Postmodernism 1950stoday Multi Color Andy Warhol Marilyn Monroe

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Postmodernism 1950’s-today Multi Color Andy Warhol. Marilyn Monroe. 1962 -67. Museum of Modern Art

Postmodernism 1950’s-today Multi Color Andy Warhol. Marilyn Monroe. 1962 -67. Museum of Modern Art

New Table Groups • New Table Groups

New Table Groups • New Table Groups

Backpack dump: • • What are things you carry? What categories and labels can

Backpack dump: • • What are things you carry? What categories and labels can you apply Similarities across the whole group? Individual?

The secret to understanding American Literature: Every literary period is a REACTION to the

The secret to understanding American Literature: Every literary period is a REACTION to the period that came before it.

Literary movements • PURITANS - early 1600’s- mid 1700’s • REVOLUTIONARY/AGE OF REASON- 1750

Literary movements • PURITANS - early 1600’s- mid 1700’s • REVOLUTIONARY/AGE OF REASON- 1750 -1800 • ROMANTICISM -1800 -1860 • TRANSCENDENTALISM -18401860 • REALISM - 1855 -1900 • THE MODERNS -1900 -1950

Literary movements PERIODS THE MODERNS 1900 -1950 Genre/Style Effect/ Aspects Novels Plays In Pursuit

Literary movements PERIODS THE MODERNS 1900 -1950 Genre/Style Effect/ Aspects Novels Plays In Pursuit of the American Dream-- Poetry (a great resurgence after deaths of Whitman & Dickinson) *Admiration for America as land of Eden Highly experimental as writers seek a unique style *Optimism Use of interior monologue & stream of consciousness *Importance of the Individual Historical Context Examples Writers reflect the ideas of Darwin (survival of the fittest) and Karl Marx (how money and class structure control a nation) Overwhelming technological changes of the 20 th Century Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Poetry of Jeffers, Williams, Cummings, Frost, Eliot, Sandburg, Pound, Robinson, Stevens Rise of the youth culture Miller's The Death of a Salesman (some consider Postmodern) Rand's Anthem Short stories and novels of Steinbeck, Hemingway, Thurber, Welty, and Faulkner Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun & Wright's Native Son (an outgrowth of Harlem Renaissance-- see below) WWI and WWII Harlem Renaissance POSTMODERNISM 1950 to present Note: Many critics extend this to present and merge with Contemporary -- see below) Mixing of fantasy with nonfiction; blurs lines of reality for reader No heroes Erodes distinctions between classes of people Post-World War II prosperity Concern with individual in isolation Insists that values are not permanent but only "local" or "historical" Media culture interprets values Social issues as writers align with feminist & ethnic groups Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner's Song Feminist & Social Issue poets: Plath, Rich, Sexton, Levertov, Baraka, Cleaver, Morrison, Walker & Giovanni Miller's The Death of a Salesman & The Crucible (some consider Modern) Usually humorless Lawrence & Lee's Inherit the Wind Narratives Capote's In Cold Blood Metafiction Stories & novels of Vonnegut Present tense Salinger's Catcher in the Rye Magic realism Beat Poets: Kerouac, Burroughs, & Ginsberg

Postmodern Art • Postmodernism describes movements which both arise from, and react against or

Postmodern Art • Postmodernism describes movements which both arise from, and react against or reject, trends in modernism. Specific trends of modernism that are generally cited are formal purity, medium specificity, art for art's sake, authenticity, universality, originality and revolutionary or reactionary tendency, i. e. the avant-garde.

Postmodernism General Definition • a late-20 th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture,

Postmodernism General Definition • a late-20 th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism that represents a departure from modernism and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematical relationship with any notion of

Postmodernism: • Reality is… • inaccessible by observation and fact and human understanding •

Postmodernism: • Reality is… • inaccessible by observation and fact and human understanding • what we make of it • unknowable

Postmodernism criticism

Postmodernism criticism

“House of Ancient Memory” In Post-Modern art, there can be a pluralism of art

“House of Ancient Memory” In Post-Modern art, there can be a pluralism of art styles. Betye Saar is an African American artist who uses found objects in her mixed media artwork. This piece of artwork resembles an alter that one might find in folk art. Also, her artwork shows that there is no distinction between high and low art in Post-Modernism. Artist: Betye Saar Date: 1989 Medium: Sculpture, Sculptures Size: Installed 61. 25 x 19. 75 x 13. 25 inches Institution: Walker Art Center http: //www. artsconnected. org/collection/14

“ 66 -76 -89” • Postmodern art approaches include: • mixed media, appropriation, hybridization,

“ 66 -76 -89” • Postmodern art approaches include: • mixed media, appropriation, hybridization, layering, recontextualization, collaboration, and irony. Artist: Nam June Paik Date: 1990 Medium: Mixed media, Media Arts, Multimedia Size: overall installed 148 x 64 x 48 inches Institution: Walker Art Center

“Sweeping Beauty” • Postmodernists feel modern beliefs have not led to a society free

“Sweeping Beauty” • Postmodernists feel modern beliefs have not led to a society free of oppression and poverty. • Postmodern artists often question and critique social inequities. • They are skeptical about modernism's focus on the individual. • Postmodern artists recognize that people's actions are affected by the social context. • In postmodern art, there is variety of expression. Artist: Alison Saar Date: 1997 Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs

untitled • There is a lack of concern for sensory experiences or the need

untitled • There is a lack of concern for sensory experiences or the need for the mark of the individual. • In this piece, the focus is place more on ideas, rather than form or other visual qualities. • In postmodern art, there is also irreverence. Artist: Jenny Holzer Date: circa 1987 Medium: Sculpture, Models Size: overall 15 x 18 inches Institution: Walker Art Center

 https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v =l. Kom. Oq. YU 4 Mw

https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v =l. Kom. Oq. YU 4 Mw

Postmodern Literature • Can be dream-like (Inception) • Often blurs lines between fiction and

Postmodern Literature • Can be dream-like (Inception) • Often blurs lines between fiction and reality (Pan’s Labyrinth, Inglorious Basterds, The Things They Carried) • Defies definition

Postmodernism Definition Summary 1. Emphasize idealism, constructivism, relativism, pluralism and skepticism in its approaches

Postmodernism Definition Summary 1. Emphasize idealism, constructivism, relativism, pluralism and skepticism in its approaches to knowledge and understanding 2. Belief that apparent realities are only social constructs and are therefore subject to change 3. Opposed to use of sharp binary classifications (male versus female, straight versus gay, white versus black, and imperial versus colonial) Definitions Cont’d…

Definition Expansion - Tends to Emphasize: • Idealism: assert that reality, or reality as

Definition Expansion - Tends to Emphasize: • Idealism: assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial; how human ideas — especially beliefs and values — shape society • Constructivism: deals with the way people create meaning of the world through a series of individual constructs. Constructs are the different types of filters we choose to place over our realities to change our reality from chaos to order.

 • Relativism: points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only

• Relativism: points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration. Definitely applies to morals. • Pluralism: denote a diversity of views, and stands in opposition to one single approach or method of interpretation. • Skepticism: any questioning attitude towards knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts.

Postmodern Common Techniques 1. Irony/playfulness/bla ck humor 2. Intertextuality 3. Fragmentation 4. Pastiche 5.

Postmodern Common Techniques 1. Irony/playfulness/bla ck humor 2. Intertextuality 3. Fragmentation 4. Pastiche 5. Metafiction 6. Maximalism 7. Minimalism 8. Temporal distortion 8. Fabulation 9. Poioumena 10. Historiographic metafiction 11. Magic realism 12. Technoculture 13. Hyperreality 14. Paranoia

Intertextuality Shaping of texts' meanings by other texts, borrowing from other texts to create

Intertextuality Shaping of texts' meanings by other texts, borrowing from other texts to create meaning • Ex: • Haroun and the Sea of Stories, • Ginsberg’s “Howl”

Metafiction Writing about the process of writing • author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality

Metafiction Writing about the process of writing • author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness • Ex: • The Things They Carried, Ambush & Spin (p 29) http: //www. alanreinstein. com/site/home_page_files/They%20 T hings%20 They%20 Carried%20 Full%20 Text. pdf

Pastiche Combining different elements - imitation, celebratory parody • Ex: • poetry/stories of William

Pastiche Combining different elements - imitation, celebratory parody • Ex: • poetry/stories of William S. Burroughs, • Kill Bill • 30 Rock • AG’s “Howl”

Fabulation Challenges traditional writing; role of narrator, magic, myth • Ex: • Rushdie’s Haroun

Fabulation Challenges traditional writing; role of narrator, magic, myth • Ex: • Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories • Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho (1991)

Poioumena Story about the process of writing; Challenges fiction and reality • Ex: •

Poioumena Story about the process of writing; Challenges fiction and reality • Ex: • The Help • Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire

Historiographic metafiction Fictionalize actual historical events or figures • Ex: • Abraham Lincoln Vampire

Historiographic metafiction Fictionalize actual historical events or figures • Ex: • Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Magic realism Themes are imaginary, fantastic, almost dream-like • Ex: • Rushdie’s Haroun and

Magic realism Themes are imaginary, fantastic, almost dream-like • Ex: • Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, • Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude

Paranoia Subjective nature of reality, can be manipulated. Story could be delusion of character

Paranoia Subjective nature of reality, can be manipulated. Story could be delusion of character • Ex: • Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 • The Yellow Wallpaper (not postmodern though)

Maximalism and Minimalism • MAX: Digression, reference, and elaboration of detail occupy a great

Maximalism and Minimalism • MAX: Digression, reference, and elaboration of detail occupy a great fraction of the text; covers everything • (more is more) – think excessive footnotes that engulf page (Consider the Lobster essay) http: //www. columbia. edu/~col 8/lobsterarticle. pd f • MIN: Surface description where readers are expected to take an active role in the creation of a story; author provides general context and

Temporal distortion Non-linear timeline, jumps backwards and forwards; historical reference might not be in

Temporal distortion Non-linear timeline, jumps backwards and forwards; historical reference might not be in the correct time period • Ex: • In the Time of Butterflies • TTTC • Chronicle of a Death Foretold