POSTMODERNISM
Text
AGENDA:
OBJECTIVE:
•
•
to understand some
of the elements and
characteristics of
Post Modernism
to evaluate how the
use of POMO
techniques impacts
the reader's
experience of this
text and how they
impact the overall
effectiveness of the
text
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Review and pre-quiz (15)
check papers/organization (10)
Choose clock partners (5)
Read letters (clock partner)(5)
Lecture Part 1 (15)
Review with clock partner (5)
Lecture Part 2 (15)
Discuss with clock partner (5)
Exit Card (5)
POST MODERNISM
(AND, NO WE’RE
NOT WATCHING
PULP FICTION.
BUT I CAN BRING
IN RAIDERS OF
THE LOST ARKS IF
YOU WANT.
A work by Banksy – a contemporary Post
Modern artist
POWERPOINT
SLIDESHOW
THE TITLE GOES HERE
TITLE
Teacher
• Bullet Points
• Bullet Points
• Question
• What is selfreference?
• Watch the film clip.
• Look for examples
of
• Irony
• Appropriation
• Self-Reference
Can I teach PostModernism using a
Microsoft Product? Is
that even allowed?
“DOUBLE RAINBOW! OH MY GOD!”
- THAT DOUBLE RAINBOW GUY
Guy posts
hilarious video
of himself
tripping out
over a double
rainbow. It goes
viral.
Somebody
takes the video
and turns it into
a song. That
video goes viral
It inspires dozens
of copies and
variations,
including, but not
limited to - The
Dominoes Double
Rainbow
In Los Angeles
recently, an
actual double
rainbow appears
in the sky
People in the area
begin tweeting about it
– many referring to the
“double rainbow guy”
• Characteristics of Post
Modern Literature:
WHAT IS POST
MODERNISM?
According to The Electronic
Labyrinth Post Modern
literature involves, “the
dissolution of distinctions, the
merging of subject and
object, self and other. This is a
sarcastic playful parody of
western modernity and the
"John Wayne" individual and
a radical, anarchist rejection
of all attempts to define, reify
or re-present the human
subject.
• Self-reference
• Irony
• Black Humor
• Disruption of archetypal
narrative
• Some influential
POMO Authors:
1. Jorge Luis Borges
2. Thomas Pynchon
3. Kurt Vonnegut
4. Tim O’Brien
FROM MUMBO
JUMBO
BY ISHMAEL
REED
MEET WITH CLOCK PARTNER
TO REVIEW
HOW IS TTTC A POMO TEXT? -
“It inverts, subverts, the archetypal
war narrative…” (Pierce)
WITH THANKS TO PROFESSOR PIERCE FOR THE INFORMATION AND
ANALYSIS REGARDING TERROR VS. WAR NARRATIVES…..
FIRST, WE’LL LOOK AT ANOTHER
GENRE TO COMPARE
• The Terror narrative
• Narrative: a story.
• Archetype: original: something
that serves as a model or a basis
for making copies (Wordnet).
• Subvert: to turn upside down or
change.
TERROR NARRATIVE: SOMETHING
UNCIVILIZED, BEASTLY, ENTERS OUR WORLD. THE
PROTAGONIST MUST FIGHT IT AND PREVAIL.
Uncivilized World
• Antagonist:
Civilized World
• Protagonist:
ARCHETYPAL WAR NARRATIVE –
“THE WAR STORY IS IN FACT, THE INVERSION OF THE
TERROR NARRATIVE” (PIERCE)
Uncivilized World
• Wartime:
• Enters a world of chaos,
violence and uncertainty.
Civilized World
• Soldier:
• Leaves world of
normalcy and
order
• As a result, he is
transformed,
although usually
this change imparts
him with a sense of
nobility and
solidified manhood.
Typical War Narratives
The Odyssey
Saving Private Ryan
Apocalypse Now
All Quiet on the Western Front
M.SOCRATIVE.COM
• Room Number:
16805
The Things They Carried is
a postmodern text
because it inverts the
terror narrative.
True or False?
In a war narrative, there
is an array of typical
motifs
1. the noble example
2. the test of courage
3. the battle as initiation
4. the collective
adventure of the
platoon
5. the disjunctive return
to the civilian world.
HOW DOES O'BRIEN INVERT THESE MOTIFS USING SOME OF
THESE TECHNIQUES? HOW DOES HE MAKE THE TEXT
POSTMODERN?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Post-modern techniques
Typical features of War
• Temporal disorder, disrupting the chronology of the novel, retelling
Novels
the noble example
the past and providing deep details from different perspectives;
the test of courage
• Pastiche, which arises from the feeling that everything has been
the battle as initiation done before, so writers can do nothing but paraphrase;
the collective adventure• Fragmentation, suggesting that the wholeness and completion
associated with traditional stories is not preferred anymore;
of the platoon
Looseness of association, carrying the meaning of ‘no logic’. The text
the disjunctive return to •is usually
put together in a loose order;
the civilian world
• Schizophrenia, due to which a character’s mind is split into several
pieces or segments;
• Vicious circles, appearing in fiction when both the text and the outer
world blend, so that we cannot separate one from the other;
MEET WITH CLOCK PARTNER
TO REVIEW
SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON
Archetypal or Typical War
Narrative
1.
2.
3.
4.
the noble example
the test of courage
the battle as initiation
the collective
adventure of the
platoon
5. the disjunctive return
to the civilian world
The Postmodern Version
M.SOCRATIVE.COM
• Room Number:
16805
Which of these is NOT an example
of a postmodern technique as
present in The Things They Carried?
a. Tim O’Brien goes to war and is
changed by it.
b. Tim O’Brien is a character in his
own fictional work
c. O’Brien includes elements
usually found in non-fiction,
such as a letter from a fictional
character
d. The author addresses the
reader directly. .
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
• O’Brien blurs the line
between truth and fiction
purposefully.
• He leaves the
reader to question,
reflect and wonder
about what she has
read.
“In war you lose your
sense of the definite,
hence your sense of
truth itself, and
therefore it’s safe to
say that in a true war
story nothing is ever
absolutely true.”
Tim O’Brien, The Things
They Carried (p 88)
"Good movies -- and good
novels, too -- do not depend
upon 'accurate portrayals.'
Accuracy is irrelevant. Is the
Mona Lisa an 'accurate'
representation of the actual
human model for the painting?
Who knows? Who cares? It's a
great piece of art. It moves us.
It makes us wonder, makes us
gape; finally, it makes us look
inward at ourselves." (Texas
Monthly, Nov. 2002. Qtd. )
M.SOCRATIVE.COM
• Room Number:
16805
Take the quiz. Try to get your
group’s ship across the screen first!
Exit Card:
1. What are some of the
post-modern
elements present in
this work by Banksy?
2. How is O’Brien using
post-modernism in
our text?