Postmodernism in literature is a form of literature which is marked, both stylistically and ideologically, by a reliance on such literary conventions as fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators, often unrealistic and downright impossible plots, games, parody, paranoia, dark humor and authorial self-reference.
Postmodern authors tend to reject outright meanings in their novels, stories and poems, and, instead, highlight and celebrate the possibility of multiple meanings, or a complete lack of meaning, within a single literary work.
Table of Contents
Characteristics of Postmodern Literature
These are some of the most important characteristics of postmodern literature
- Pastiche: The taking of various ideas from previous writings and literary styles and pasting them together to make new styles.
- Intertextuality: The acknowledgment of previous literary works within another literary work.
- Metafiction: The act of writing about writing or making readers aware of the fictional nature of the very fiction they’re reading.
- Temporal Distortion: The use of non-linear timelines and narrative techniques in a story.
- Minimalism: The use of characters and events which are decidedly common and non-exceptional characters.
- Maximalism: Disorganized, lengthy, highly detailed writing.
- Magical Realism: The introduction of impossible or unrealistic events into a narrative that is otherwise realistic.
- Faction: The mixing of actual historical events with fictional events without clearly defining what is factual and what is fictional.
- Reader Involvement: Often through direct address to the reader and the open acknowledgment of the fictional nature of the events being described
Postmodern Authors
These are some of the most important postmodern authors
Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author, screenwriter, and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 languages.
He was at first regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney.
He is a self-proclaimed satirist, whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style.
Ellis employs a technique of linking novels with common, recurring characters. He wrote American Psycho
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French.
He is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century. He is the author of Waiting for Godot
Other Literary periods and Movements
If you want to learn more about literary periods and movements, consider visiting some of these posts:
- A Guide to Renaissance Literature
- A Guide to Postmodernism in Literature
- A Guide to Modernism in Literature
- A Guide to the Beat Generation in Literature
- The Beginner’s Guide to Realism in Literature
- A Guide to Naturalism in Literature
- A Guide to the Bloomsbury Group in Literature
- A Guide to Existentialism in Literature
- A Guide to Transcendentalism in Literature
- A Guide to the Victorian Period Literature
- A Guide to Romanticism in Literature
- A Guide to The Enlightenment Literature
- A guide to Medieval Literature
