Postmodern qualities and common themes found in postmodern literature and films
Surname 1
Name: Boniface Muli
Question: 1.) Take some time to research the term ′′Postmodernism′′. Based on your
research, make a list of postmodern qualities and common themes found in postmodern
literature and film. 2.) Find and watch the trailer for two films, Stranger than Fiction
(2006) by Marc Forster and Fight Club (1999) by David Fincher. Afterward, read a
synopsis of the two films online, Now find an example of a postmodern song that you have
listened to and copy down the lyrics then deconstruct the poem by making annotations in
the margins showing exactly where, in your opinion, the song is being postmodernist. 3.)
For this section you have the choice of two short films, either Worker Drone by writer and
director Sharat Raju or Play by writers David Kaplan and Eric Zimmerman. Both films
can be found online. Choose one (at least) and watch it. Pay attention to any non-verbal
cues, including facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact. Using a mind-mapping
program like the one found at bubbl.us, or SmartArt (found in Microsoft Word), create a
mind map that shows how the film you have chosen could be described as being
postmodern. This assignment assumes that you understand postmodernism and that you
have watched the film in its entirety
Surname 2
Answer
Postmodern Qualities and Common Themes found in postmodern literature and films
Postmodern is literature mostly characterized by reliance on different narrative
techniques like a paradox, fragmentation and the unreliable narrators. And is often explained as a
trend of style which emerged during World War II. The Postmodern operations are seen as
responsible against a dogmatic following the Modernist thinking and Enlightenment approaches
of literature. As result, different qualities and characteristics have been highlighted and used in
the movie as it goes on. There is hence different qualities which can be highlighted as in the
following list;
Playfulness, Irony and Black Humor
The postmodern authors where certainly the first people to make use of humour and irony
in there literature writing but for many of the postmodern authors, within their work, this
becomes a hallmark. During their writing, the postmodern authors would critically treat subjects
used within the text very significant like World War the conspiracy theories and cold War from a
position disconnect and distance and will either choose to depict their own histories humorously
or ironically. In addition to this, most of the postmodern authors made use of pasted and it’s
connected different elements of previous styles and elements of writing literature to come up
with a new voice or providing new comments on writing their contemporaries. One of the most
critical and important authors of the postmodern Thomas Pynchon used and still uses these
elements of literary writing from fiction, detectives, science, songs, references, pop culture,
obscure, well-known and fictional history too.
Surname 3
Intersexuality: This yet forms another very important characteristic and quality used by
the authors who wrote postmodern. It is an important element used in coming up with the text
and acknowledges the previously done works. The concept of intersexuality certainly looks at the
postmodern fiction its dependency on the old literature which has been done and created earlier
and attempts to significantly comment on the situation on which both the society and literature
have found themselves sandwiched in the second part of 20th century working, living and
creating on the back parts of the book of those who had come initially.
Fiction and Magical Realism
In literature case like in postmodern work, fiction is very similar to historiography met
fiction and it is a subject of materials which are based on real live events but different writers of
fiction in literature tend to essentially bur the line within the fiction and the fact to a degree that
is almost impossible for a reader to understand and know the disparity between what is true and
that which is not true as opposed to metafiction which periodically draws the attention on the fact
that it is not true but false. Arguably, the most significant thing and postmodern technique is the
magical realism and is found in the introduction of impossible elements or fantastic elements into
a critical narrative which is otherwise real and normal. In most cases, magical realistic novels
can include dreams happening in the normal life of a person, a return of earlier deceased
characters used earlier in the play, most complicated plots in a play, myths and wild shifts time
and fairy tales becoming a section of the narrative. As known, nothing lacks critics hence critics
argue that the magical realism has its basic roots planted a work done by two South Americans.
This and more others are some of the qualities listed and which emerge from Postmodernism.
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