Literary History 2018

Prof. Dr. Thomas Claviez Prof. Annette Kern-Stähler PD Dr. Ursula Kluwick Prof. Gabriele Rippl

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Cartes-fiches	213
Utilisateurs	10
Langue	English
Catégorie	Anglais
Niveau	Université
Crée / Actualisé	25.04.2018 / 11.12.2019
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The rise of Postmodernism

from 1910 to about 1950, modernism had been the most influential artistic style in literature and the arts
With abstract expressionism and pop art, a new, “surface art” was developing
If modernism had criticized and radically subjectivized Enlightenment’s claim to a universal truth, postmodernism denies any final truth value whatsoever
The concept of postmodernism is first mentioned in relation to architecture by Charles Jenkins.

American Modernism and Postmodernism:

Gertrude Stein and William Carlos Williams try still to unearth objects from the semantic sedimentation under which they were buried
American literary postmodernists such as Donald Barthelme, John Barthelme, Don DeLillo do not search for some truth, but rather show the constructedness of any reality
Postmodernism enjoys the “jouissance” that the freedom from “master narratives” allows

Characteristics of Postmodernism

quoting of other texts / intertextuality / pastiche
innovation through recombination of known styles
self-reflexiveness on the fictionality of the text and on the artistic or creative process (“books about books”)
“anything goes”: critics object that the loss of any binding norms and rules (“meta-narratives”) leads to anarchy and moral erosion
playfulness and irony

Donald Barthelme’s “Glass Mountain”

constitutes a perfect example of postmodernist writing
not only the constructedness of literature reflected upon through the numbering of the lines; the story is basically a meta-commentary on writing a story
accurate or made-up quotes are inserted
it also freely plays with old forms of storytelling, like stories of knights and princesses, and desublimates them through irony

Ethnic writing and its precursors

The Harlem Renaissance: before and after WWII, New York’s Harlem becomes the site of an enormous influx of African-Americans, as Whites more and more abandon the neighborhood.
Many artists, painters, literati, musicians, and intellectuals move here to create what has become known as the Harlem Renaissance
their common goal is to unearth and create a genuinely African-American voice - a hard task after being geographically and culturally cut off from their heritage through centuries of slavery
two of the main cultural traditions that have survived are storytelling and music; unearthing these traditions requires both anthropological as well as artistic work

Primitivism

branch of modernism that has inherited the romantic distrust for science and civilization from the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau
is highly critical of Western concepts of civilization as progress
nostalgically yearns for a Golden Age of humans closeness to each other and to nature
The Dilemma: African-American artists thus find themselves in a dilemma: on the one hand, fashionable “primitivism” offers an outlet and a market for the African roots of African-American culture
on the other hand, these roots seem to confirm the very primitivist stereotypes that Black artists encounter and want to work against
break up and play with the prejudiced preconceptions of the White public

Langston Hughes

prolific, playwright, novelist and poet – becomes one of the most important voices of the Harlem Renaissance – and beyond
along the lines of Du Bois’ “double consciousness”
Hughes’ poems oscillate between the wish to become integrated into American society and a defiant self-assertion of African-American identity

Jean Toomer: Cane(1923)

combines in a highly original way modernist aesthetic style with the African-American experience both in the North and the South of the US, with a pedigree covering 12 different ethnicities, among them Welsh, Scottish, German, Native American, Spanish, and others
however, Toomer never considers himself part of the Harlem Renaissance as he doesn’t consider himself African-American

Zora Neale-Hurston

is both anthropologist and author/novelist
collects old African stories, but also writes short stories and novels
Their Eyes Were Watching Godfirst feminist voice in the 20s
writes in a highly patriarchic, male-dominated African-American culture
How it feels to be colored me: right from the start of what could be considered one of the first manifestos of African-American identity, she sets the defiant, but ironic tone
she comments on the attempts to avoid being ethnically designated a 100% African-American
Self-Assertion: with a vengeance, Hurston claims a non-apologetic identity, Hurston considers her position an advantage

Civil disobedience

Henry David Thoreau, Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi
the Harlem Renaissance had made African-American Culture an integral part of US popular culture
Artists had used African-American cultural traditions (Blues, folklore, spirituals) to establish a genuinely “Black Voice” and culture
Harlem Renaissance still considered unsuccessful, as social, economic & political situation of African-Americans hadn’t improved
Martin Luther King uses white American cultural traditions (puritan jeremiad) and mixes them with the teachings of Gandhi in order to forge a Black protest movement designed to integrate African-Americans into American society
Malcolm X pursued black nationalism, proposes an own, self-sufficient black nation and employ both leftist and Islamist ideologies to emphasize the gap between black society and capitalist white society
first Black Studies courses on college campuses

Splits Within

as the diverging strategies of MLK and Malcolm X make clear, differences also exist within the black population
While Malcolm X’ approach is diametrically opposed to both the religious and the economic system of the US, MLK seeks integration into both
And while black middle class is eager to share the American dream, disadvantaged African Americans threaten to turn to the bullet instead of the ballot

Toni Morrison

one of the most outstanding and influential African-American literary forces
influenced both by the modernism of William Faulkner and postmodern tendencies, her oeuvre encompasses 11 novels (the bluest eye(1970))
her works constitute an almost panoramic overview of African-American history and culture

Native American Literature

N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko
strong emphasis on cultural roots in first generation
second generation, Sherman Alexie, undermine backward-oriented tribalism and stereotypes that exist within Western culture
in order to survive, minority cultures have to adapt to the ever-evolving changes and challenges that the present brings

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