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GPellis (Feb)-5A - Postmodernism - Notes
by GPellis - (2011-11-16)
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Post-modernism:  NOVEL

Post-modernism developed during the Sixties  and its main trends are:

It doesn't believe in the concept of truth

It puts the question of authority into doubt

It does no longer believe in the concept of center as it generally happened with previous generations

If  Modernism (which covers the first three decades of the 20th century) is still looking for a center, for a point of reference and it puts the research in art at the center, Post-modernism questions all that and there is no absolute truth, also implies that there is not meaning. There is no longer only one center but more and more centers and therefore meaning is always differed. For this reason there is a continuos slipping of meaning because the same meaning is never stable.

The concept is connected to the relationship between:

  • 1) Signifier
  • 2) Signified ( to signify )

[The position of the reader is the previous one (the one of Modernism) because it's the reader who makes sens to the story: as a matter of fact the reader gives one of the possible meanings and interpretations after reading the story.]

- Some examples of Post modernism books

A perfect example of a Post-modernism book is: Jeanette Winterson's "Oranges are not the Only Fruit"which realized a restructuring of the Bible's structure in a new context and there is a lot of intertextuality.

Another examples is: David Lodge's "Nice Work" ("Ottimo Lavoro") which tells about two protagonist:

- a woman, whose name is Robyn Penrose (a male name which recalls the famous "Robin Hood")

-a man, Vic Wilcox (the nickname of "Vic" seems to be Victoria's diminutive)