TERMS USED IN POST-MODERNISM

Postmodernism is a complex and sometimes slippery movement, and these terms are central to understanding it.

Simple Definition: The breaking of a whole into disconnected parts. In postmodernism, this refers to narratives, identities, and social structures that are no longer unified or coherent. The idea of a single, stable truth is replaced by a multitude of truths and realities.
Example: A novel with a non-linear plot, jumping back and forth in time and from one character's perspective to another, without providing a clear, cohesive narrative arc. An excellent example is Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), where the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, "comes unstuck in time" and experiences events from his life in a random, fragmented order.
Who Coined/Used: The concept of fragmentation in a literary context is deeply tied to both Modernism and Postmodernism. While modernist writers like T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land) used it to express the despair of a world that had lost its meaning, postmodernists embraced it as a reflection of a chaotic world where no single meaning ever existed. The critic Raymond Federman discusses fragmentation in his 1975 introduction to the anthology Surfiction: Fiction Now and Tomorrow, noting that writers introduce unrelated material into the story. A character in Donald Barthelme's 1968 short story "See the Moon?" famously states, "Fragments are the only forms I trust."

Simple Definition: A statement or situation that seems contradictory or absurd but may be true. In postmodernism, it highlights the inherent contradictions in modern life and challenges the idea that rational thought can resolve them. It often shows how seemingly opposing ideas can coexist.
Example: Jorge Luis Borges' short story collection, The Garden of Forking Paths (1941). The title story is a complex narrative that plays with the concepts of time and choice, suggesting that all possible outcomes of a decision exist simultaneously, creating a paradoxical and infinite labyrinth of time.
Who Coined/Used: While paradox is a very old literary device, its use as a core principle in Postmodernism is often associated with writers like Jorge Luis Borges and John Hawkes. The term "postmodern" itself was popularized by philosopher Jean-François Lyotard in his 1979 work, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, which argues that the postmodern era is characterized by a "distrust of grand narratives" and an embrace of paradox and multiple truths.

Simple Definition: The conflict between humanity's search for meaning and the universe's lack of any discernible meaning. In postmodern art and literature, it often manifests as nonsensical situations and illogical events that mirror the perceived meaninglessness of existence.
Example: The plays of the "Theatre of the Absurd." Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1953) is a prime example, where two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly for a character who never arrives. Their dialogue and actions are often nonsensical, highlighting the futility and lack of purpose in their lives.
Who Coined/Used: The term "Theatre of the Absurd" was coined by the critic Martin Esslin in his 1961 book of the same name. The philosophical roots, however, are found in the work of Albert Camus, who explored the concept of "the absurd" in his 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus, defining it as the "divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting."

Simple Definition: An imitation of a previous style, but unlike parody, it is a neutral and often celebratory imitation, devoid of a satirical or critical motive. It blends multiple styles, genres, or cultural references into a new work.
Example: Postmodern architecture that blends elements from different historical periods (e.g., classical columns on a modern skyscraper). In literature, E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime (1975) is a novel that mixes fictional characters with real-life historical figures and events from the early 20th century, all written in a style that mimics the historical period.
Who Coined/Used: The term was prominently defined by critic Fredric Jameson in his influential 1991 book, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. He described pastiche as "blank parody," suggesting that it reflects a loss of a shared sense of history and the inability to create new, original styles.

Simple Definition: A style characterized by a deliberate sparseness and lack of detail, focusing on the essentials. In literature, it uses simple, unadorned language and short sentences, often leaving the reader to infer meaning from what is unsaid.
Example: The short stories of Raymond Carver, particularly those in his collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981). His prose is stripped-down, and the narratives focus on small, seemingly mundane moments of working-class life, yet they convey deep emotional weight. Another example is Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006), which uses very little punctuation and description.
Who Coined/Used: The term was first applied to visual art in the 1960s. In literature, it is a key feature of a movement that gained prominence in the 1970s and 80s, with writers like Raymond Carver and Amy Hempel becoming synonymous with the style.

Simple Definition: A style of excess and abundance, the direct opposite of minimalism. It embraces complexity, digression, and an accumulation of details, often in a rich, layered, and elaborate style.
Example: David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996) is a classic maximalist novel. It is over 1,000 pages long, features hundreds of characters, and includes extensive footnotes and digressions that are essential to the narrative.
Who Coined/Used: The term is sometimes associated with postmodern novels by writers like Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo. The critic Stefano Ercolino has been instrumental in defining literary maximalism, proposing it as a subgenre in his work and listing characteristics that define it.

Simple Definition: The relationship between texts, where one text references, alludes to, or is in conversation with another. It breaks down the idea of a single, original work, suggesting that all works are woven from the fabric of previous texts and cultural narratives.
Example: James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) is a canonical example, as it meticulously parallels the structure and characters of Homer's ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey.
Who Coined/Used: The term "intertextuality" was coined by Bulgarian-French philosopher Julia Kristeva in the 1960s, drawing on the work of Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. In her essay "Word, Dialogue and Novel" (1966), Kristeva defined it as a way to "synthesize Ferdinand de Saussure's semiotics with Bakhtin's theory of dialogism."

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