It may well be true that the Americas and Europe have produced libraries
full of texts about modernism, but the fact remains ‹ as Peter ably pointed
out with a different focus ‹ they're not all talking about the same thing.
I'm not able to pontificate about all the European literatures (who is?),
but Spanish and Latin American literary modernism is nothing like the
Anglo-American animal; in German it didn't happen; in French, as far as I
can see, something else happened. Of course as Peter rightly points out,
lots of other things were going on too in all of these literatures at the
same time.
Jencksian PoMo does not fit literature as far as I can see,partly because
the modernism that it is post to isn't the same either.
I agree with whoever said PoPm was a humpty-dumptyish word.
Lewis Carroll was of course the first postmodernist.
Tony Frazer
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>From: "pain" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Postmodernism
>Date: Mon, Oct 11, 1999, 1:39 pm
>
> Peter is right regarding the nebulousness of the term postmodernism,
> although it has been defined by Charles Jencks and I think that early
> definition does help one understand what is and what isn't postmodern. I
> linked Larkin, Auden and Prynne together because their work seems to have
> many modernist elements, and in the case of the latter two, there is a
> common interest in science --a point not picked up by Billy in his
> taxonomies. It is true I think that the postmodern term is used as a spice,
> as was modern and modernism in the first half of this century, and it is
> somewhat sexy, I mean in packaging terms, but all this doesn't disqualify
> it --indeed its ubiquity means that we cannot wish it away --much of the
> Americas and the European continent has embraced this term and produced
> libraries full of theoretical texts --and poetry that has the postmodern
> hallmark. Is it a trend or fashion? When we come to consider literary
> history, the postmodern is a convenient shelf --and although one might
> dislike it, one must recognize its validity, just as one has become
> accustomed to the earlier terms and concepts Cubism, Impressionism modernism
> and so on. I would not put Prynne on that shelf.
>
> written after 12hours of drinking..four hours sleep --
>
> insults
>
> fuck you postmodernity
>
>
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