Book•
The Politics of Postmodernism
01 Jan 1989-
TL;DR: In this article, the postmodernist representation is de-naturalized the natural, Photographic discourse, Telling Stories: fiction and history, Re-presenting the past: 'total history' de-totalized, Knowing the past in the present, The archive as text.
Abstract: General editor's preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Representing the postmodern: What is postmodernism? Representation and its politics, Whose postmodernism? Postmodernity, postmodernism, and modernism. 2. Postmodernist representation: De-naturalizing the natural, Photographic discourse, Telling Stories: fiction and history. 3. Re-presenting the past: 'Total history' de-totalized, Knowing the past in the present, The archive as text. 4. The politics of parody: Parodic postmodern representation, Double-coded politics, Postmodern film? 5. Text/image border tensions: The paradoxes of photography, The ideological arena of photo-graphy, The politics of address 6. Postmodernism and feminisms: Politicizing desire, Feminist postmodernist parody, The private and the public. Concluding note: some directed reading. Bibliography. Index.
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21 Jun 2017
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use post-Apartheid identities in the country of my skull as metonymy for the nation-building project and argue that Antjie Krog quite deliberately chose an ambiguous and complex genre to represent equally complex and complex identities.
Abstract: In this paper I use postmodernism to explore Antjie Krog's engagement with post-Apartheid identities in Country of My Skull. These identities, often complex and multiple, are mediated in the process of nation-building. I take the exercise of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as metonymy for the nation-building project, and I argue that Krog quite deliberately chose an ambiguous and complex genre to represent equally ambiguous and complex identities. One of the salient features of postmodernism is its anti-systemic, anti-form impulse, and the form that Krog uses refuses to be conscripted into any single conventional form. Dominated by testimonies of victims and perpetrators of apartheid violence, the form also bears aspects of autobiography, novel, poetry and journalistic snippets interlaced with quotes from psychoanalysts and philosophers. From time to time, anecdotes, fairytales, myths and legends are interpolated into the narrative to remind the reader of the porous borders between fiction and reality.
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TL;DR: The authors argue that by blurring the boundaries between history and fiction, and the private and the public, postmodern fiction creates narrative space for histories of the Other to be explored and reconfigured.
Abstract: Summary This article explores the various strategies that postmodern fiction uses to interrogate traditional historical representation. I argue that by blurring the boundaries between history and fiction, and the private and the public, postmodern fiction creates narrative space for histories of the Other to be explored and “reconfigured”.
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01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show a little of Hughes' and Nichols' poetry trying to highlight the aspects which characterize it as a product of a subversive stance, and highlight the fact that literature is a sort of revolutionary instrument.
Abstract: In the literary field, subjects previously seen as “marginal” or “ex-centric” have been finding ways to subvert patterns questioning the canon as well as the Eurocentric ideals. Diasporic subjects have not only used their literary productions as a way of selfrepresentation and expression, but also rewritten their stories/histories, that are usually hidden or even manipulated by a mainstream perspective. In this context there are writers such as Langston Hughes and Grace Nichols who give their productions a social and political value. Moreover, they highlight the fact that literature is a sort of revolutionary instrument. Based on these ideas, this paper aims at showing a little of Hughes’ and Nichols’ poetry trying to highlight the aspects which characterize it as a product of a subversive stance.
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TL;DR: In this article, a comparative analysis of postmodern poetics is presented, focusing on the criteria of self-consistency, inner coherence, scope, productiveness and interest, proposed by McHale and Hutcheon.
Abstract: With the postmodern incredulity to the legitimacy of metanarrative, how should we construct a totalizing, “better” theory about postmodernism? Focusing on this paradoxical concern, this article scrutinizes Brian McHale’s and Linda Hutcheon’s different constructions of postmodern poetics with a comparative perspective to expose their respective strong points and drawbacks. The criteria of self-consistency, inner coherence, scope, productiveness and interest, proposed by McHale, are carefully examined to prove their effectiveness as good, but not the absolute, standards of judgment for preferring one construction over the other. Since postmodernism is but a discursive artifact, rather than a real-world object with a clear boundary, literary constructions about postmodernism can only be pluralist, little narratives; there is no true/wrong distinction between them, and each will justify its values, usefulness and interest in its own ways. Comparatively, McHale’s postmodern poetics is more formalist, while Hutcheon’s more cultural and political, but their approaches, viewpoints and interests can be well complementary.
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