A History of Literature Postmodernism 1945 - present

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is a gargantuan

postmodern novel that blurs the boundaries between
Every moment happens twice: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is
characterised by the use of metafiction, unreliable
Jennifer Egan is a highly
tragedy and comedy, high culture and low culture, the
monotonous and the deeply philosophical. Set in a
inside and outside, and they are entertaining and experimental narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often

1973
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas
Pynchon is considered as the
bona fide postmodern novel. The
story is set primarily in Europe at
the end of World War II and
centres on the design, production
and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the
German military. The novel
covers a wide range of knowledge
and transgresses the boundaries
between high and low culture,
between literary propriety and
explores both historical and political issues.
postmodern novel that defies
halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring
the most endearingly messed-up family to come along
two different histories. categorisation. Each chapter
stands as a self-contained story,
in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential
but as a whole, the individual
questions about what entertainment is and why it has White Teeth is one of the
episodes create connections that
come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire most popular novels of the
form a cohesive narrative. The
for entertainment affects our need to connect with early noughties and made
stories, as they appear in the
other people; and about what the pleasures we its writer the most famous
novel, do not follow a traditional
choose say about who we are. novelist of her era. With
chronology. Instead, they leap
frequent changes in
through time, showing slices of
narrative points of views
If there is something different time periods occurring
White Teeth focuses on the
comforting - religious, if you between the late 1970s and the
later lives of two wartime
want - about paranoia, there
is still also anti-paranoia,
where nothing is connected to
1996 friends—the Bangladeshi
Samad Iqbal and the
2020s.

Englishman Archie Jones—

profanity, and between science anything, a condition not "Time’s a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push
and speculative philosophy. many of us can bear for long.
2001 and their families in
London. 2011 you around?” Scotty shook his head. “The goon won."

White Noise is regarded as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Don Delillo’s most popular How strange it is. We have these deep

1979 novel; it tells the story of

Angela Carter's The Bloody
Chamber is considered a
landmark of postmodern-
feminist fiction. In this collection,
Carter reworks classic fairytales
and brings to the fore the violent,
patriarchal subtexts that
underpinned the original stories.
Jack Gladney, his fourth
wife, Babette, and four
ultramodern offspring as
they navigate the rocky
passages of family life to
the background babble of
brand-name consumerism.
1984
terrible lingering fears about ourselves
and the people we love. Yet we walk
around, talk to people, eat and drink. We
2007 is an extremely funny and tragic
postmodern novel. It chronicles the
life of Oscar de León, an overweight 2018
Dominican boy growing up in
manage to function. The feelings are
Paterson, New Jersey, who is
deep and real. Shouldn't they paralyse
obsessed with science fiction and
us? How is it we can survive them, at
fantasy novels and with falling in love, Normal People by Sally Rooney is a highly readable
least for a little while? We drive a car, we
as well as a curse that has plagued his postmodern novel which is ostensibly about the
teach a class. How is it no one sees how
family for generations. turbulent relationship between Connell and Marianne,
deeply afraid we were, last night, this
Narrated by multiple characters, the two highly academic students studying in Ireland’s most
morning? Is it something we all hide
novel incorporates a significant prestigious university. But through this relationship, and
from each other, by mutual consent? Or
amount of Spanglish and neologisms, the differing perspective each character has about the
do we share the same secret without
knowing it? Wear the same disguise?
as well as references to fantasy and
science fiction books and films.
world, Rooney asks pertinent questions about class, the
value of high literature and whether life has any meaning.

#SER01: To develop understanding of how we can participate meaningfully St Christopher's 6 Cs:

to tackle local and global economic, social and environmental challenges.
Johnathan Franzen's essay collection The End of The End of the Earth explores subjects with an environmental theme in order to
force his readers to consider these issues. Through his essays on subjects such as global warming and the poaching of migratory
birds, Franzen challenges the reader to act.
Curiosity
Postmodernists often challenge authority figures, which has been seen as a symptom of the fact that this style of literature first
emerged in the context of political tendencies in the 1960s. This inspiration is, among other things, seen through how postmodern
literature is highly self-reflexive about the political issues it speaks to. Postmodern authors cultivate a sense of curiosity about the
world and, crucially, couple that curiosity with a desire to improve the world around them.