Postmodernism: concepts, characteristics, and cultural impact

Postmodernism

Postmodern text has a distinct tendency of dismantling literary convention by addressing the reader with very casual language, frequent use of colloquialism and oral rather than written styles and standards and most importantly works, defined as postmodern have unconventional ways in which the reader is drawn in and out of the narrative to elicit self-reflection. The works of Calvino and Borges are clear examples of this rejection of traditional literary conventions. This work will briefly discuss and analyze how Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveler," and Borges "Borges and I," and "The Lottery in Babylon" undermine the expectations of traditional literary convention and demonstrate the strategies they use to produce what might be called post modern texts.

Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveler" begins by addressing the reader with a title that is a lead to a sentence but an incomplete thought and then opens with a brief admonition to the reader to pay attention to the work, remove distractions and even yell at his or her family to eliminate possible future interruptions. The work goes on from there to provide the reader with a casual conversation, basically about what the reader must do to prepare for reading the next chapter of the work. The result is a commentary not so much on the story itself but on the state of the context in which many people live, including but not limited to an assassination of the speed and noise at which we live our lives in the modern world. The conventional literary criticism, of the work is seeded in the fact that the work pulls the reader in and out of the tale, acting much like life itself, full of interruptions and even unsolicited advice about how one should live one's life, rather than an allowance of opportunity to do so. The instructional chapters lead the character into the narrative (novel) chapters by tying themes together to form a relatively cohesive read that is almost completely unlike any other novel of conventional literature available, i.e. It is therefore a significant example of postmodern literature. The work is a constant reminder of the reader as the main character of the novel, stating such casual observations, as one any reader might actually feel about him or herself, "I am not at all the sort of person who attracts attention. I am an even more anonymous presence against an even more anonymous background." (Calvino 14) the casual and conversational dialogue in the narrative parts of the work are also responsive to a rejection of the traditional literary conventions, very much a "whose on first" feel. (50) While in the lengthy introduction "chapters"

Calvino expresses universals that also detract from what would be considered conventional literary styles. In one section Calvino describes how the narrative is playing out, unconventionally, though intentionally to allow the reader to "feel around" the story rather than through a conventional literary story-telling process that "gets to the point." "I am producing too many stories at once because what I want is for you to feel, around the story, a saturation of other stories that could tell and maybe will tell or who knows may already have told on some other occasion, a space full of stories that perhaps is simply my lifetime..." (109) the work describes in the non-narrative "chapters" the way one might feel about a long winded story teller who gets halfway through the story and forgets what he or she was talking about.

Borges' "Borges and I" is a commentary on how the individual feels as if they are an observer in their own life. Borges describes himself from a perspective outside himself, as if he (the psyche) of himself is separate from himself. The casual manner in which he describes mundane observations, such as the author seeing Borges' name on the mail and on paper in other forms as if he has no identity connected to the name brings the reader to the conclusion that feeling as if he is an outside in his own life is not only logical but likely felt by others. He then moves on in his brief prose to extrapolate if there is really only one of himself, i.e. one Borges and if this is the case he ruminates might there really be two cultures, rather than two selves.

An example of Borges' casual style, from the text can be found in the manner he addresses describes himself, as if he is having a conversation with the reader about a philosophical and real disconnect from self and identity, in much the same way as Calvino in his admonition to the reader to yell at his or her family before he or she begins to read his novel.

It would be an exaggeration to say that ours is a hostile relationship; I live, let myself go on living, so that Borges may contrive his literature, and this literature justifies me. It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. (Borges 1)

This is very obviously an example of Borges stressing a universal emotional challenge to self, how so often the individual gets lost in the public image and fails to integrate the internal thoughts to public expectations. The work is in many ways an oral commentary on self-actualization.

While "The Lottery in Babylon" is a commentary on civics and tradition, the self is lost in the evolution of how as individuals in a culture tend to divorce themselves from how cultural norms and taboos are developed and eventually affect the individual. The work details the "lottery" in Babylon a place where the main character has lived and evolved through many if not all the stations of life and positions of citizenry. Reflecting, as he is leaving his home the character attempts to tell the history of the development of the lottery, where individuals play it as a matter of course, as though it is not mandatory those who do not play it are considered poor citizens. While the lottery, unlike what we think of as a lottery is random, reward/sanction system, where those who draw winning numbers receive rewards and those who receive losing numbers pay fines, which then support the winnings. In many ways the work is a casual analysis of economics in general, where many pay for the rewards of a few and all is left to chance.

A under the beneficent influence of the Company, our customs are saturated with chance. The buyer of a dozen amphoras of damascene wine will not marvel if one of them encloses a talisman or a [vibora]; the scribe who draws up a contract will hardly ever omit to introduce some erroneous date; I myself, in this [apresuada] declaration, have falsified some splendour, some atrocity. perhaps, also, some mysterious monotony... our historians, who are the most persipicacious on the planet, have invented a method to conduct chance; it is rumoured that the operations of this method are (in general) trustworthy; however, naturally, they are not divulged without some dose of trickery. otherwise, nothing is as contaminated with fiction as the history of the Company... A paleographic document, exhumed from a temple, can be a work of yesterday's lottery, or of a secular draw. not a book is published without some divergence between each instance of it. The scribes [prestan] secret oath of omission, interpolation, variation. they also exercise indirect lies. (Borges 1)