.
Good morning everyone, let me welcome you
to yet another session of the NPTEL course
entitled postmodernism in literature.
In the first session we have taken a look
at how difficult the category of postmodern
is it ranges from perhaps an inverted urinal
present as an art form by Marcel Duchamp,
to some of the novels of Kurt Vonnegut and
a related on works which entirely challenge
the idea of narration the idea of author and
the very conception of novel and text itself.
So, where these ambiguities be continued to
discuss the idea of post modernism and at
the outset of this lecture it is very important
to state that there are absolutely no definite
definition for this term.
Now this term postmodernism this defies definitions
and rest is all kinds of categorization and
classifications.
And never the less it is very important for
us to address this question what postmodernism
is for the purpose of this course?
Whether postmodernism is a continuation and
development of modernist ideas or is it a
radical break with classical modernism is
the question that continues to be asked in
debate.
There are also set of other researchers and
critics who are also of the opinion that postmodernism
is perhaps the only term which could be used
to talk about the story of what we are living
at present.
Whether this is a theoretical formulation
in the absence as a radical break or a continuation
from the postmodernism idea from the modernist
ideas or is it just about the story of the
present is something that we would continue
to figure as and when this course progress
.
And again talking about the various forms
of manifestations of postmodernism and what
it entails to be postmodernist whether that
whether this is a deplorable commodification
of all culture; the loss of tradition and
value or .
Whether this is on the other hand a release
from the hidebound orthodoxies of high culture
and a welcome dispersal of creativity which
includes all all social groups which defines
all kinds of marginality which ah entirely
questions the the idea of the center and includes
and and celebrates inclusion and these are
also certain things that we would perhaps
continue to figure out.
And at the same time this is there is also
this confusion about post modernism is something
entirely negative, something entirely deplorable
or does it also entail ah certain celebratory
aspects which would also characterize a many
things about the ah the contemporary ways
of living.
And as and when we continue to situate this
movement this ah this idea to and this trajectory
of the contemporary known as postmodernism
it is important for us to answer this question
right at the outset when did postmodernism
begin .
There are no particular dates that we can
ah it give that is no particular decade, there
is no definite starting point for this movement
known as postmodernism.
But; however, as we have mentioned right in
the beginning of this course perhaps post
war developments in general the post world
war developments in general particularly in
advanced media societies and capitalist economies
could be characterized as the starting point
of postmodernism.
When we talk about post war we particularly
have in mind the ah the range of events the
range of unfortunate events that followed
the second world war ah we ah may particularly
refer to the existential dilution created
by the very unfortunate events later to holocaust
and the and then a number of terrorist and
related ah activities which are followed ah
or the many unfortunate events which ah dominated
the twentieth century could be considered
as part of this post war development and the
post war ah existential angst.
And to answer the question whether this period
has already ended we may also need to defer
to some of the recent works such as ah ah
what was postmodernism ah by Brian Mchale
where he argues that the postmodern period
has already ended.
So, whether this period began which began
in the post war ah decade in the 1950s and
1960s whether this is already ended by the
1990s continues to be a matter of debate and
contest . And there are also number of theorists
who ask this question whether we are now living
in the post modern age or not.
If the contemporary is not post modern then
is it post post modern there are these multiple
questions that one also needs to negotiate
as and when we talk about post modernism in
various facets of ah in different disciplines
in diverse fields of study.
And also there are certain ah philosophers
such as Habermas who hold the opinion that
the project of modernity has not been fulfilled
yet.
So, he thinks that we are we we have too soon
relinquish the elements of modernity and has
entered ah post modernity the phase of post
modernism too soon before even completing
the original project of modernity.
So, there are these questions are also embedded
within this various philosophical concerns
whether ah within these various um articulations
about the doubts regarding the very existence
of postmodernism and the very character of
postmodernism.
And finally, to answer this question whether
postmodernism is limited to a particular historical
period.
And to answer this we may also have to take
a look at some of the precursors some of the
ah texts and authors and sites which have
been identified as precursors to this moment
to this postmodern moment ah.
For example, there is this 18th century text
authored by Lauren Sterne which has also been
widely celebrate as the first post modern
ah novel in English.
And this text Tristram Shandy it has got a
number of post modern elements built into
it including the ideas of meta fiction and
about non-linear ah the celebration of non-linear
narration etcetera.
And we also have ah the ah philosopher Nietzsche
Fredrick Nietzsche who had celebrated the
death of ah God and also leading to ah many
articulations about the death of the author
at a later point.
And we know that these these texts have been
identified as already post modern though they
do not historically and chronologically belong
to the 20th century belong to the post modern
period.
So, having said that ah it is important to
identify certain historical and cultural markers
to situate this ambiguous period to in order
to be able to identify certain ways in which
the period could be ah could be contained
within a particular scope within a particular
historical conventions and paradigms.
So, the first one as we have already spoken
about it is a post war ah phenomenon and it
is also post modernism post in the sense after
modernism . This was also the period when
the cold war culture was dominating and we
all know that it ah it comes to an end only
towards the it only by the 1990s; this was
also the period of neoliberalism and the post
1960s were also written with by a number of
complexities regarding conflicts, regarding
nationalist movements, regarding the rise
and fall of dictatorships, the various forms
of nationalism the various forms of political
articulations etcetera.
And this was also the period of civil rights
movements emerging in different parts of the
world.
And we also know that this twentieth century
particularly to a from the 1970s onwards we
witness an increasing dominance of the age
of computers, age of cyber punk and ah also
it was the age of late capitalist culture
as one particular ah theorist Jameson has
very succinctly put it that post modernism
is the cultural logic of late capitalism.
And this was also very; obviously, the era
of a globalization and we also have witnessed
that in spite of this over reigning influence
of technology digitization and all kinds of
scientific progress and growth, we have also
witnessed a number of unpredictable incidences
of terrorism as well.
So, the historical cultural markers of post
modernism also indicates that this is a plethora
of events, this is not just about a number
of new things happening; it is also about
a number of unfortunate and a number of unprecedented
things happening within ah history society
culture literature art and almost everything
that concerns modern life.
And ah accordingly when we continue to situate
this term and we need to give a lot of emphasis
to this ah the this term post which also means
after and since the term since the term post
modernism also laterally means after modernism
we cannot really ignore the kind of influence
that modernism has perhaps had on the figurations
and on the trajectory and on the trajectories
leading to the post modern moment .
So, as we have ah note multiple times by now;
this is perhaps a shift from modernity and
perhaps this also a way in which the post
modern phase contest the the number of privileges
attributed by modernity to the general and
the universal in matters of truth, beauty
and goodness.
So, these three aspects were seen as very
general universal ah features in the previous
decades.
But now we know that these are all contested
matters these are all matters which cannot
be narrowed down to a single definition on
within or even within a single ah framework
.
So, we continue to situate the realms of ah
the post in post modernism and also its useful
to remember that Antony Appiah has also written
a 1991 essay entitled the is the post in post
colonial the same as the post in post modernism.
So, there are number of debates discussions
about the idea of the post, about the idea
of ah the that the meaning of the post in
post modernism.
And the paradoxical fact also remains that
since this is after modernism, since post
modernism is technically after modernism;
it also tries to identify itself by something
it is not.
So, there was an inherent paradox even in
the ah in in the nomenclature post modernism
and ah drawing certain ah excerpts from this
very influential and helpful book graphic
guide which also is a beginners guide to post
modernism.
And this also talks about the various aspects
of post modernism through a number of graphic
representations, it gives a genealogy of the
post modern period beginning from the late
romantic and the early modernist period onwards.
And ah drawing from some of the tenets expressed
in post modernism a graphic guide they ah
they they ask this a question about whether
the post in post modernism means a result
of modernism or is it the aftermath of modernism
or is it the after birth or developments after
or is it a complete denial or a rejection
of modernism.
And in fact, the meaning of the term post
modernism is also situated within this confusion
and this transition from modernism to post
modernism.
Many way we can also say that the idea of
post modernism also resists and obscures the
sense of modernism.
And also to sum up in terms of the various
sorts of definitions which has been circulating
and the commentaries which are available we
can also say that the term post modernism
implies a complete knowledge of the modern
which has been surpassed by a new age.
So, there is absolutely no way in which we
can cut out the aspects of modernism when
we try to understand what post modernism is.
And incidentally this is also one of the most
convenient and easiest frameworks within post
modernism has been attempted to define.
And here we talk about some of the aspects
which differentiates ah post modernism from
modernism.
And here we are only talking about certain
often discussed tendencies and this is not
an absolute comprehensive list.
And ah a number of theorists as the as a convenient
method when they begin to define and when
they begin to delimit the category of post
modernism they have begun by talking about
what what modernism is and then moving across
and moving away from modernism towards the
towards more post modern features.
And here we ah begin to see that in the modernist
period, there was a certain scents of lament
over the fragmentation of the world.
Because when we talk about the socio political
and historical aspects after the first world
war which was also the modernist period, the
high modernist period things were not really
getting better they were also very disillusioned
by the way in which the war had ah ah impacted
the world and it also took a lot of time for
them to recover from whatever more have inflicted
upon various societies of the world there.
So, it also had led to ah sort of a breakdown
of the existential ah question.
And there was a major crisis there was also
a problem to be solved even during the modernist
period, but in the post modernist period that
the problems remain pretty much the same.
Perhaps the problems have even escalated to
a different level, but the post modernist
argue that this chaos is inevitable and the
only recourse is to play with the chaos rather
than attempting to solve it.
So, from an attempt to solve this crisis we
have moved on to a paradigm where where it
is ok to have such crisis and whether where
it is ok to to humorously talk these crisis.
And also perhaps just ignore and play with
this chaos; so, in that sense in the modernist
sense there is a more focus in the modernist
ah paradigm for epistemological dominant and
in their which also means that it is about
the idea of knowledge , but in the post modern
period its more about ontology it is about
being.
So, there is a transition from a knowledge
based system to a more ah being based system
which makes all the more difference in subjectivities
and ideas of celebrating fragmentations so,
on and so, forth.
And ah while modernism lamented the fact that
human subjectivity and history were changing.
And it is not going to be the same anymore
we find post modernism completely celebrating
this ah ah incoherence and this is breakdown
of identity and this entire loss of subjectivity.
So, we have Yeats in the modernist period
talking about how the centre cannot hold and
things fall apart . So, there is a very pronounced
sense of loss and they are lamenting the fact
that the center cannot hold any more.
But in the post modernist period we find that
there is an absolute celebration of this idea
of fragmentation and the fact that the this
need not be mourned anymore at all.
And during the post during the modernist period
the modern artist believed that art can provide
unity, art could be perhaps the solice perhaps
the artist is the one who is about to solve
all these problems.
But post modernism has ah no pretentions of
that sort they do not believe that artist
can resolve anything.
In fact, some of the post modernist also believe
the the the artist is so, important that he
cannot even take care of his or her own literary
or cultural artistic productions.
And in the modernist period we also have an
element of cultivated austerity leading to
a lot of seriousness and a lot of gravity
ah to whatever they are trying to produce.
But post modernism is about having a lot of
deliberate amount of ah pleasure in art forms
in writings so, on and so, forth.
And in the modernist period there is a focus
on reality through individual consciousness.
But in the post modern period we understand
that realism is only a an incoherent and deluding
notion there is absolutely no attempt to portray
reality.
Because the post modern adhere is that the
post modern writers also believe that reality
cannot be captured perhaps they are only copies
perhaps they are only simulations and there
is absolutely a futile attempt to ah try and
capture any forms of reality in and translate
it into art forms.
And in the modernist period keeping in tune
with whatever they believed in then we see
a continuous struggle for wholeness and for
unity.
But post modernism on the other hand it for
such a radical indeterminacy and there is
no attempt, there are no attempts being made
to ah create anything whole or to ah or to
even ah build a more coherent form of art
or coherent form of cultural production .
And on the whole when we talk about when we
talk about post modernism as a departure from
modernism; it is also important to reiterate
that it is not really about anti modernism;
it is is not an outright rejection of modernism
either and we cannot really say whether this
is actually a continuation.
But because there are number of works have
also discussed this aspects of transition
; the nature of the precise relation between
the modernist and the post modernist element.
And they have not yet been able to reach a
consensus about whether this is a transition
or a rejection or even an anti thesis.
But never the less modernism gives us a framework
to access post modernism in whichever form
whether as a continuation.
Or even as a departure from the dominant modernist
ideas and here we also note a very interesting
paradox.
Even the tendency to see things in seemingly
obvious binary contrasting categories; it
is usually associated with modernism it is
a very very modernist ah system of thinking
and system of knowing, it is a very epistemological
thing.
And this tendency to dissolve binary ah categories
and expose their arbitrary cultural codependency
is associated with post modernism.
So in fact, there are these two contrasting
elements modernism and post modernism.
And ah through all of these attempts to make
sense of post modernism to give a sense of
meaning to post modernism and attribute certain
frameworks and try to delimit ah the post
modernism as a category in.
In fact, is a very modernist trend and in
other words it scores also what we are trying
to do is to understand post modernism in a
very sequential and ah modernist sense.
And though this though this is only for heuristic
purposes only for the purposes of learning
and only for the purposes of ah framing particular
systems of thought and systems of knowledge
within frameworks; we understand that there
is an interesting and inherent paradox even
in the way any course or any ah learning experience
related to post modernism itself is framed
.
So, moving on if we talk about the general
characteristics of post modernism; there are
number of characteristics which could be listed
and some of them we can also note that its
continuation from the modernist period ah.
We have reflexivity and metafiction, self
referentiality ah irony and black humour parody
and playfulness instability of meaning ah;
rupture with traditions pastiche which also
means mixing of genres intertextuality hybridity
and also the and also mixing the conventions
of high and popular art.
If we talk about some of these ah some of
these items in detail for example, self reflexivity,
metafiction and ah self referentiality.
It is it is it is it is about a way in which
we take the case of novel the telling becomes
more important more conspicuous than the tale
itself.
And also we notice that technically the element
of minuses which forms the bases of all forms
of art perhaps in a conventional way it is
weakened we do not find the element of minuses
being privileged over the other forms in in
a self reflexive ah metafictional form of
narration.
And it is also about writing ah for example,
ah in a book in a book structure ah for example,
if ah if this is a novel that we have in mind
the novel will be talking about the process
of writing; let us say another book and we
will also have a number of analysis happening
about the book . This is within the same novel
and these analysis interestingly are not provided
by the reader , but by the author himself
.
So, here we find a book within the book and
this book written within the book is also
discussed and analyzed.
We find a subtle way in which the distinction
between fiction and literary criticism also
being broken down over here.
So, this is a one of the ways in which the
post modern texts challenged the idea of narration
the idea of ah conventional forms of narration
and the various attributes of art .
And ah one of the examples of one of this
kind of work would be ah Stephen King's ; Stephen
King's novel Misery which ah engages with
the metafiction through the genre of horror.
And when we talk about hybridity again that
is another interesting ah attribute to post
modern text; if we take an example of Julian
Barnes novel Flauberts parrot, we find that
within the space of the novel a number of
things are being made being used.
For example, ah in terms of hybridity we have
Julian Barnes novel talking about biography
using excerpts from dictionary . There is
also; obviously, elements of fiction, there
is pastiche, there is also interestingly an
examination paper which also forms partly
the narrative technique and also contributes
to the telling of the novel.
So, ah altogether when we look at the general
characteristics of post modern text we understand
that there is no sense which ah ah conventional
sense of a beginning middle or an end one
could begin anywhere.
And also perhaps maybe it is more less like
some of the contemporary music videos where
it does not really matter where the video
beginsm there is no linear ah ah connection,
it is not coherently ah presented it it its
all perhaps a play of pastiche mixing of genres;
no matter where you begin and no matter in
which way you mix the video, it ah pretty
much give the same result.
So, this sort of a play when we find it in
a in a medium of a text; it becomes all the
more interesting we find that in the number
of ah cultural productions and popular culture
of the contemporary we can find almost all
of these elements being getting used consciously,
unconsciously deliberately and even quite
inadvertently.
And ah about irony and black humor in fact,
conventionally as it is related to death would
be spoken with a lot of gravity a lot of seriousness
it is not something to joke about.
But we find it in a number of text produced
after the second world war given that the
world war itself had ah given rise to a number
of irrational political events including the
holocaust.
We find some novelist using the technique
of irony and black humor to ah talk about
even death in a very ah irreferential manner.
For example, we have certain novels like by
Joseph Heller, Thomas and Kurt Vonnegut in
and also one ah short story by the school
where he talks about the ironic death of plants
animals and people connected to the children
who sit in one class.
So, ah where the post modernist generally
they treat very serious subjects as jokes
much to the ah shock of certain contemporary
readers and much to the alarm of ah the conventional
moral ah ah fabric and the conventional ways
in which particular emotions and particular
attributes are generally being dealt with
.
So, all together in the post modern period
we can say that there is no organizing principle
in this chaotic world and there is no attempt
to make a ah make a coherent organizing principle
either.
And there is also general distrust of ideologies
and also narrator and author of modern assumptions
about history identity culture.
Pretty much there is nothing much that the
post modern text or the post modern author
or the post modern site relies upon everything
is viewed with a lot of distrust and everything
is seen as futile and totally meaningless
and not contributing to the meaning making
process of culture art or anything in general.
In order to windup this discussion about the
characteristics of post modern art, the characteristics
of post modernism; I use certain excerpts
from Promod Nayar's interesting work from
contemporary literary and cultural theory
published in 2010; where he offers a very
interesting sum up of the characteristic of
post modernism.
The post modernism first of all is a refusal
to accept any system of thought or theory
as universal.
It focuses on the particular focuses on the
on the local rather than the universal.
And secondly, there is a preference for fragmentation
over unity dispersion ah over linear order
the anecdote over the epic.
So, thirdly we have the blurring of boundaries
between high and low culture as we have seen
in the introductory session itself, there
is absolutely no distinction between an art
form presented in the form of a inverted urinal
or a digital form of art or even the works
of Shakespeare everything is seen with equal
preference or with equal irreverence .
And fourthly there is a sense with playfulness
a contingency and self reflexivity associated
with anything considered post modern . And
fifthly there is an interest in the surface
the image and the copy rather than in the
depth in the reality and the original.
So, very often we can find that the surface
is being the depth is being compromised which
is presenting the surface reality for image
and the copy for the original and and so,
much so, that after a while it becomes almost
irrelevant and entirely a nonsensical to even
try to distinguish between the copy and the
original between the image and the reality
or whether this is actually something at the
surface level or something which has got a
deeper meaning.
And sixthly there is a fascination with the
strategies of representation rather than the
truth of or behind the representation truth
very contested.
And in the post modern period in very typical
sense truth becomes absolutely unimportant
as well it is not important to know whether
something is the truth or not it is the even
the pursuit of this sort of the single truth
the ah the single idea of meaning everything
becomes absolutely a meaningless affair itself
.
And next there is an emphasis on discourse,
the language and the narrative than on the
reality they supposedly convey.
So, even during our discussions we will find
that is a lot of way in which our ah critical
analysis would also engage with discourse
language and the narrative rather than on
the content or the ways in which the text
represents reality.
Here we are again reiterate the fact that
minuses as a as a bases of narration; as the
basis of ah ah representation of literary
and artistic text, it seizes to play any sort
of a role.
And there is a desire for flows, shifts and
multiplicities rather than order organization
and tyrannical coherence.
So, we find that there is a ah ah certain
way in which the post modern narration the
post modern text and the post modern sites;
they resist all kinds of attempts to ah linear
order any kind of structural organization
ah; never the less as we mentioned before
as part of the course we do try to bring in
a sense of ah order organization and at least
a marginal kind of coherence in order to make
sense of this entire phenomenon known as post
modernism .
So, as and when I wind up this lecture I ah
I also leave you with this question whether
post modernism could it be a reaction to the
failure of modernity . Because the the modernity;
the phase of modernism though it promised
beginning at the beginning of the project,
it failed to deliver a number of these things.
And particularly with the post world war events
and also about the various forms in which
the political economies the consumerist culture,
the human nature itself was undergoing a radical
change in the 1960s.
And thereafter we do see a sense of the failure
of modernity creeping in and leaving you with
this question whether post modernism is a
reaction to this failure of modernity.
Is it a reaction against the betrayals of
the modernist movement in the arts, ideas
of progress and civilization.
We do not know whether we would try to whether
we would be able to find a definite answer
to this question.
But definitely this question will help us
engage with post modernism in the context
of ah modernity; in the in the way which departs
from modernism and also to be able to provide
a framework for talking about arts, ideas
of progress and civilization in the post modern
age .
Thank you for listening and we look forward
to see you in the next session .
