What Is Postmodernist Literature? An Introduction
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2024
- No, seriously, what the fuck is that?
The books mentioned in this video:
Hutcheon - A Poetics of Postmodernism
Jameson - Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late-Capitalism
Jameson - The Political Unconscious
McHale - Postmodernist Fiction
As mentioned in the video, all these texts are kinda pricey, but you should be able to get them at a reasonable price if you are OK with second-hand books. Or you can check at your university's library, they should have them, they're quite seminal.
What do you think postmodernist literature IS? Tell me about your personal theory in the comments below :)
And follow me on GoodReads!
/ the-bookchemist 
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Man, you deserve to get more subscribers than PewDiePie and become the Harold Bloom of your generation. You are awesome!
This is a really interesting video. I’m currently doing my PhD in English lit and postmodernism is one of my weaker areas. It was nice to find a short, informative video with suggested readings. Helped a lot!
I think my university teachers watched your video to give us our lecture because they said the exact same thing you said. This video helped me a lot, thank you!
I like how you don't read what you say, it comes out really smooth. A truly refreshing experience.
I'm reading "If on a winter's night a traveler" for a final exam and it's giving me some headaches... but I'm enjoying it nonetheless!
Thank you, very interesting introduction. I would love to hear more from you about the topic!
Thanks so much. A really informative video that managed to sum up some pretty big theories in a really understandable way. I'm currently writing an undergraduate and writing a short essay about Postmodernism in contemporary British literature, and the way you describe the ideas makes it much easier to relate them to the texts. It's also really reassuring that you say at the start how difficult it is to define, but you seem to have got a good handle on the basics, at least enough to help a struggling student. Plus you present well. Keep up the good work.
Hey thanks so much man :)
Thank you, Bookchemist! One of the best videos I've watched so far!
This was a great video. I really really appreciate this sort of open discussion and dissemination of knowledge! Thanks! Commenting because you asked viewers to. Hope this somehow supports you and hope to watch some more of your stuff!
Thank you :D
Really liked this video, I always have a difficult trying to explain Post-Modernism, I love it but there is so much to talk about, I very much appreciate the effort you went here. Will have to check out McHale's Postmodernist Fiction and maybe all the other books mentioned here
This video came at the perfect time. I'm getting started on writing a book and wanted to be "experimental" with the writing style. I had also come out of a philosophy binge during which I read a lot on the Kyoto school and Nietzsche. I was nervous to continue with the style out of fear of it potentially being reproachable to publishers. After watching your video, I think I can place my writing style in line with the greater cultural context; which would make sense, considering Nietzsche's philosophy underlines many of the current structuralist, postmodern perspectives. Perspectivism of which was probably my most influential take away from Nietzsche, which is the concept of his most likely to appear within a literature movement. I say this because writing's ontological identity primarily exists within the realm of perspective, an idea I began to play with in the book I am currently working on. I'm going to look into some of those books you suggested. Also I'll check out more of your videos, this was great!
Great breakdown. I really like postmodernism and have forgotten a lot about the theory behind it, so this was nice. I remember Hutchinson from my final thesis, but not the other two. But since I was focusing on a historical point that makes sense (also ran out of time when I looked into the theory - lol)
This video was so spot on! In a few weeks I have a comparative literature exam about postmodernism! I've decided to read Slaughter-house n5 by Vonnegut and The Road by McCarthy and I'm very excited because I've never read postmodernist fiction at all and I've probably missed out! Looking forward to the next episodes of this miniseries! Thank you and happy holidays!
+Tom Kingmy Good luck with your exam, those are two of my favorite books of all times :) happy holidays to you too!
Kudos! You explained Postmodernism in nutshell. It's simple and clear to even a beginners of Literary theory students.
Great video! I've been a lurking fan for a while now, but your work is always solid. I've found myself reading more and more literature dubbed "postmodern" but didn't have a great sense of what that was at the beginning. A book I just finished "A Very Short Introduction: Postmodernism" by Christopher Butler had a great quote saying that postmodernists are radical critics, but passively conservative (as far as taking action against that which they are critical.) Thanks for furthering my knowledge!
"some postmodernist novels can be huge cockblockers at times" is definitely going in my final paper for american literature 1865-present
Wonderful I was looking for a video like this since context is just so important to me when approaching books! Would be cool if you could add more "lesson-like" videos as well on the channel!
during your description I was sitting here thinking “wow this sounds like Don Quixote!”. But then you took the words right out of my mouth lol. Thanks for the awesome video!!!
You deserve all the good things in the world for this.
This is good stuff, I'm definitely interested in postmodern lit, I've only really experienced it through Pynchon. I thought it was interesting that you mentioned the difficulty in defining postmodernism, because it reminds me of film noir (which I just took a class on) in that we have a few characteristics and key texts (or films) that immediately come to mind, but the label itself is much more slippery. This is a really interesting concept to me, as well as the blending of high and low culture, so I'm looking forward to whatever other videos you make on the topic.
+Zachery Gibson Exactly, I was having the same problem in a seminar I attended these last few months; whenever we had to talk about "high postmodernism" (what I call "hardcore postmodernism") we always had to specify "Postmodernism a-là Gravity's Rainbow's Pynchon," because it's such a slippery term that encompasses so many different things, but only a few major texts are 100% unquestionably PoMo. Thanks for the feedback :)!
You are just awesome! I looked for something in Russian, but I understand completely what you talked about & even get smth new. Thanks!
Nice introduction, not farfetched but rather close to us as students of literature.. I like the video especially the recommended books. Nice job, fingers crossed.
what a great talk --helps me to nderstand what deLillo andPaco Ignacio Taibo are doing in so many of their books. Thank you.
sei veramente bravo, non ho mai apprezzato una lezione di letteratura così tanto - ti prego, fai il professore e manda via a calci tutti i prof ignoranti che ci sono alle superiori - continua e fai tutti i video che vuoi sul postmodernismo ;)
"Postmodern novels can be real cockblockers at times" lmao so true
That was fascinating. Could you dissect the most important postmodernist works through the theory? it be great to watch, recommendation as for fiction are also very welcomed.
+WhatKamilReads I'll film a video about good (fiction) intros to postmodernism sometime in the near future :) thanks for the feedback!
Great video! I've been thinking about doing something similar looking at the history of English Literature through various movements, but I've been a bit uncertain about the idea-- this video gives me confidence that this kind of thing can work really well! I personally love Linda Hutcheon as a critic, through I do find some of her theory work a little underdeveloped, I'm thinking particularly of her Theory of Adaptation, which felt like a rough draft. I think her books on postmodernism are great introductions though, and the Brian McHale is awesome-- he has another book, Constructing Postmodernism, which may also be of interest to you if you haven't already read it.
In terms of how I think about postmodernism, I don't have a specific definition that I subscribe to and say this is postmodernism, but like you say in this video-- there are a lot of factors that tend to come up in postmodernist literature that you can point to, and say "these are some elements that allow me to define this work as postmodernist".
I do quite like Jean Francois Lyotard's idea of postmodernsim as an 'incredulity towards metanarratives'- the questioning and deconstruction of big/overarching ideas, which ties in with both McHale's and Hutcheon's descriptions very nicely. I'm a bit more sceptical about Jameson, as I think that his economic/marxist perspective is very North American-centric, and not so useful in discussing European/Central American/Global postmodernism. Where you criticise Hutcheon for lacking in the media-saturation/postmodern society arena, I think Jameson lacks a sense of continuity in focussing on societal/political influences over historic/cultural ones. And I would defend Hutcheon in saying that historiographical metafiction is not necessarily speaking for all of postmodernist literature, but is perhaps a facet of some postmodernist texts.
Fantastic job on this video: very interesting, insightful, and well put together. Would be great to see more of this kind of video :)
+A Hermit's Progress Lyotard is the kind of critic which makes admirable sense when my professor's explaining him to me, but sounds like alien language when I read his works myself. I'm not the biggest Jameson fan myself, nice points there. Thanks for the feedback and good luck with your series, sounds like an awesome idea!
The_Bookchemist haha yes I completely understand that-- I think it's a bit of a badge of honour for French theorists to be barely comprehensible!
Thank you!!! This helped me a lot for my uni work
Great video. I've been wanting to read post modern fiction, but I'm clueless about where to start. I may start with the academic texts and go from there.
+Becky Ford It's an idea, but I wouldn't suggest it - all of these texts discuss a selection of fiction texts, and you might not get the full scope of the discussion if you don't have some knowledge of the primary sources. (Also, you might get lots of spoilers :P!). I'll probably film a video about good starting points into postmodernist fiction, but right away I'd suggest Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49 and Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, which are also discussed extensively in McHale's Postmodernist Fiction :)
Last example is great. Negating for the sake of negation. Dr. Sugrue has some great lectures on some postmodern philosophers.
Thanks. Great explanation.
I think you did an amazing job beginning to explain postmodernism. I think the word can scare people, but this is a very good dissection, and I like that you give a few perspectives, because the genre is, as you say, a mess. Although I think all genres are, and most don't fit any one definition.
I personally associate postmodernism with horror, in that it is portraying our actual world, in a way that seems hyperreal and terrifying, but with very precise, almost sedate language, which contributes to the horror of it all. I guess I'm thinking in particular of J.G. Ballard, Vladimir Nabokov. But again, this is just one aspect of postmodern literature.
+Taylor I like that way of looking at postmodernism a lot! Philip Dick and, in a way, David Foster Wallace also play on those same terms I think :)
Congratulations! Simple and into the point!
Thanks!
thank you! that was so helpful
Have you watched The end of the tour? It's about the journey of DFW and the reporter from Rolling Stones few weeks after Infinite Jest released... very nice movie, with good actors!
+Emilio Occhialini I actually watched it two days ago ^^ I was worried about a few things (I filmed a video about it a few months ago) but it turned out to be a real great movie, I liked it a lot! I'll post a review sometime soon :)
Enjoyed your talk ..
Carry on!
Cavan...
You are a fu****king genius! I've been watching your videos for 2 or 3 months, learning about postmodernist authors and making an excellent postmodernism book wish list. Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge on the matter. It has been exciting, funny, and hilarious for moments. Greetings from Argentina!
thank you from Algeria. 2021.
Thanks man that really helped.
Awesome. Thanks.
Well explained man
Excellent as per usual. BTW have you read the late "prose poems" by the late James Tate? "Ghost Soldiers or Return to the City of White Donkeys"?
+Anthony DiMichele Never heard of the man :P!
+Anthony DiMichele I met him a couple summers ago, really hilarious poet!
good explanation
Great video, very informative and short at the same time. I'd only suggest you develop some skills in video editing, so that you make your videos more dynamic and I'm sure in no time your channel will be rocking the RUclips :)
6:21min Modernism is to be understood as a way of representing internal individual thought processes. Post-modernism wants you to identify with what takes place as if it was the virtual reality of the rotation our awareness makes towards different objects, and how it is modified whenever it shifts the object towards which it is compelled to deposit its attention upon. So, it sounds like it would be a meta-view from the inside out of the geography traversed by awareness. The rotations of the different registers. But the question arises: In a situation mostly controlled by capital as media does fiction manage to get you out of its loop by showing you its endpoint? does it want to trap you in it? If you step out of the novel confused then is the book, or, have they decided to use literature as another object that will limit itself to entertain you rather than equip you with better epistemological means by which to detect, become aware of the geography that thought is compelled to participate in, and construct? Do you know of any books that might have accomplished the latter task?
@Sam Paget The key is in "sounding". I think so. I will take a look into it now that you mention it. Thanks for the heads up.
Wow really great video
مرسی خیلی خوب بود ❤
grazie mille per questa spiegazione sei sutato molto chiaro e l' opposizione con la critica marxista che hai spiagato è molto interessante
So because of the contradictory concepts of what postmodernism is, I feel that "postmodernism" is a misnomer. It is "something else" or "several 'elses'."
Excellent attempt at describing postmodernism and linking this to marxist criticism's take on this.
amazing thank you brother
12:30min So, you think that a contribution at the political level would be excessive? It would detract from the work´s value? Is this degree of prohibition something that defines postmodernist literature (most of it, or, the most celebrated works) The idea of relating to society in a depoliticized manner? to relate to the world of non-fiction in a more fictitious manner?
I think Alias Grace goes with Hutcheon's point...
What about post-post-post-futurist-modernism?
Does it mean that 1Q84 is a postmodernist fiction ? Since the main topic of the story is switching from a world to another (from 1984 to 1Q84)... Loved this video, thank you !
+HajarRead I have never read that but I'd wager it is, the only Murakami book I've ever read was Dance Dance Dance and that was indeed postmodern, though in a very peculiar way.
Love this
Hey Bookchemist, I'm learning french and german to do graduate studies in philosophy, and I was just wondering how you learned to speak and read english so well? I feel like you might have mentioned it in another video but I don't remember which one if so.
+Jozef Lewitzky Well my major is English Literature so I've had to study it extensively for many years, and I have also lived in England for one full year as an Erasmus student; but really, the thing that probably helped me the most was just starting to read all my books in English and watch all my movies and TV series in English. I also write a lot, and I only write in English. It gets to a point when English becomes more natural than your native tongue in many situations - which is messed up, because you realize you've forgotten how to speak in your mother tongue properly :P lots of friends of mine have pretty much the same problem!
But yeah, the most important thing is passion and dedication. You should experience the foreign language you're interested in on a daily basis, in one way or another, otherwise you'll never get too good. I studied German as an undergraduate and I had no real interest in the language, I studied it in order to pass my exam and I got decent scores too, but I don't really speak the language now, because I've stopped experiencing it and got lazy with it. Good luck with your studies, all best wishes :)
Thanks for the detailed reply. My issue right now is that I have lots and lots of input (videos, radio, video games, comics, books, etc.), but very little way to produce output which I can verify.
I'll keep working on it and see where it goes!
Thanks for the video. I used to hear the term post-modern used on late night arts review programmes, but never understood what it meant. When the internet started, I tried looking up the definition and was none the wiser. It seemed to refer to architecture more than anything. Having gone back to university and shared an office with some social scientists, I gathered it is also a social science term, but not one they like very much. I gather books like Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Umberto Eco's Island of the Day Before are post modern, and what you said reminded me of Sophie's World and London Fields by Martin Amis. I quite liked London Fields, but in general I get the impression post-modern literature was written by people who were trying to be clever dicks. Umberto Eco in particular pissed me off with the Island of the Day Before, and I did not like Focault's Pendulum much neither.
+Kevin Varney Ahah, yeah, that's a common belief about postmodern literature and it's not entirely misguided either :) many think postmodernist literature is sort of an inside-joke within the academia, written by university professors for PhD students and professors of literature! But once you get the joke you can have great fun with it :) and it contributed to influence so much of the best fiction of today, within and outside of literature!
Great Video! Have you ever read Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood? Would this book be considered post-modern?
I haven't read that one specifically, but other Atwood's novels (Surfacing, even the Handmaid's Tale) can be seen as kind of postmodern according to Hutcheon. I wouldn't call them hardcore postmodernism, but that's just my two cents. Another "meh!" author Hutcheon defines as 100% pomo is Michael Ondaatje, which makes me think (as all the three of them are Canadian) that Hutcheon's point might be especially relevant when using it to approach Canadian lit.
Thanks so much for your response! Postmodernism is something I am just starting to explore and I am learning a lot from your videos. Keep them coming!
How would you categorize Nabokov? Late Modernism or Post Modernism?
Hard question! Probably more modernist than postmodernist? "Late low modernist" if it makes sense - "low" as in Hemingway & Fitzgerald, as opposed to the "high" of Joyce & Woolf.
@@TheBookchemist I find it hard to play Nabokov in the same group as Hemingway or even Fitzgerald. For me, Nabokov likes to use surreal imagery and loves to disorient the reader with various narrative tricks, especially "the unreliable narrator." In the end, Nabokov is sui generis, and like all geniuses, can't be boxed into a neat category.
Nabokov defies categorization. He's divine.
Post Modernists categorize everything except post modernism as categorical.
in simpler more concise or crude terms, modernism is about rationality and science, but the atomic bomb gave reason to not believe in this tradition. Which resulted in post modernism, stuff that contained almost the opposite. stuff like avant garde rebellion and spirituality etc.
And I agree with the pastiche comment, nearly every post modern artist I know is a pastiche/collage maker
why not read the Political Unconscious
I’m endlessly amused that while postmodernism is so impossible to define, the two best critics (McHale and Hutcheon) are so incredibly readable. Jameson….not so much. Seriously, does anyone actually understand anything he says after the section on parody vs pastiche? Because I feel like that’s where he goes off the rails, and I’ve noticed that most people who cite that book normally pick that portion as the example they want to employ. (Or maybe I’m just projecting my own guilt because that’s the part where Jameson loses me…)
I agree that McHale is excellent. I’m nearly finished with Postmodernist Literatures (though for some reason my copy is about 15 inches tall, so I have HUGE margins) and I like that he gives an actual poetics. And I enjoy the generosity of his criticism (eg. he’s complimentary to fantasy and sci-fi, which was almost unheard of from academics in the 80s). I do think his idea of the ontological dominant is too clean an approach to encompass the entirety of postmodernist lit, but I think he makes a great argument for it as a main tenet that can often provide a good starting point.
I think I like Hutcheon a bit more than you seem to, though I find I’m more drawn to specific arguments she makes about specific techniques of historiographic metafictions. I’m not entirely won over to her larger arguments, at least not yet.
For what it’s worth, I think Jameson (and Eagleton, also) make good points that everyone should keep in the backs of their minds. I just dislike how apocalyptic they sometimes seem about their claims.
I think you're absolutely right to talk about ontological difficulty as a continuing theme in postmodernist fiction (of course ontology means politics if you're a Marxist). Perhaps that profound doubt about the nature of reality explains the endless games of identity, the use of meta-language and the idea of the 'void' that also seem recurring features to me. My own view is that postmodernism starts with philosophers like Kierkegaard/Sartre - the absence of God and the individual's need to 'create' his own belief system, moral values, etc.
When does it begin? Of course one can find writers in the distant past doing postmodernist things, as you point out - Melville's story Bartleby is another example. I was surprised that you mentioned Conrad. I see him as on the cusp of the themes/the period, but not quite there because he does have his certainties about the nobility of work, etc. Kafka? (The discussion with the doorkeeper in The Trial) Certainly Beckett. (Their refusal to do anything until they have grounds for doing it, and their constant use of humour to 'pass the time').
Once again you've made me think and I'll have to hunt down some of those books you list! Please do more on this because it is fascinating. Thanks!
I look at post modernism as almost the free jazz of the literary world.
Thought you were saying oncology because of the closed captioning and I was so confused 😂
It’s funny because I’m focusing more on the post colonialism and identity politics aspect of post modernism
Are you from Argentina? Thanks for this video
I'm Italian!
hei bel video! domanda random:per caso suoni il pianoforte? 😄
+Jezebel411 No!
you remind me a lot of jonny greenwood
get better equipment and you are a great youtuber
I think that post modernist lit doesn't really exist. Why, because it is not about being after or other than modernism, it is part of modernism. It is where you get when you carry out modernity, freedom, self referential, new worlds, multiple worlds and views, shifting. Above all what is dominant is critique. Building vs critique. Norm vs weird.
Those 'thumbs up' you do in the video are also postmodern af!
Thanks for uploading! The more I learn about Postmodernism the less I like it. I'm getting the feeling they are against everything and everyone (who does not support their theory), but do not offer a solution, am I right here?
No
wow! you're better than all of my teachers combined and that's awful
Postmodernism literature simply attempts to avoid established literally structures, of which there are a number; I think you refer to them as ''worlds''.
My own view is that the sooner postmodernism and postmodernist literature is forgotten, even smashed, the better. Postmodernism thought has had a very damaging influence on a number of disciplines, and it's a dogmatic one - which is the very worst kind of influence.
I really want to see literature sweep away this influence and establish something new, with more of a fabric.
Looks like you filmed this in a bathroom
First it's a horrible term and should be replaced.
Postmodernist Literature? But you haven't said anything about (postmodern) poetry. Just to remind you that poetry is part of literature... So, wrong title for this video.