What are the characteristics of Postmodernism?

[Mojtaba-Iraqi]

I've been reading some articles about postmodern poetry. Is it really as a critic described it, that one write down random words to come up with an idea and to produce a poem.
I could not catch a clear idea about postmodernism and its difference with modernism. What are the most important characteristics of this movement? (language, figures of speech, philosophy, psychology and etc.) I would be grateful if someone clarify.

[Gareth Heard]

Some of the characteristics or devices that I have come across being associated with the term postmodernism are:

Works of fiction (or art) that draw attention to the fact that they are fiction (or art), otherwise known as meta-fictions.

A refusal to acknowledge categorisation of culture as high or low.

Experimentation with form

Unreliable narators

Techniques that utilise chance e.g. William Burroughs cut-up approach which is similar to the technique you described.

Much of this is contentious, as is the term post-modernism itself and, as you have pointed out, there is difficulty in making a genuine distinction between post-modernism and modernism as both movements have common characteristics.

In my personal opinion unless it is necessary for you to have understanding of literary periods such as these two (for academic work or some other reason) there is little of value to be gained from one; more important are the characteristics shared by works of literature from all periods. Truly great literature deals with those elements of human activity and the emotions that they involve that have gone reletavily unchanged in however many thousands of years using an approach that is almost as old.

Hopefully this has been of some help to you and if not I apologise.

And remember: there is always Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism

[Mojtaba-Iraqi]

Indeed this has been of some help to me. Thank you.
In fact, it is not about having homework. To be more precise, I want to know why I cannot come up with a clear idea after I read a postmodern poem, despite using different dictionaries. Is it my problem for being a non-native, or there are certain factors, which block my mind to reach a conclusion? Is there something first to be learned, and then attempt reading the poetry of this period? Should I learn the general characteristics of the poetry of this period?
As you suggested, during the recent years, I've been studying all the periods of English literature, but I faced a real difficulty in comprehending the essence of this period, and its poetry in particular.

[Anton Hermes]

I agree with what Gareth said. There's a lot of overlap between modernism and postmodernism; it's best to think of the postmodernists as dealing with the innovations of modernism, not rebelling against them.

The postmodernists generally employ a decentered, destabilized approach to characters and continuity; they use bricolage, or the appropriation of material from disparate sources; there's an emphasis on psychology and subjectivity instead of event and development. To reiterate what Gareth said, there's a broad range of approaches and techniques in postmodern literature, so this is just a general description. I'll give you a few examples of postmodern writing I've enjoyed immensely:

Robert Coover's Gerald's Party is ostensibly the story of a wild party at a suburban house. But as things get out of hand, there's a lot of examination of the concepts of theater, event, and reality.

Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth deconstructs the classical hero-myth by putting its protagonist in a modern academic setting to perform his tasks, including slaying a diabolical computer.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is a vast narrative experiment that describes a not-so-distant future where alienation and anomie are the norm, and fun is usually deadly. The students at a tennis academy are all motivation and no meaning, while next door the residents of a halfway house are too little of either. Oh, and there's also terrorists in wheelchairs.

Remainder by Tom McCarthy is the story of a brain-damaged man who strives to recreate events and settings from his past, then recreate the recreations, and so forth. The simulacra pile up fast, and we're left wondering whether anything is genuine.

[Gareth Heard]

If English is not your first language then post-modernism, a movement more fond of excessively long and confusing terminology than any other, will easily present you with problems.

Are there any poems or poets in particular that you are having difficulty with?

I'm not promising to have all or any of the answers but if we can move from discussing post-modernism itself to poems or poets considered post-modern it may make things easier.

[Mojtaba-Iraqi]

Thank you Anton for the explanation. These works are worth reading.

Gareth, as a matter of fact, I suffer from all the postmodern literary works in general, and poetry in particular. When I come to read a contemporary poem, it really questions the validity of my mental literature archive, and it is so critical to me! What should I do to have a better understanding of such poems? I may give you one example here.

A Grief Ago by Dylan Thomas

A grief ago,
She who was who I hold, the fats and the flower,
Or, water-lammed, from the scythe-sided thorn,
Hell wind and sea,
A stem cementing, wrestled up the tower,
Rose maid and male,
Or, master venus, through the paddler's bowl
Sailed up the sun;

Who is my grief,
A chrysalis unwrinkling on the iron,
Wrenched by my fingerman, the leaden bud
Shot through the leaf,
Was who was folded on the rod the aaron
Road east to plague,
The horn and ball of water on the frog
Housed in the side.

And she who lies,
Like exodus a chapter from the garden,
Brand of the lily's anger on her ring,
Tugged through the days
Her ropes of heritage, the wars of pardon,
On field and sand
The twelve triangles of the cherub wind
Engraving going.

Who then is she,
She holding me? The people's sea drives on her,
Drives out the father from the caesared camp;
The dens of shape
Shape all her whelps with the long voice of water,
That she I have,
The country-handed grave boxed into love,
Rise before dark.

The night is near,
A nitric shape that leaps her, time and acid;
I tell her this: before the suncock cast
Her bone to fire,
Let her inhale her dead, through seed and solid
Draw in their seas,
So cross her hand with their grave gipsy eyes,
And close her fist.


I would really be thankful if you or anyone else give me a hand in this regard.