Postmodern literature is best understood as a cultural current that arose from around the 1960s-ish (continuing to current day-ish) as a reaction to Modernism. While there are many common themes, literary techniques, and styles under the umbrella of the term 'postmodern' (eg intertextuality, metafiction, poioumena etc etc), this isn't the first time that literature has engaged with those ideas, so the historical context is also as reaction to Modernism (which in turn is a reaction to Romanticism!) and its cultural current is important.
I personally use the broad definition of "Text engaging with its own artificiality" as a neat, if reductive, one-liner to describe the trajectory of literary Postmodernism.
Check out this short story: Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth (.doc download link) it's a masterpiece work of metafiction.
Also keep in mind PoMo is broadly applied (and mis-applied) across all types of fields (philosophy, feminism, literature, architecture, etc). While certainly disciplines intersect, draw inspiration from one another, and were born out of the same historical epoch (Western post-war era) it'd be a mistake to think all of these "Postmodernisms" as one singular thing with one underlying principal to tie them together.
Postmodern literature is best understood as a cultural current that arose from around the 1960s-ish (continuing to current day-ish) as a reaction to Modernism. While there are many common themes, literary techniques, and styles under the umbrella of the term 'postmodern' (eg intertextuality, metafiction, poioumena etc etc), this isn't the first time that literature has engaged with those ideas, so the historical context is also as reaction to Modernism (which in turn is a reaction to Romanticism!) and its cultural current is important.
I personally use the broad definition of "Text engaging with its own artificiality" as a neat, if reductive, one-liner to describe the trajectory of literary Postmodernism.
Check out this short story: Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth (.doc download link) it's a masterpiece work of metafiction.
Also keep in mind PoMo is broadly applied (and mis-applied) across all types of fields (philosophy, feminism, literature, architecture, etc). While certainly disciplines intersect, draw inspiration from one another, and were born out of the same historical epoch (Western post-war era) it'd be a mistake to think all of these "Postmodernisms" as one singular thing with one underlying principal to tie them together.
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