Grendel Review
Objective

To review the novel Grendel as a
postmodern work of literature.
Modernism vs. Postmodernism

Modernism



Emphasis on
“impressionistic” writing
that strays from traditional
forms of narration.
Moves away from objective
narration with clear moral
positions.
Laments a fragmented
view of human subjectivity,
but still holds that art can
provide a sense of unity,
coherence, and meaning.

Postmodernism


Accepts and even
celebrates the lack of
meaning in the world.
Does not pretend that art
can provide meaning.
Rather, delights in the
nonsense.
Postmodern Literature

Carries modernist styles and practices to extremes.

Liberated by the complete breakdown of categories that
are now seen as outdated and claustrophobic

Hybrid genres that erode the distinctions, For instance,
between literature and journalism, literature and
autobiography, and literature and history.
Gardner and Postmodernism

Grendel contains many of the
characteristics of postmodern literature
“genre-bending”
 assumption of the absence of meaning in life
 mistrust of art to provide meaning
 Awareness of its own place in the literary
world: metafiction

Metafiction



The text - either
directly or through the
characters within - is
'aware' that it is a
form of fiction.
Often contains “fiction
within fiction”
Lines break down
between characters
and audience
More on Gardner



Some of his other
works do away with
postmodern
techniques
completely.
He claimed that
postmodernists were
often too pessimistic.
Critics are divided on
his work.
Themes in Grendel

The Meaning and/or Meaninglessness of Life

The Power of Art

The Need for Community

Good vs. Evil

Freedom vs. Determinism
What Anglo-Saxon Literature has in
Common with the Postmodern
World

Beowulf

Contains a pessimistic
ending: the loyalty of
the clan breaks down
in Beowulf’s final
moments. Wyglaf can
never again really trust
his men.
The Seafarer and the Wanderer



Both contain an
anxiety about the
breakdown of
community.
Both articulate a fear
concerning the
meaninglessness of
life.
Pain of isolation



William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Take Home Essay




Revise the AP practice
essay according to the
rubric.
Use SPECIFIC textual
details to back up claims.
Model you essay after the
example of a “9.”
Do not rely on simple
formulaic responses.
Journal
How effective is Gardner’s postmodern
novel as a work based on the ancient epic
poem Beowulf? How does this kind of
writing differ from other works that we
have read this year?