Postmodernism General Introductions The world at its present state of development has recorded many new ideas that far outweigh human memory. European and other nations of the early world civilizations like Greece, Rome and Egypt have at one time or the other articulated different philosophical ideas popularly classified as the isms. In literature, writers have reacted to these ideas through their creative outputs. Writers that have made names are those who really had something new to offer to the world. Starting from the colonial era, Africans inherited the burden of literacy and so became a part of the world wide annex of European ideas. Africa is battling with the new ideas of scientific and technological development imported from Europe alongside their philosophies when the world surprisingly took a new shape patterned after the order of globalization. With the era of globalization, African thinkers virtually collapsed their former ideas of Europe and launched into the new world system which is very alien. The internet, digitization and cyber café were made new systems of communication and Africans have to relearn their new literacy. All these developments are setting their pace of development backwards, but are really the new definition of the twenty first century man and his ideas summed up in the doctrine of postmodernism. The question that pre-occupies the mind of scholars is what this movement is. Does it really have anything to offer to man or is it the sign of the end? Postmodernism as a term has many definitions that make it difficult for a scholar to place it to one indissoluble idea. The complex nature of the term postmodernism has made it almost impossible to define, or if ever defined, yields the opposite of what it seems to say. The term has spread to wide areas of life and covers the fields of philosophy, science, history, sociology, arts, literature, architecture, criticism, ethnography and religion. While one factor remains common (on postmodernism) to all these disciplines, the term could connote different things in different fields of learning. Historically the term was applied to describe the twentieth century, or some part of the century and its arts that distinguished the period marking the end of history. While some historians peg the date of postmodernism to 1878, others propose the year 1991. As a popular movement, postmodernism is traced to art and literature, where it was important in the 1960's and 1970's. Tracing the impact of postmodernism to art and literature, the term is noted to have appropriated and also parodied all other movements that existed before it. In the philosophical field, postmodernism serves as a tool of examining science and culture. It refutes and negates the concept of an ultimate, objective truth in the area of philosophy. The nature of philosophy behind the term has made it receive some level of antagonism, if not rejection in some fields of learning like history, science and sociology as it clashes with the traditional concepts. Some Definitions of Postmodernism To properly understand the term postmodernism, there is the need to cross examine, analyze and synthesize what others have said or are saying about the concept and term. For a Senior Lecturer in the University College Worcester, in the name of Alan How PhD, postmodernism stands for a broad term, which refers to twentieth century cultural changes in art, architecture, literature, music and film. Like post structuralism it attends 3 to the lack of fixity in the meaning of things, dwelling painfully, sometimes ironically on life in a consumer society, but generally celebrating the advent of this new kind of life. (144) Arguing that postmodernism has its concentration on music, shopping and film when it comes to the field of sociology, How further spells out the emphasis of the concept on "the increasingly fluid nature of gender definitions, or on the way social identity now depends on the consumption of commodities and what they signify, rather than social class or other traditional factors.” (144) On postmodernism's relationship with linguistics, How opines that more abstractly, and drawing on the poststructuralist idea that reality is a linguistic construct, it undermines the validity of modernist notions of ‘truth’, 'reason’ and 'progress’ arguing that they are western inventions and thus the product of a particular view of what counts as a reasonable, truthful or progressive, not the supra-historical, universal ideas the West claims. (144) One obvious fact elicited from the points above is the actual meaning of postmodernism is daily passing through questioning and new definitions. One constant notion that comes out of this critical idea is that postmodernism has to do with a radical rethinking of different fields that go with it. With this rethinking goes the constant reexamination of the lingering assumptions on how "meanings" are produced. There is therefore the continuous experiment that goes with postmodernism, extending to the techniques like fragmentation, intertextuality, and appropriation to fundamental change the way in which language represents the "meanings" of texts. On this 4 assumption, Klages tries to compare postmodernism with modernism and came up with the idea that postmodernism is closely related to modernism in that while modernism has an inclination to give a fragmented view of human subjectivity and history (as in the 'The Wasteland' or in Virginia Woolf's To the lighthouse), postmodernism fails to lament this notion of fragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence, but celebrates these ideas instead. To the postmodernist, "the world is meaningless. Let's not pretend that art can make meaning then, let's just play with nonsense". (Amazon. Com) For Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the term postmodern literature is made use of while describing, "certain tendencies in post World War II literature. It is both a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of the modernist period (relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modem Literature.” (04) Hard as the term postmodernism is to define, Wikipedia attributes the unifying features of this term to often coincide with Jean - Francois Lyotard's concept of the “meta narrative" and "little narrative", Jacque Derrida's concept of "play" and Jean Baudrillard's "simulacra". The Wikipedia further gives the meaning of postmodernism as a term originally in architecture, literally 'after the modern denoting a style that is more ornamental than modernism, and which borrows from previous architectural styles, often in a playful or ironic fashion ... largely influenced by the Western European disillusionment induced by World War II, 5 postmodernism tends to refer to a cultural, intellectual, or artistic state lacking a clear central hierarchy or organizing principle and embodying extreme complexity, contradiction, ambiguity, diversity and inter connectedness or inter referentiality. In their concern for the anthropological definition of postmodernism, Shannon Weiss and Karla Wesley of the Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Alabama opine that “postmodernity” concentrates on the tensions of difference and similarity erupting from processes of globalization: the (sic) accelerating circulation of people, the increasing dense and frequent cross cultural interactions, and the unavoidable intersections of local and global knowledge. The cultural undertone in the above definition draws one’s attention to the view of a religious minister, Reverend Geoffrey N. Oji who states that "postmodernism is a development of thoughts in Europe which arose out of challenges arising in culture, political, intellectual, social and economic ways of life of the people". (10) The definitions of postmodernism are endless, as they embrace different fields of human endeavour. While questioning the objectives of postmodernism it is observed that the postmodernists are against the following ideas: (i) the central themes of the Enlightenment, (ii) the claims of truth, objectivity, rationality, universality, and criteria that purport to be more than local, (iii) they are equally against the idea that natural science is an apt model for knowledge in general, (iv) they doubt that philosophy as it has been practiced in the Descartes, Hume, Kant tradition can serve as a judge 6 of the truth and the good and they want to leave behind (or destroy) the metaphysical pretensions of philosophy to grasp some absolute reality beyond appearance: (Melchert: 702). Summarily, the literal meaning of the term postmodernism is "after modernism". In the words of Carpenter: Postmodernism (in many ways) constitutes an attack on modernist claims about the existence of truth and value - claims that stem from the European Enlightenment of the 18th century. In disputing past assumptions postmodernists generally display a preoccupation with the inadequacy of language as a mode of communication (Encarta CD: Articles 38). Comparative Analysis of Postmodernism and Modernism Postmodernism will give a clearer picture of itself when it is closely analyzed with modernism from which it likely came into existence or developed. Modernism developed out of the aesthetic movement that was widely tagged "modernism." The movement embraced visual arts, music, literature, and drama which failed to accept the conventional Victorian standards of how art should be compared, consumed and interpreted. The years around 1910 to 1930 were considered as the period of "high modernism," and new definitions were proffered on what poetry and fiction could be and do. Some of the personalities considered to be the authorities and founders of the twentieth century modernism in literature are Woolf, Joyce, Eliot, Pound, Stevens, Proust, Mallarme, Kafka and Rilke. 7 Mary Klages listed the main characteristics of modernism from literary perspective to include: 1. An emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in writing (and in visual arts as well); an emphasis on how seeing (or reading or perception itself) takes place, rather than on WHAT is perceived. An example of this would be stream-of consciousness writing. 2. A movement away from the apparent objectivity provided by omniscient third-person narrators, fixed narrative points of view, and clear - cut moral positions. Faulkner's multiplynarrated stories are example of this aspect of modernism. 3. A blurring of distinctions between genres, so that poetry seems more documentary (as in T. S. Eliot or E. E. Cummings) and prose seems more poetic (as in Woolf or Joyce). 4. An emphasis on fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives, and random-seeming collages of different materials. 5. A tendency toward reflexivity, or self- consciousness, about the production of the work of art, so that each piece calls attention to its own status as a production, as something constructed and consumed in particular ways. 6. A rejection of elaborate formal aesthetics in favour of minimalist designs (as in the poetry of William Carlos Williams) and a rejection, in large part, of formal aesthetic theories, in favor of spontaneity and discovery in creation. 8 7. A rejection of the distinction between "high" and "low" or popular culture, both in choice of materials used to produce art and in methods of displaying, distributing, and consuming art. Unlike modernism, postmodernism has the following characteristics, which are closely related to modernism: (l) Non acceptance of the distinction that existed between ‘high’ and 'low' art natures. (2) Postmodernism negates the categorization placed on arts by genre distinctions, but places more emphasis on pastiche, parody, bricolage, irony, and playfulness. (3) Postmodernism upholds reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity (especially in fiction and short stories), ambiguity, simultaneity. (4) The main concentration of Postmodernism is on the destructured, decentered and dehumanized subject. (5) One major factor that distinguishes postmodernism from modernism is that it celebrates the idea of fragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence which modernism laments. Unlike such modernist works like Virginia Woolf's To the lighthouse or T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" where a fragmented view of human subjectivity and history were lamented, postmodernism has a non-lackadaisical attitude to the meaninglessness of life, but just take meaninglessness with joy and non-challantness, (i.e. if the world is without meaning, there is no need to pretend that art can make meaning, but men should just play with the nonsense). (6) Both modernism and postmodernism are however viewed as cultural formations that go along with particular stages of capitalism. The phases of capitalism that dictates this particular cultural practices include what kind of art and literature is 9 (7) (8) produced, all the spheres of influence of art and literature and monopoly capitalism, including the multinational or consumer capitalism (with emphasis on marketing, selling, and consuming commodities, not on producing them). In postmodern society, it is believed that there are no originals, but only copies ... or what Jean Baudrillard calls "simulacra". If one talks of a painting or sculpture, the original work exists with highest values attached to it, but there could be other copies produced out of the original. Postmodernism is concerned with questions of the organization of knowledge. Although knowledge was good for its own sake, in the postmodern society, knowledge is functional as one learns from things not to know them, but to use the knowledge. Not only is knowledge characterized by its utility in postmodern societies, but knowledge is distributable, storable, and differently arranged in postmodern societies than in modern ones. The advent of computer technologies significantly contributed to this pastiche. One of the consequences of postmodernism seems to be the rise of religious fundamentalism, as a form of resistance to the questioning of the "grand narratives" of religious truth. ('grand narratives' is a theory propounded by Lyotard and may be interpreted as a kind of metatheory, or meta-ideology, i.e. an ideology that explains an ideology as with Marxism), a story that is told to explain the belief systems that exist). The issue of religious fundamentalism is likely obvious in Muslim fundamentalism in the Middle East; which ban postmodern book like Salmon Rushdie's, The Satanic Verses - due to the fact that the book deconstruct grand narratives. 10 Postmodernism likely makes a way for the combining of different choices to hooking to the global culture of consumption, in which goods and ideas are projected by forces that are far beyond any individual's control. In the words of Klages, "the motto for postmodern politics might well be "think globally, act locally" ... and don't worry about any grand scheme or master plan." (Amazon. Com) Postmodernism and Literature Postmodern Literature is a term that describes certain tendencies in Post-World War II literature. It is a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of the modernist period (relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist Literature. Postmodern literature, like modernism as a whole, is difficult to define and little agreement exists on the characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodern literature. The common denominators that go with postmodern literature are however traceable to Jean Francois Lyotard's concept of the "meta-narrative" and "little narrative", Jacques Derrida's concept of "play", and Jean Bauldrillard's "simulacra". For example, instead of the modernist "quest for meaning in a chaotic world, the postmodern author eschews, often playfully, the possibility of meaning, and the postmodern novel is often a parody of this quest. As the postmodern authors fail to accept generally accepted views, or conventions, their writers often celebrate chance over craft and make use of metafiction to undermine the author's "univocal" control (the control of one voice). The distinction between high and low culture is also attacked with the employment of pastiche, the combination of multiple cultural elements including subjects and genres not 11 previously deemed fit for literature. The names of postmodern authors often varies, most of them belong to the generation born in the interwar period. Names like John Barth (b. 1930), Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), E.L. Doctorow (b.1931), Robert Coover (1932), William Burroughs (1914-1977), Thomas' Pynchon (b.1937), and Don Delillo (b.1936) among others. Pre-cursors of Postmodernism in Literature Postmodernists often point to early novels and story collections as inspiration for their experiments with narrative and structure: Don Quixote, 1001 Arabian Nights, The Decameron, and Candide, among many others. In the English Language, Lawrence Sterne's 1759 novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, with its heavy emphasis on parody and narrative experimentation, is often cited as an early echo of postmodernism. Other significant examples of 18th century parody included the works of Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding's Shamela. Others include Lord Bryon's Satire, Don Juan which is considered as one of the 19th century examples of attacks on Enlightenment. Equally included in this group are Thomas Carlyle's Sator Resartus, Alfred Jarry's ribald Ubu parodies and his invention of 'pataphysics', Lewis Carrol's playful experiments with signification; the work of Oscar Wilde, Aurthur Rimbaud and Isidore Durcasse, among others. Late 19th and early 20th century playwrights whose thought and work influenced the aesthetics of postmodernism include Swedish dramatist August Strinberg, the Italian author Luigi Pirandello and the German playwright and theorist Bertolt Brecht. Dadaism is equally believed to have influenced the postmodern literature as it celebrated chance, parody, playfulness, and equally attacked the central role of the artist. Dadaism equally contributed to the development of collage, specifically collages use elements from 12 advertisement or illustrations from popular novels. Andre Breton, who founded surrealism, suggested that automatism and the description of dreams should play a greater role in the creation of literature. Surrealist Rene Magritte's experiments with signification are used as examples by Jacques Derrida and Michael Foucault. Foucault also makes use of illustrations from Jorge Luis Borges, who is an important direct influence on many postmodernist fiction writers. He is occasionally listed as a postmodernist though he started writing in the 1920s. The influence of his experiments with meta fiction and magical realism was not fully realized until the postmodern period. Postmodernist and Modernist Literature The essential thing about the postmodernist and modernist literature is that both of them represent a break from the 19th century realism. In the realistic tradition of the novel, stories were told from an objective or third person omniscient point of view. Another factor is that both postmodern and modern literature search into the problem of subjectivism in character development, thereby turning from external reality to examine into the inner states of consciousness. In many cases, both anchor on modernist tradition of the stream of consciousness styles developed by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, or the explorative poems style developed by T. S. Elliot in The Waste Land. Added to this is the issue of exploration of fragmentariness in narrative and character - construction by both postmodern and modem literature. The Waste Land is an example used in differentiating both the modem and postmodern literature. Apart from its fragmentary nature, the poem employs the use of pastiche peculiar to most postmodern literature, as the speaker in The Waste Land states that, "these fragments I have shored against my ruins”. 13 While the modernist literature looks at fragmentation and extreme subjectivity as an external crisis, or Freudian internal conflict, needing psychotherapy, postmodernists however often hold the view that this conflict is insurmountable. To them (i.e. postmodernists), the artist is important, and the possible solution to the artist's "ruin” is to play within the chaos. Although there is playfulness in many modernist works, like in Joyce's Finnegans Wake or Virginia Woolf's Orlando, that identifies them with the postmodernist tradition, the act of playfulness is the central theme and the actual achievement of order and meaning is hardly taken into consideration. Origin of Postmodernism There is no definite date that can be traced to be the rise and fall of postmodernism's fame. Like all other stylistic eras, postmodernism has many possible reference points, like being assumed to start in 1941 when the Irish novelist: James Joyce and his British counterpart, Virginia Woolf died. Other sources trace postmodernism to the aspect of an indication of reaction against modernism in the beginning of the Second World War (with its disrespect for human rights, just confirmed in the Geneva Convention, through the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Holocaust, the bombing of Dresden, the fire-bombing of Tokyo, and Japanese American Interment). Postmodernism could also imply a reaction to significant post-war events: the beginning of the Cold War, the civil rights movement in the United States, post colonialism (postcolonial literature), and the rise of the personal computer (cyberpunk fiction and hypertext fiction). There are also further arguments that the publications of significant literary texts marked the beginning of postmodern literature. The 14 first performance of Waiting for Godot in 1953 is marked by some people as the starting point of postmodernism as well as the first publication of Howl in 1956 or of Naked Lunch in 1959. For others, postmodernism started with the moments in critical theory like that of Jacques Derrida's "Structure; Sign and Play" lecture in 1966 or as late as Ihab Hassan's usage in The Dismemberment of Orpheus in 1971. In all the circumstances above, it should be noted that the prefix "post' does not necessari1y however imply a new era, but could rather suggest a reaction against modernism. Post-War Developments and Transition Figures Much as the postmodernist literature fails to refer to everything written in the postmodern period, many post-war developments in literature like the Theatre of the Absurd, the Beat Generation, and Magical Realism have significant similarities. These developments are occasionally collectively referred to as "postmodern", some of the main personalities identified and cited as contributors to the postmodern aesthetic are Samuel Beckett, William S. Burroughs, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Jarry's surrealistic work, Antonin Artaud, Luigi Pirandello, among others made impact on the playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd. Martin Esslin coined the term "Theatre of the Absurd" to describe a tendency in theatre in the 1950's. Relating this term to Albert Camus's concept of the absurd, later scholars discovered that the plays of the Theatre of the Absurd parallel postmodern fiction in many ways. The Bald Soprano by Eugene lonesco for example is essentially a series of cliches taken from a language textbook. Samuel Beckett towers above the figure of those regarded as being both Absurdist and Postmodern writers. His works are often regarded as the starting point of shift from modernism to postmodernism in 15 literature. His close ties with modernism were a result of his friendship with James Joyce. His works however helped to shape the development of literature away from modernism. One of the exemplars of modernism, Joyce, celebrated the possibility of language while Beckett had a revelation in 1945 that, in order to escape the shadow of Joyce, he must focus on the poverty of language and men as a failure. His later work equally reflected characters trapped in inescapable situations attempting helplessly to communicate with the resource to play and make the best of what they have. Beckett's experiments with narrative form and with the disintegration of narration and character in fiction and drama won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His works published after 1969 are mostly meta-literary attempts that must be read in light of his own theories and previous works and the attempt to deconstruct literary forms and genres. Beckett's last text published during his lifetime, Stirring Still (1988), breaks down the barriers between drama, fiction, and poetry, with texts of echoes and reiterations of his previous work. He is referred to as one of the fathers of the postmodern movement fiction which has continued to undermine the ideas of logical coherence in narration, formal plot, regular time sequence, and psychologically explained characters. In the novel genre, William S. Burroughs, a writer associated with the Beat generation appears constantly on the list of postmodern writers. His published text Naked Lunch (1959) in Paris and later in America 1961 is considered as the first truly postmodern novel by some people, due to its fragmentary nature, with no central narrative. Naked Lunch is noted for its use of pastiche to fold in elements from popular genres such as detective fiction, as well as science fiction; it's full of parody, paradox, and playfulness. He is also noted, along with Brion Gysin, for the creation of the "cut-up" technique, a technique 16 (similar to Tzara's "Dadaist poem") in which word without phrases are cut from a newspaper or other publication and rearranged to form a new message. This is the technique he used to create novels such as Nova Express and The Ticket That Exploded. Postmodernism in literature is not an organized movement with leaders or central figures; therefore, it is more difficult to say if it has ended or when it will end. Some declared the death of postmodernism in 80's with a new surge of realism by Raymond Carver. With this new emphasis on realism in mind, some declared White noise in 1985 or The Satanic Verses in 1988 to be the last great novels of the postmodern era. However, with the publications such as Mcsweeney's, The Believer, and The Onion, the declaration of the death of postmodernism is arguably premature. Common Themes and Techniques often Associated with postmodern Literature include: irony, playfulness, black humour, pastiche, metafiction, temporal distortion, technoculture and hyperreality, paranoia, maximalism, etc. Irony is a term used in literature to describe a statement or action whose apparent meaning is coated by a contrary meaning. Postmodern fiction generally has the characteristics of ironic quote marks, making much of it to be taken as tongue-in-cheek. The irony, along with black humour and the general concept of ‘play’ (coined from Derrida’s concept of Roland Barthes advocated ideas in The Pleasure of the Text) are part of the core essence or aspects of postmodernism. It is noted that one common feature of the postmodernists is to treat serious subjects in a playful and humorous way. Several novelists that were later labeled postmodern were first collectively labeled black humorists. The way that Heller, Vonnegut, 17 and Pynchon addressed the events of World War 1l gives one the idea of the view on the common convention of the postmodernists to treat serious subjects in a playful and humorous manner. Pastiche. In pastiche (which means a piece of creative work, especially in literature, drama, or art); a mixture of things borrowed from other works are exploited to develop this sub genre. Pastiche initiates and satirizes another work or style. In postmodernist literature, this can be homage to, or a parody of past styles. Pastiche can be regarded as a representation of the chaotic, pluralistic, or information - drenched aspects of postmodern society. It can be a combination of multiple genres to create a unique narrative or to comment on situations in post modernity: for example; in the works of literature where science fiction, detective fiction, fairy tales, etc are used jointly to create a textbook. Although pastiche commonly refers to the mixing of genres, many other elements are also included. Elements like metafiction and temporal distortion are common in the broader pastiche of the postmodern novel. Pastiche can equally be used to refer to compositional technique, like the cut - up technique employed by Burroughs or B. S. Johnson's 1969 novel The Unfortunates, which was released in a box with no binding, making the readers to assemble it how-ever they chose. Metafiction. Fiction that comments upon the act of writing the story the reader is reading is known as metafiction. Metafiction is largely referred to as fiction about nature of literature i.e. fiction writing that deals, often playfully and parodically, with the nature of fiction, the techniques and conventions used in it, and the role of the author. In metafiction, there is foregrounding of the apparatus, making the artificiality of art or the fictionality of fiction apparent to the reader 18 and generally disregards the necessity for "willful suspension of disbelief". Metafiction is often employed to undermine the authority of the author, for unexpected narrative shifts, to advance a story in a unique way, for emotional distance, or to comment on the act of storytelling. Kurt Vonnegut commonly used this technique as the first chapter of his 1969 novel Slaughter House Five about the process of writing the novel and calls attention to his own presence throughout the novel. Though much of the novel has to do with Vonnegut's own experiences during the firebombing of Dresden, Vonnegut continually points out that the artificiality of the central narrative are that which contains obviously fictional elements such as aliens and time travel. Histographic Metafiction This term was coined by Linda Hutcheon to refer to works that fictionalize actual historical events or figures; in some cases the term is referred to as faction. Examples: D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, William Shakespear's Julius Caesar. Other notable examples are Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The General in His Labyrinths (about Simon Boliver) and Ragtime by E.L Doctorow (which features such historical figures as Harry Houdini, Henry Ford, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Booker T. Washington, Sigmund Freud, Carl Lung). John Fowles deals similarly with the Victorian period in The French Lieutenants Women. Temporal Distortion In postmodern fiction, temporal distortion is used in a variety of ways, often for the irony. Historiographic metafiction is an example of this. Temporal distortion was commonly used in modernist fiction, but fragmentation and non-linear narratives are central features of both modern and postmodern literature. Distortions in time are 19 central features in many of Kurt Vonnegut's non-linear novels, the most famous of which is perhaps Billy Pilgrim in Slaughter House Five becoming "upstuck in time". Ishmael Reed in Flight to Canada deals playfully with anachronisms, as in the case of Abraham Lincoln using a telephone. (Anachronism means chronological mistake, i.e. The representation of somebody or something out of chronological order or in the wrong historical setting. e.g. Abraham Lincoln (18091865) 16th president of the United States of America (1861-1865) was late before the use of telephone, as Alexander Graham Bell invented and inaugurated a widespread use of the telephone and received the patent on March 7, 1876). In. temporal distortion, time may also overlap, repeat, or bifurcate into multiple possibilities. Example of this is in Robert Coover's "The Babysitter" from Pricksongs and Descants, in which the author presents multiple possible events occurring simultaneously - in one section the babysitter is murdered while in another section, nothing happens and so on - yet no version of the story is favoured as the correct version. Tecnoculture and Hyperreality Fredric Jameson called postmodernism the "cultural logic of late capitalism". "Late capitalism" as a term implies that society has moved past the industrial age and into the information age. Jean Baudrillard on the other hand claimed that post modernity was defined by shift into hyperreality in which simulations have replaced the real. People are overwhelmed with information in post modernity, technology has become a central focus in many lives, and our understanding of the real is mediated by simulations of the real. Many works of fiction have dealt with this aspect of post modernity with characteristic irony and pastiche. For example, Don Lelilo's White Noise presents characters that are bombarded with a "White noise" of television, product brand names, and clichés. The 20 cyberpunk fiction (i.e. futuristic science fiction featuring characters living in darkly frightening futuristic world dominated by computer technology) of William Gibson, Neat Stephenson, and many others use science fiction techniques to address this postmodern, hyper real information bombardment. Paranoia. The sense of the paranoia has to do with an ordering system behind the chaos of the world. For the postmodernist, no ordering system exists, so a search for order is fruitless and absurd. If one reads the book with particular bias, then he or she is going to be frustrated. This often coincides with the theme of techno culture and hyperreality. In Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, the character Dwayne Hoover becomes violent when he is convinced that everyone else in the world is a robot and he only is human. Maximalism. This term was coined by some critics, who have observed the sprawling canvas of fragmented narrative as a generating controversy on the "purpose" of a novel as narrative and the standards by which it should be judged. The postmodern position is that the style of a novel must be appropriate to what it depicts and represents, and points back to such examples in previous ages as Francois Rabelais Gargantua and Homer's Odyssey. Modernist critics have however attacked the maximalist novel as being disorganized, sterile and filled with language play for its own sake, empty of emotional commitment - and therefore empty of value as a novel. Yet, there are counter-examples, where postmodern narrative coexists with emotional commitment. POSTMODERNISM AND ITS CRITICS Broad as the postmodernist theories are, it has been noted that the concept is highly debated even among the postmodernists 21 themselves. From Weiss and Wesley's anthropological viewpoints, certain keywords like modernity, post modernity, modernization, modernism, postmodernism, need to be clearly defined for a clearer understanding of the philosophy behind postmodernism. According to them: Modernity - came into being with the Renaissance. Modernity implies "the progressive economic and administrative rationalization and differentiation of the social world". The term therefore essentially emerged in the context of the development of the capitalist state. Anthropologists have been working towards studying modern times, but have now gone past that. The fundamental act of modernity is to question the foundations of past knowledge. Post modernity. Logically postmodernism literally means "after modernity. It refers to the incipient or actual dissolution of those social forms associated with modernity" (Sarup: 1993). Modernization is used to define the term often used to refer to the stages of social development which are based upon industrialization. Modernization is a diverse unity of socio-economic changes generated by scientific and technological discoveries and innovations. (Sarup: 1993) Modernism is an experiment in finding the inner truths of a situation. It can be characterized by self - consciousness and reflexiveness. This is very closely related to postmodernism (Sarup: 1993). Postmodernism. in the words of Sarup, "there is a sense in which if one sees modernism as the culture of modernity, postmodernism is 22 the culture of post modernity" (1993). There is a general belief that choice becomes meaningless in postmodernism. Baudrillard in his contribution stated the need to come to terms with the second revolution, "that of the Twentieth Century of post modernity which is the immense process of the destruction of meaning equal to the earlier destruction of appearances. Whoever lives by meaning dies by meaning" (Ashley: 199). "Post modernity" to Weiss and Wesley "concentrates on the tensions of difference and similarity erupting from processes of globalization: the accelerating circulation of people, the increasingly dense and frequent cross-cultural interactions of local and global knowledge" (ua.ed.). To Bishop, "postmodernists are suspicious of authoritative definitions and singular narratives of any trajectory of events” (993). Poastmodernists can be broadly divided into two camps: Skeptical Postmodernists and Affirmative Postmodernists. While the skeptics are extremely critical of the modern subject and reject any understanding of time, affirmative postmodernist equally rejects theory claims by denying claims of truth. They are less rigid than the skeptics. Some Noted Differences between Modern and Postmodern Thought Weiss and Wesley categorized the major differences between the Modern and Postmodern Thinking and listed the key elements as in the table below: 23 Reasoning Science Part/whole God Language Source: Modern From Foundation Upwards Postmodern Multiple factors of multiple levels of reasoning. Web oriented. Universal optimism Realism of Limitations Parts comprise the whole The whole is more than the parts. Acts by violating “natural Top – Down causation. laws” or by “immanence” in everything that is. Referential Meaning in social context through usage. .fuller.edu/-clameter/phd/post modern.html Critical Views Appignanesi and Garrat noted that "modernity" takes its Latin origin from "modo", which means "just now". The Postmodern, then literally means "after just now". Other areas that attract similar response to postmodernism include postcolonialism and poststructuralism. The term "postcolonialism" has been attributed to stand for a description of institutional conditions in formerly colonial societies. It equally means an abstract term that stands for the global situation after the colonial period or still as a description of discourses informed by psychological and epistemological orientations. An important feature of postcolonialist thought is its assertion that modernism and modernity are parts of the colonial project of domination. 24 Poststructuralism. In the views of Pierre Bourdieu holds the idea that structural models should not be replaced but enriched. Post structuralist like Bourdieu are interested in reflexivity and the search for logical practice. By this act, accounts of the participants’ behaviour and meanings are not subjectified by the observer. Major criticisms on postmodernism have focused on the examination of the moral nature of the models as regards the definition of objectivity and subjectivity. Roy D. Andrade has argued that there must be a separation between moral and objective models because "they are counterproductive in discovering how the world works." (402) Rosenau on his part identifies seven contradictions in postmodernism which include that: 1. Its anti-theoretical position is essentially a theoretical stand. 2. While postmodernism stresses the irrational, instruments of reason are freely employed to advance its perspective. 3. The postmodern prescription to focus on the marginal is itself an evaluative emphasis of precisely the sort that it otherwise attacks. 4. Postmodernism stress intertextuality but often treats text in isolation. 5. By adamantly rejecting modern criteria for assessing theory, postmodernists cannot argue that there are no valid criteria for judgment. 6. Postmodernism criticizes the inconsistency of modernism, but refuses to be held to norms of consistency itself. 7. Postmodernists contradict themselves by relinquishing truth claims in their own writings. 25 For Melford Spiro, "the causal account of culture refers to ecological niches, modes of production, subsistence techniques, and so forth, just as a causal account of mind refers to the finding of neurons, the secretions of hormones, the action of neurotransmitters ...” John Searle's "Rationality and Realism" published in 1993 contain six interrelated propositions which Spiro addressed. Spiro's stands are that: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Reality exists independently of human representations. If this is true then, contrary to postmodernism, this postulate supports the existence of "mind - independent external reality" which is called "metaphysical realism". Language communicates meanings but also refers to objects and situations in the world which exist independently of language. Contrary to postmodernism, this postulate supports the concept of language as having communicative and referential functions. Statements are true or false depending on whether the objects and situations to which they refer correspond to a greater or lesser degree to the statements. This "correspondence theory" of truth is to some extent the theory of truth for postmodernists as "essentialist”. Knowledge is objective: - This signifies that the motive, culture, or gender of the person who makes the claim. Knowledge depends on empirical support. Logic and rationality provide a set of procedures and methods, which contrary to postmodernism, enables a researcher to asses competing knowledge claims through proof, validity and reason. 26 6. Objective and intersubjective criteria judge the merit of statements, theories, interpretations and all accounts. Spiro agrees with postmodernists that the social sciences require very different techniques for the study of humanity than do the natural sciences, but "while insight and empathy are critical in the study of mind and culture..., intellectual responsibility requires objective (scientific methods) in the social sciences. Without objective procedures ethnography is empirically dubious and intel1ectually irresponsible" Authorities in Postmodern Ideas and their Views Names that are often associated with postmodernism include Jean Francois Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Michael Foucault and Nancy Scheper-Hughes. Jean- Francois Lyotard holds the view that "the postmodern would be that which in the modern invokes the unpresentable in presentation itself, that which refuses the consolation of correct forms, refuses the consensus of taste permitting a common experience of nostalgia for the impossible, and inquires into new presentations-not to take pleasures in them, but to better produce the feeling that there is something unpresentable." Lyotard attacks many of the modern age traditions, such as the "Grand" Narrative or what Lyotard termed the meta (master) narrative. In contrast to the ethnographies written by anthropologists in the first half of the 20th century, Lyotard states that an all encompassing account of a culture cannot be accomplished. Jean Baudrillard. A sociologist who started his career by exploring the Marxist critique of capitalism, Baudrillard argued that "consumer 27 objects constitute a system of signs that differentiate the population" (Sarup: 162). When he realized that Marxist teachings failed to effectively evaluate commodities, Baudrillard turned to postmodernism. Baudrillard has however been termed a skeptical postmodernist by Rosenau because of his expressions claiming that “every thing has already happened ... nothing new can occur," or that "there is no real world. “Baudrillard is said to break down modernity and post modernity in an effort to explain the world as a set of models. He identifies early modernity as the period between the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, modernity as the period at the start of the Industrial Revolution, and post modernity as the period of mass media (cinema and photography). Baudrillard states that we live in a world of images but images that are only simulations. He implies that many people fail to understand this concept that "we have now moved into an epoch ... where truth is entirely a product of consensus values, and where 'science' itself is just the name we attach to certain modes of explanation." (Norris: 169). Jacques Derrida (1930- ) identified as a poststructuralist and a skeptical postmodernist, Derrida's writing emphasizes the deconstruction of texts and probing the relationship of meaning between texts (see Bishop: 1270). Derrida observes that "a text employs its own stratagems against it, producing a force of dislocation that spreads itself through an entire system. Derrida directly attacks Western philosophy's understanding of reason. He sees reason as dominated by "a metaphysics of presence." Derrida agrees with structuralism's insight, that meaning is not inherent in signs, but he proposes that it is incorrect to infer that anything reasoned can be used as a stable and timeless model (Appignanesi:77). 28 Michael Foucault (1926-1984). A French Philosopher, Foucault attempted to show that what most people think of as the permanent truths of human nature and society actually change throughout the course of history. While challenging the influences of Marx and Freud, Foucault postulated that everyday practices enabled people to define their identities and systemize knowledge. Foucault's study of power and its shifting patterns is one of the foundations of postmodernism. He is considered a postmodern theorist precisely because his work upsets the conventional understanding of history as a chronology of inevitable facts. Alternatively, he depicts history as under layers of suppressed and unconscious knowledge in and throughout history. Appignanesi stated that, "these under layers are the codes and assumptions of order, the structures of exclusion that legitimate the epistemes (sic) by which societies achieve identities (83). Nancy Scheper - Hughes (1944) advocates that ethnographies be used as tools for critical reflection and human liberation because she feels that "ethics" make culture possible. Since culture is preceded by ethics, therefore, ethics cannot be culturally bound as argued by anthropologists in the past. The crux of her postmodern perspective is that, anthropologists, no less than any other professionals, should be held accountable for how they have used and how they have failed to use anthropology as a critical tool at crucial historical moments. The act of "witnessing" lends the word of anthropologists its moral, at times almost theological character." (419). Major Concepts Related to Postmodernism Some principal concepts that are related to postmodernism are "Realism", "Self-Reflexivity” and “Relativism”. 29 Realism has its anchor on Plato's postulation that universal forms or abstractions exist independently of mind. Self Reflexivity leads to a consciousness of the process of knowledge creation and equally emphasizes the point of theoretical and practical questioning changing the ethnographers' view of themselves and their work. Relativism Quoting Gellner, Weiss and Wesley highlight on the relativistic - functionalist view of thought that goes back to the Enlightenment. "The (unresolved) dilemma, which the thought of the Enlightenment faced, was between relativist claims of enlightened reason. Viewing man as part of nature ... requires (us) to see cognitive and evaluative activities as part of nature too, and hence varying from organism to organism and context to context.” Special Features of Postmodernism One of the essential elements of postmodernism is that it constitutes an attack against theory and methodology. In a sense a proponent claim to relinquish all attempts to create new knowledge in a systematic fashion, but substitutes an "anti-rules" fashion of discourse. The claim above "not withstanding, two methodologies inherent in postmodernism are interdependent due to the fact that interpretation is inherent in Deconstruction... Deconstruction emphasizes negative critical capacity. Deconstruction involves demystifying a text to reveal internal arbitrary hierarchies and presuppositions by examining the margins of a text, the effort of deconstruction concentrates on examining what it represses, what it does not say, and its incongruities. It does not 30 solely unmask error, but redefines the text by undoing and reversing polar opposites. Deconstruction does not resolve inconsistencies, but rather exposes hierarchies involved for the distillation of information. Rosenau's Guidelines for Deconstruction Analysis Rosenau propounded the following theories for deconstruction analysis of a text. They include his idea for a critic to: *Find an exception to a generalization in a text and push it to the limit so that this generalization appears absurd. Use the exception to undermine principle. *Interpret the arguments in a text being deconstructed in their most extreme form. *Avoid absolute statements and cultivate intellectual excitement by making statements that are both startling and sensational. *Deny the legitimacy of dichotomies because there are always a few exceptions. *Nothing is to be accepted, nothing is to be rejected. It is extremely difficult to criticize a deconstructive argument if no clear viewpoint is expressed. *Write so as to permit the greatest number of interpretations possible ... obscurity may, "protect from serious scrutiny." The idea is "to create a text without finality or completion, one with which the reader can never be finished". *Employ new and unusual terminology in order that "familiar positions may not seem too familiar and otherwise obvious scholarship may not seem so obviously relevant". *"Never consent to a change of terminology and always insist that the wording of the deconstructive argument is sacrosanct." More familiar formulations undermine any sense that the deconstructive argument 31 is sacrosanct." More familiar formulations undermine any sense that the deconstructive position is unique. Intuitive Interpretation. Postmodern interpretation is introspective and anti-objectivist, which a form of individualized understanding is. It is more a vision than data observation. For postmodernists there are an endless number of interpretations. Foucault argues that everything is interpretation. There is no final meaning for any particular sign, no notion of unitary sense of text, no interpretation can be regarded as superior to any other (Latour: 182-3). Antipositivists defend the notion that every interpretation is false. "Interpretative anthropology is a covering label for a diverse set of reflections upon 'the practice of ethnography and the concept of culture" (Weiss and Wesley: mdmurphy@tenhoor.as.ua.edu). Salmon Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses as A postmodernist Novel Introduction Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses was banned in the Middle East due to the fact that the book deconstructs “grand narratives”. The rise of religious fundamentalism as a form of resistance to the questioning of the “grand narratives” of religious truth came into limelight because of the new awareness created in the concept of postmodernism. “Grand Narratives” is a theory propounded by Lyotard and is interpreted as a kind of meta-theory, or meta-ideology, i.e. an ideology that explains an ideology as with Marxism, a story that is told to explain the belief systems that exists. Rushdies’s novel, The Satanic Verses is a story that is told by the author to explain the belief system that exists, especially as it has to do with the Muslim fundamentalism in the Middle East. 32 Rushdie’s Challenge of the “Grand Narratives” of the Muslim Religion Salmon Rushdie was born in 1947, a British novelist of Indian descent. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988) combined fantasy, philosophical ruminations, and comic aspects and was well received in the United Kingdom. The book however aroused the anger of many Muslims who considered it an attack on the Qur’ an (Koran), Muhammad, and the Islamic faith. With its five hundred and six pages, the book is best placed under the category of magic realism novel genre. The novel made use of current affairs and personalities in history, especially that depending on the life of the founder of Muslim religion, Muhammad to create the characters and themes in the book. Amitabh Bacchan who surfaces as the main protagonist of the book was an Indian film actor. The novel stipulates that Muhammad (who founded the Muslim religion) got “tricked into revealing these verses as part of the Qur’ a by Satan and he later retracted them, saying the angel Jibreel had told him to do so” (Wikipedia). The title of the book represents the signified issue known as the satanic verses and these verses give room for prayers of intercession to be made to three pagan goddesses: Allat, al-Uzza, and Manat. Each of these three goddesses had a shrine in separate places close to Muhammad’s birth place and starting point of his mission in Mecca, Arabia. Rushdie depended on the historical accounts of al-Waqidi and al-Tabari about the life of Muhammad to write his novel, The Satanic Verses. Though the book reached the final stage of the Booker Price award in 1988, the Muslims generally rejected the book and held its contents as blasphemous. The general controversy surrounding the book led to 33 its being banned in the United Kingdom. Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia also banned the work. In 1989, Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (edict) declaring that Rushdie be put to death. The Plot of the novel The Satanic Verses is made up of a frame narrative, making use of elements of magical realism. This is joined with a series of sub-plots that are narrated as dream visions experienced by one of the protagonists. Like other works of Rushdie, the frame narrative portrays Indian expatriates in the present day England. The two protagonists, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, are both actors of Indian Muslim background. Farishta is a Bollywood superstar with specialization in playing Hindu deities, while Chamcha is an emigrant who has broken with his Indian identity and works as a voice over artists in England. Both characters were trapped in a hijacked plane during a flight from India to Britain, at the beginning of the novel. As the aero plane exploded over the English Channel, the two characters were magically saved. In a miraculous transformation, Farishta took on the personality of the archangel Gibreel, while Chamcha took on that of a devil. The transformation by Farishta realistically stands for the developing dissociative identity disorder of the protagonist. After being found on the beach, Chamcha is taken into custody by the police, who suspected him of being an illegal immigrant, while Farishta looked on without intervening. Both characters struggled to put their broken lives back together. Farishta sought and found his lost love, the English mountaineer Allie Cone, but their relationship was overshadowed by his mental illness. After Chamcha had miraculously recovered from his personality disorder, he intended to 34 take revenge on Farishta for having forsaken him after their common fall from the hijacked plane. This he did by nursing the hereditary jealously of Farishta, thereby destroying his relationship with Allie. In another moment of crisis, Farishta realized what Chamcha has done, but forgave him and equally saved his life. Both characters later returned to India. Farishta still suffering from his illness, killed Allie in another outbreak of jealousy and then committed suicide. Chamcha, who has found not only forgiveness form Farishta but also reconciliation with his strayed father and his own Indian identity, decided to remain in India. Inside this novel is firmly fixed series of half – magic dream vision narratives, ascribed to the disturbed mind of Gibreel Farishta. They are linked together by many thematic details as well as by the common motifs of divine revelation, religious faith and fanaticism, and doubt as to whether any conception of God is rationally justifiable. One of these sequences contains most of the elements that have been criticized as offensive to Muslims. It is a transformed re-narration of the life of the prophet Muhammad (called “Mohound” or the “Messenger” in the novel) in Mecca (“Jahilia”). At its centre is the episode of the Satanic Verses, in which the prophet first proclaims a revelation in favour of the old polytheistic deities, but later renounces this as an error induced by Shaitan. There are also two opponents of the “Messenger”: a demonic heathen priestess, Hind, and an irreverent skeptic and satirical poet, Baal. On the return of the prophet triumphantly to the City, Baal goes into hiding in an underground brothel, where the prostitutes take on the identities of the prophet’s wives. One of the prophet’s companions claims also 35 that he, doubting the “Messenger’s authority, has subtly altered portions of the Qur’ an as they were dictated to him. The Ayesha story forms the second sequence of the novel. Ayesha is an Indian peasant girl that claims to be receiving revelations given by Archangel Gibreel in the story. She makes claim that all her village people could make it on foot across the Arabian Sea, while urging them to start a foot pilgrimage to Mecca. The pilgrimage ends in a catastrophic climax as the believers all trekked into the water and disappear; in the midst of very disturbing conflicting testimonies from observers on if they just drowned or were in fact miraculously able to cross the sea. The figure of a fanatic expatriate religious leader, the “Imam” presented in a late 20th – century setting was exhibited in the third dream sequence. Using the figure of the “Messenger” with other various recurrent narrative motifs, the life of Ayatollah Khomeini in his Parisian exile is clearly alluded to as the fanatic expatriate religious leader. The Relationship of Satan and the Satanic Verses Satan as a rebellious angel and tempter of man in the Christian religious view point caused the first sin of man by making Adam and Eve to disobey God through eating the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3:1-7 of the Holy Bible states that: Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the LORD GOD had made. “Really?” he asked the woman. “Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden? “Of course we may eat it, “the woman told him. “It’s only the fruit from the tree of the 36 center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it or we will die.” “You won’t die!” the serpent hissed. “God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.” The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh\ and delicious, and it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. Then he ate it, too. At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they strung fig leaves together around their hips to cover themselves. (New living Translation: Ilumina) Looking at the points above, some scholars have argued that the concept of Satan was the result of ‘’gradual’’ theological developments’’ as the Bible did not originally hold the view of Satan but the serpent (i.e. snake); (see Zeshan). Revelation 12:9 however mentions Satan, and associates it with the serpent: This great dragon the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world. Was thrown down to the earth with all his angels (NLT: Ilumina) Also see Revelation 20:2 where the Bible refers to the ‘’old serpent” as the Devil, Satan. Muslims however hold the view that Satan’s primary role started with disobeying God, when he refused to bow to Adam, and also being responsible for Adam’s eating of the forbidden fruit and expulsion from paradise. Going by the Biblical standards however, it will be assumed from the Genesis point of view that what is seen as Satan is a snake (i.e. an animal ‘’more crafty than any other wild animal’’, and not an angel or jinn. Genesis 6:1 - 4 however recorded the story of a ‘’rebellion’’ of angels, which is represented by the unlawful mating of the angels 37 and humans, which eventually culminated in God’s destruction of the then world with the flood. The study of the Biblical and Qur’anic accounts of the gradual development of Satan into constant tempter of mankind shows an interesting point that conservative Muslims have generally advocated strict adherence to the traditions of Islam, believing religion to be a static truth with little room for change. The analysis of the history of Satan shows however that the religious narratives of Islam, such as that of Satan, were themselves the result of many changes over time. This view has a strong ability to uphold a more dynamic view of religion as a truth that evolves over time, just as the figure of Satan has evolved over time. The Qur’an, in agreement with the gospels and post – Biblical traditions however developed role for Satan as a rebellious tempter. Satan is referred to in it by two proper names; Shytan, an Arabic rendering of the Hebrew word ‘Satan’’ and Iblis, which is most likely an Arabic contraction of the Greek translations of the Bible. In the Qur’anic view of Satan, it states that: Surely we created man of a clay of mud molded, And the jinn created we before of fire flaming. And when thy lord said to the angels,’ See, I am creating a mortal of clay of mud molded. When I have shaped him, and breathed my spirit in him, fall you down, bowing before him’. Then the angels bowed themselves all together, save Iblis; he refused to be among those bowing. Said He, ‘what ails thee, Iblis that thou art not among those bowing? Said he, I would neve bow myself before a mortal whom thou hast created of clay of mud molded.’ Said He, ‘Then go thou forth hence; 38 thou art accursed. Upon thee shall rest this curse, till the Day of Doom’… Said he, ‘My lord, for thy perverting me I shall deck all fair to them in the earth, and I shall pervert them, all together, excepting those thy servants among them that are devoted’ (Qur’an 15: 26 – 40). The mythological figure of Satan was expanded over the centuries until it could reach the level of removing the responsibility of sinfulness away from God, and the Qur ‘an continued this theological approach as the historical evolution of Satan, to remove sin from God, shown above. The detail of this mythological language is the result of centuries - long development of Jewish traditions which the Qur’an adopts as its own history. The academic discussions on the religious antecedents of this topic tends to indicate the realization that the story of Satan in the Qur ‘an is the final result of a complex theological development. The story has a central place in the Qur‘anic picture of the world; the fact that this story itself has evolved over time would help to support the idea of a revelation that changes over time rather than remaining static. In the words of Zeeshan: Salman Rushdie’s publication of ‘’the satanic verses’’ was one of the biggest Islam – related headlines of the two decades. But the mass outpouring of anti – Rushdie sentiment that took place was remarkable in that it completely overlooked the most important fact of Rushdie’s book; namely, that the tale of the ‘’Satanic verses’’ (i.e. Qur’anic verses which temporarily accepted some of the pagan goddesses of Mecca, but which were later denied as having been inspired by Satan), was completely based on the work of al – Tabari, a Muslim biographer of the prophet. Analysis of the historical account of 39 al- Tabari makes possible a fuller understanding of both Satan and prophecy in Islam. (Satan. htm). The argument still goes that an interesting thing about al – Tabari‘s account is his assertion that Satan cast the false verses into the prophet’s mind ‘’because of his inner debates’’. Such an interpretation of the events is in agreement with an understanding of Satan as a psychological rather than literal interpretation of Satan by identifying him as ‘’jinn’’: And when We said to the angels, ‘Bow yourselves To Adam’; so they bowed themselves; save Iblis; He was one of the jinn, and committed ungodliness Against his Lord’s command (Qur’ an 18: 50) ‘’Jinn’’ is explained to mean ‘’a pre – Islamic word for an unseen being which can speak to people and even make them irrational (hence the Arabic word for madness is Majnoon, literally ‘’acted upon by jinn’’). Satan /Iblis is then the irrational urge which arose out of the prophet’s human weakness and his desperation to compromise with the Meccans, and drove him to insert the “Satanic verses” into the revelation. (Zeeshan. htm.) Critical Appraisals of Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses as a Postmodernist novel Major parallel stories that alternate dream and reality sequences exist within the book, The Satanic Verses. The stories are tied together by the recurring names of the characters in each, thereby proving intertexts within each novel with comment on the other stories. The book also exhibits Rushdie’s common practice of using allusions so as to involve connotative links. The satiric nature of the work, in the spirit of postmodern novel, exhibits Rushdie’s zealousness in organizing his work in terms of parallel stories. 40 The Satanic Verses is equally seen as a fundamental study of alienation by Rushdie. In the words of Muhammad Mashuq ibn Ally, “The Satanic Verses is about identity, alienation, rootless ness, brutality, compromise, and conformity. These concepts confront all migrants, disillusioned with both cultures; the one they are in and the one they join. Yet knowing they cannot live a life of anonymity, they mediate between them both. The Satanic Verses is a reflection of the author’s dilemmas. “(Wikipedia). On the religious/anthropological ground, Rushdie seems to centrally show an interest in exploring how migration heightens one’s awareness that perceptions of reality are relative and fragile, and of the nature of religious faith and revelation, not to mention the political manipulation of religion. Rushdie’s own assumptions about the importance of literature, which parallel in some sense the literal value accorded the written word in Islamic tradition. There is however the view that Rushdie seems to have assumed that diverse communities and cultures share some degree of common moral ground on the basis of which dialogue can be pieced together, and it is perhaps for this reason that he underestimated the implacable nature of the hostility evoked by The Satanic Verses even though a major theme of that novel is the dangerous nature of closed, absolutist belief systems. Islam is noted for its strong opposition to idolatry, polytheism or associating anything or anyone with God. It is noteworthy that Islam’s creed in Arabic begins with a negative: Not is there a god except God. This shows a sharp contrast with the contention of Muhammad’s Arab contemporaries that God has associates. Some of these associates are even mentioned in the Qur-‘an .Among them are three female deities: al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat. The Qur’an, in its 41 present form rejects these deities. The problem is such that even though the present day Qur’an has rejected these female deities, did the original Qur’an and Muhammad always reject them? Muhammad’s alienation to his tribal men while he sojourned in Mecca led him to seek for better relations and reconciliation with his community. What followed this was God’s revelation to Muhammad in Surah 53 verses 19, 20 which read as follows: Have you thought upon al-Lat and al –Uzza? And Manat, the third, the other? (53:19, 20) The verses known today as the satanic verses, originally then, follows as below: These are the exalted cranes (intermediaries) Whose intercession is to be hoped for? The cranes referred to above, whose intercession is to be hoped for, are interpreted to be the three deities (i.e. al – Lat, al – Uzza and Manat) whose separate shrines are near Mecca in Arabia, where Muhammad was born and began his mission. They were even considered to be daughters of God. The accounts of competent Muslim scholars like al-Tabari and Ibn sa’d state that after the ‘Satanic Verses’ revelation made above, Muhammad, his followers and the pagan Arabs all prostrated and thereafter eased off tensions, while the culminating reconciliation brought joy and delight to them. Surprisingly, Muhammad soon retracted the reconciliation (although the length of time is not stated). The accounts of scholars goes on to state that Jibril (Gabriel), the angel of revelation, informed Muhammad that Satan had used his (Muhammad’s) desire for reconciliation with the pagan leaders to insert into a revelation of God verses about the interceding cranes, otherwise called “the 42 satanic verses”. The verses below, which are not satanic verses, serve as the proper sequence to 53:19, 20 (above): Are yours the males and His the females? That indeed was an unfair division (53:21, 22) This can be interpreted as follows: “When you Arabs have sons (whom you prefer to daughters!), how unfair of you to say that God has daughters! The idea of a plurality of goddesses or sons or daughters of God is ridiculous. God alone is God. The three goddesses are false. Two other passages stated from the Qur’an are considered to have made reference to the compromise, between Muhammad and the Arabs, and Muhammad’s eventual rejection of it. The first states: And they indeed strove to beguile thee (Muhammad) Away from that wherewith we (God) have inspired thee, That thou shouldest invent other than it against us; and Then would they have accepted thee as a friend. And if we had not made the wholly firm thou mightest Almost have inclined unto them a little. Then had we Made thee taste a double (Punishment) of living and a double (Punishment) of dying, then hadst thou found no helper against us. (17:73-75) The second passage is intended to comfort Muhammad: Never sent we a messenger or a Prophet Before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allah abolishes that which Satan proposedth. Then Allah establisheth His revelations. Allah is knower, Wise; That He may make that which the devil proposeth 43 A temptation for those in whose hearts is a disease, And those whose hearts are hardened – Lo! The evil doers are in open schism (22:52, 53) On the basis of these verses especially, the contemporary designation “The Satanic Verses” arises. Conclusion One striking fact surrounding the success of Salmon Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses is the hidden agenda of the constructions of British pluralism - who it includes and who it rejects, the political context of the book notwithstanding. Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses has generated high controversy among the Muslim countries due to its deconstruction of the grand narratives of religious truth of Islam. The Supreme Leader of Iran and a Shi’a Muslim scholar, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling on all good Muslims to kill Rushdie and his publishers, or to point him out to those who can kill him if they cannot themselves. Rushdie was however placed under the police protection by the British governments. Despite a conciliatory statement by Iran in 1998 and Rushdie’s declaration that he would stop living in hiding, the Iranian state news agency reported in 2006 that the fatwa will remain in place permanently since fatwa can only be rescinded by the person who first issued them and Ayatollah Khomeini is dead. Rushdie has not been physically harmed as of early 2008, but others connected with the book have suffered violent attacks. They include the Japanese language translator of the book, Hitoshi Igarashi who was stabbed to death on July 11, 1991;Ettore Capriolo, the Italian language translator, who was seriously injured in a stabbing the 44 same month, and William Nygaard, the publisher in Norway, who barely survived an attempted assassination in Oslo in October 1993. As the whole world watch closely with keen interest the unfolding of events in the controversies surrounding The Satanic Verses, it is really hoped that the concept of Satanism will not possibly overshadow and swallow Rushdie and his contemporaries. Scholars of postmodernism have generally observed that lots of questions deserve to be asked about postmodernism. The politics behind postmodernism and the proper definition of the term are parts of problems associated with postmodernism. In the words of How, "for postmodernists the world is a contingent place for which there is no general explanation. It is made up of a multiplicity of free - floating signs of which the sign of the 'subject' is but one and one that is no more real than any other." (149) Although the term "Postmodernism" is continually undergoing interpretation and redefinition, one constant thing that emerges from the critical discourses surrounding it is a sense that postmodernism involves a radical re-thinking of representational strategies, and with this, a question of our underlying assumptions about how "meanings” are produced. Postmodern narratives are therefore frequently experimental, employing such techniques as fragmentation, intertextuality, and appropriation to fundamentally alter the way language represents the "meaning'" of texts. Other postmodern narratives are preoccupied with the intersection of the "past" and contemporaneity, continually asking what's at stake when representations of previous cultural history are put to work in various ways as a comment on the present. Also associated with postmodernism are recent developments in philosophy and critical theory which have thoroughly dismantled the idea of a cohesive 45 subject, leaving open the question of the very location of meaning, along with the possibility of its existence. (`clas, Virginia, edu. cfrur/crap. html). Bibliography Appignanesi, Richard and Garrat, Chris. Introducing Postmodernism. New York: Totem Books, 1995. Bishop, Ryan. Postmodernism. In Davidlevinson and Melvin Ember 46 (Ed), Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1966. Carpenter, Andrew N. “Western Philosophy." Microsoft (R) Encarta (R) 2006 [CD], Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005. D'Andrade, Roy. Moral Models in Anthropology. In Current Anthropology v.36 (3), 1995. Erickson, John D. Islam and Postcolonial Narrative. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press, 1998. How, Alan. Critical Theory. Houndmills: Macmillan, 2003. Ilumina Gold (Bible and Encyclopedia Software) Tyndale House Publishers, @ www. tyndele.com © 2003. Klages, Mary. Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed. Continuum Press, January 2007, Amazon. com/o ASIN. Latour,Bruno. The Pasteurization of France. Cambridge:Harvard, 1988. Melcher T, Norman. The Great Conversation. Volume II: Descartes through Derrida and Quine (Fourth Edition) Boston: McGraw Hill, 2002. Norris, Christopher. What's Wrong with Postmodernism? England: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990. 47 Oji, Geoffrey (Revd). Postmodernism: Seeing Through Cultures. Awka: Doone Publishers (?). Pipes, Daniel. The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatolla, and the West. Transaction Publishers, 2003. Rushdie, Salmon. The Satanic Verses, a novel. United Kingdom: Viking Press, 1988. Sarup, Madan. An Introduction Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism. Atlanta: University of Georgia Press, 1993. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. The Primacy of the Ethical. In Current Anthropology. V 36 (3), 1995. Weiss, Shanon and Wesley, Karla. Postmodernlsm and Its Critics. mdmurphy @ tendhoor. as ua.edu. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. http.//wikipedia foundation. Org/wiki (Fund raising)? Source=enwiki – 04. Zeeshan Hasan. The Daily New Age. Bangladesh, November 2, 2003 issue. The Author Dr. Mbanefo S. Ogene graduated from Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma with B.A. English. He had his M.A. and Ph.D. from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, where he is currently a lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature. He rose to the rank 48 of a Senior Editor in Anambra Broadcasting Service, Awka where he served respectively as a Journalist and Public Relations Officer before transferring to the University. His areas of interest are: African Literature, Literary Appreciation, Creative Writing and Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism. He is a Member of the Literary Society of Nigeria and Pelman Institute, London and specializes in poetry composition. Postmodernism / Literature & Ideas. 49