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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01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: The play Spyt (Regret) as mentioned in this paper suggests a post-modern impasse, rather than a move towards a new paradigm, and the characters' endeavours to uncovering a deeper meaning to life are undermined by ridicule.
Abstract: Some scholars have declared metamodernism to be postmodernism’s successor, and Afrikaans novelist Ingrid Winterbach’s work has been argued to be an example of this distinct move away from the postmodern paradigm. However, in this article I present the alternative interpretation that Winterbach’s play, Spyt (Regret), rather represents postmodernism’s inability to give way to its successor. An investigation from a postmodern perspective leads me to conclude that, in both the text and performance of this play (directed by Brink Scholtz), an escape from the postmodern paradigm entails the end of all representation. Winterbach reduces all of the characters’ endeavours to surfaces which become parodies. All their experiences are commodified and any attempt at uncovering a deeper meaning to life is undermined by ridicule. Winterbach furthermore draws attention to some of her characters’ limited vocabulary and reliance on English loanwords. This culminates in a powerful scene where the loanword ‘awesome’ is repeated to the extent that it becomes simultaneously meaningless and indispensable; a tension that she does not resolve. In addition, the crossing of the boundary between life and death, which has been described as postmodernism’s final frontier, is portrayed by relying on an obsolete narrative. The play therefore suggests a postmodern impasse, rather than a move towards a new paradigm. an a move towards a new paradigm.
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The authors define falsas cronicas as areas oscurras of the history, i.e., areas of the past that are not congruent with the history of the present.
Abstract: Segun Linda Hutcheon, uno de los objetivos revisionistas del posmodernismo es desnaturalizar la historia, y una de sus consecuencias es cobrar conciencia de la diferencia entre los eventos del pasado y los hechos historicos que construimos de ellos (57). A pesar de que todos los eventos son hechos historicos potenciales, no todos llegan a serlo (75), pero los que se quedan fuera, en realidad no se han quedado fuera: los dejaron allf. No es de extrafiar que en los ultimos afios se haya dado un resurgimiento de la novela historica ni que sean en su mayoria las mujeres las que se han dedicado a latarea de re-presentar figuras femeninas (mal) tratadas en las presentaciones tradicionales producto de una optica masculina. Brian McHale observa que el revisionismo de la novela historica posmodernista se manifiesta en dos formas: (1) se revisa el contenido, reinterpretando el record historico, amenudo demistificandoy desenmascarando la versi6n ortodoxa del pasado; y (2) se transforman las convenciones y normas de la fiction historica (90). "La historia apocrifa," como el la llama, contradice la version oficial ya sea porque complementa el record historico, al restaurar lo que se habia perdido o suprimido, o bien porque desplaza totalmente la historia oficial. Mientras en el primero de los casos, se opera en lo que el denomina "las areas oscuras de la historia," es decir, aquellos aspectos sobre los cuales el record oficial no dice nada, pero se mantiene dentro de las limitaciones de "la historia," en el segundo, estas se violan abiertamente. Estas limitaciones son no contradecir el record oficial, respetar el Weltanschauung y ofrecer un re-cuento realista (87 88). Con su ultimo libro publicado, Falsas cronicas del sur (1991), Ana Lydia Vega nos provee un ejemplo del primer tipo de historia apocrifa.1 En ellas se recuperan ocho sucesos que no pasaron a la historia oficial de cuatro pueblos del litoral surefio de Puerto Rico (Arroyo, pueblo natal de la madre de la autora, Ponce, Guayama y Patillas). El periodo historico se extiende desde la segunda mitad del siglo pasado hasta nuestros di'as, y aunque no se sigue estrictamente un orden cronologico, la primera de las "falsas cronicas" se basa en los sucesos mas antiguos y la ultima en los mas recientes. Cada cronica lleva una breve nota introductoria que provee information sobre su marco espacio-temporal.
01 Mar 2011-Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how Tim O'Brien, a veteran of the Vietnam War, reviews the American involvement in the conflict in his novel The Things They Carried (1990).
Abstract: This paper aims at discussing how Tim O’Brien, a veteran of the Vietnam War, reviews the American involvement in the conflict in his novel The Things They Carried (1990). The author shows the perspective of the soldiers in the stories and, therefore, presents other possibilities to analyze that historical fact. The interplay of fiction and truth is essential for O’Brien to reach the objective of reevaluating official history in order to make the readers rethink the past.