax and rhetorical effects of irony. The centrality, integrity and unity of narrative are replaced by non-central, local, sporadic and discontinuous narrative games. Writing attitude, survival attitude and text production form tend to be synchronized. Through extreme ridicule, people are imaginative to tear up those worthless things, and writing and reading get instant pleasure from them. Literary concept first appeared as a form of game consciousness of the creative subject to his own happiness. In text making, process, behavior, events, language images, context, formal skills, etc. They are all outstanding, and the interpretation of the works is opposed. Rob Geyer said: "Readers only need to observe all kinds of things, actions, words and endings described in the works, and do not need to look for meaning beyond or less than their original life and death." It is emphasized that the writer's creation and the reader's reading are only for enjoying the pleasure of creation or reading, and it is a process of performance operation and experience. Post-modernist works focus on expressing "narrative discourse" itself. Discourse and language structure have become the basis of artistic communication in post-modern literature, showing non-selectivity, no central meaning, no integrity and even "schizophrenia" expression characteristics. There are long and tortuous sentences, incoherent words, monologues, repetitions and lists in the works. Montage, collage and stream of consciousness are widely used. Rocky summed up the expression methods of randomness, uncertainty and non-selectivity in post-modernism creation into six principles: contradiction (various factors in the text conflict with each other), variability (things described in the same text can have different possibilities, and it is inevitable that the contents, plots and broken works will change before and after narration, without causality) and randomness (random combination of texts). Such as "loose-leaf novels" that can be disassembled at will), excessive (using some rhetorical devices consciously and exaggeratedly), short circuit (the plot content is suddenly interrupted in the development process, allowing readers to participate in the interpretation, analysis and re-creation of the text). His works generally reflect the aesthetic effect of irony and black humor.