November, 14^th 2011

Postmodernism and Modernism are two different cultural movements. The first one develops the first three decades of the 19th Century, the second one is also our contemporary period.

Focusing the attention on the art, Postmodernism takes together both high and low art in what it calls artistic production. Post modern art is essentially conceptual and abstract; this means that the reader is called to give himself a meaning. With Postmodernism the reader's position becomes a privileged one , that is to say that he has to make sense to what he reads, sees and listen too. This kind of art asks a lot to the reader that has to make efforts: that's why very often you can listen people saying "I don't like this kind of art". All this also implies putting into doubt the concept of truth of a definite thought being the right one. Postmodernist thought puts on discussion the idea of authority and his dogma is that there is no truth. But if stable truth does not exist, the only certainty is transformation, which means that every experience undergoes another interpretation.

There is no stable meaning, so words themselves could have different meanings according to what, where and when the reader is.

Postmodernism leaves the human being without certainties.

EXTRACT TAKEN FROM NICE WORK BY DAVID LODGE

The novel by D.Lodge is a postmodernist one and it was published in 1992. The writer is one of the most important experts of this cultural movement and he is a free lance writer.

The novel develops around two main characters: Robyn ,the woman and Vic (short name for Victory) the man who is a manager of a big company.

All the extract is about the characterisation of the female character.

Right from the start the writer puts Robyn in opposition to Vic and the first piece of information he provides regards her way of thinking.

Her name recalls Robyn Hood, who robs rich people to help the pours, and her surname reminds the pen and the rose, which is a really feminine flower.

She does not believe in the concept of character because it is the result of a Capitalistic view of the World.