- Create a postmodern character who:
a) is loosely differentiated (that is, not clearly differentiated from
others in the narrative)
b) has one all-pervasive trait
c) is non-human.
Or create:
d) a character who has been marginalised by society. - Create a postmodern fiction which rewrites a historical incident.
- Create a postmodern fiction which constructs a new world.
WHAT IS POSTMODERNISM?
Postmodernism has been the focus of many conflicting and complementary
definitions, but the term is usually applied to certain social and cultural
trends since 1945. (Although whether certain trends or cultural artefacts
before 1945 can be considered postmodern is also an issue.) Most theories
about postmodernism, however, include certain common assumptions,
which are also intertwined with the insights of post-structuralist theory.
These are:
- There is no single or objective truth, only multiple versions of, or per-
spectives on, the truth. - History is discontinuous, and full of gaps and silences. Official histories
repress the stories of those who are marginalised through ethnicity,
sexuality and disability. - The subject is not unified, but divided and multiple; we all have many
different ‘selves’. - Concepts of space and time have radically changed within postmodern
culture, and have become more relative. Time is seen as non-linear and
compressed, and there is more awareness of different types of time (social,
subjective, scientific). Space is also seen as unbounded, dynamic and
socially produced. Globalisation, new information technologies, ease of
travel and multinational companies compress distances between spaces. - Representation is somewhat illusory: language is not a transparent
window on the world (even a very ‘lifelike’ text is a construct of words). - Postmodern society is increasingly post-industrial and technological:
we are becoming an ‘information-based’ society. Postmodern culture
also involves the greater incorporation of technology into artworks. - Gender and race are social constructions rather than simply biological
states. Human beings are caught up in social discourses, and power
134 The Writing Experiment