Material Information
- Title:
- “SOME WEIRD BUNCH OF ANTI-REBELS”: POSTMODERNISM AND THE EMERGENCE OF POST-POSTMODERNISM IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
- Physical Description:
- Book
- Language:
- English
- Creator:
- Sarratt, Trey
- Publisher:
- New College of Florida
- Place of Publication:
- Sarasota, Fla.
- Publication Date:
- 2014
Thesis/Dissertation Information
- Degree:
- Bachelor's ( B.A.)
- Degree Grantor:
- New College of Florida
- Degree Divisions:
- Humanities
- Area of Concentration:
- English
Subjects
- Genre:
- bibliography ( marcgt )
theses ( marcgt )
government publication (state, provincial, territorial, dependent) ( marcgt )
born-digital ( sobekcm )
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Notes
- Abstract:
- This thesis concerns the search for a literary movement or structure of feeling that historically comes after postmodernism in American fiction. The bulk of this investigation comprises the analyses of three literary texts: David Foster Wallace’s short story “Good Old Neon” (2004), Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections (2001), and David Milch’s HBO television series Deadwood (2004-2006). I introduce these texts as important elements in identifying a transitional period between postmodern and post-postmodern dominance in twenty-first century American literature.
In each chapter, I interpret the text’s relationship to literary postmodernism and the ways in which these texts posit a conceptual alternative to postmodernism that can, for now, be called post-postmodernism. My analysis of “Good Old Neon” establishes a diametric opposition between ‘negative’ postmodern hallmarks of deconstructive irony, cynicism, and metafiction; and ‘positive’ assertions of sentimentality, conscious naiveté, and single-coded language. In The Corrections, I note an intertextual self-distancing from other contemporary postmodern novels that are less effective at connecting with real-world society and culture than with works within literary postmodernism itself. Deadwood balances a binary between selfhood and community in which one inevitably subordinates the other, although the series ultimately achieves a harmonious coexistence of the two.
I juxtapose these focused analyses with a more expansive investigation of postmodernism and its waning influence on some contemporary writers (including Franzen and Wallace) and literary critics. Though I extract from each text a post-postmodern model that differs from the others, I argue that a broader conception of post-postmodernism is possible through continued examinations of contemporary literary trends and their degree of divergence from postmodernism in the future. I conclude by acknowledging the difficulties inherent in positing an emerging post-postmodern literary movement, but I emphasize the importance of continuing to track the decline of postmodernism and the subsequent rise of post-postmodernism in some literary circles.
- Statement of Responsibility:
- by Trey Sarratt
- Thesis:
- Thesis (B.A.) -- New College of Florida, 2014
- General Note:
- RESTRICTED TO NCF STUDENTS, STAFF, FACULTY, AND ON-CAMPUS USE
- Bibliography:
- Includes bibliographical references.
- General Note:
- This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.
- General Note:
- Faculty Sponsor: Dimino, Andrea
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- New College of Florida
- Holding Location:
- New College of Florida
- Rights Management:
- Applicable rights reserved.
- Classification:
- S.T. 2014 S277
- System ID:
- AA00024802:00001
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