Stephan M. Defining Literary Postmodernism for the Twenty-First Century

Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. — xiv, 206 p. — ISBN: 978-3-030-15692-3, 978-3-030-15693-0.This book presents a definition of literary postmodernism, using detective and science fictions as a frame. Through an exploration of both prior theoretical approaches, and indicators through characteristics of postmodernist fiction, this book identifies a structural framework to both understand and apply the lessons of postmodernism for the next generation. Within a growing consensus that the postmodern era has passed, this book examines the different conceptions of postmodernism and posits a meaningful definition, one which can provide the foundation for future literary expression. This theory is then applied to genre fiction, particularly detective fiction and science fiction, demonstrating that postmodernism is found in the structure, rather than questions posed about literary expression. Finally, Matthias Stephan considers post-postmodern movements, and how they can be expressed given this definition of literary postmodernism, moving forward to the twenty-first century.Literary Postmodernism
The Structure of Defining Literary Postmodernism for the Twenty-First CenturyDefining PostmodernismWhat Do the Theorists Say (and How Do They Fit)?
Lyotard and The Postmodern Condition
Strong Postmodernism and Political Efficacy
Linda Hutcheon and Historiographic MetafictionCharacteristically Postmodern
Metafiction
‘All the World’s a Stage’: Parody, Play, and Intertextuality
Isn’t It Ironic?: Postmodern Irony
The Dominant of Postmodernist FictionMapping the Space of Postmodernism
The Call for a Spatial Metaphor
Postmodern Space, or the Cognitive Mapping of Late Capitalism
The Name of the Map: The Skein, the Maze, and the Net
Rhizome: The Postmodern Metaphor
Mapping (Hyper)Reality: The Orders of Simulacra
A ‘Structure of Consciousness’
The Postmodern Structure of ConsciousnessPostmodernism in PraxisWhodunit? And How Do We Know? (or Do We?): The Structure of the Epistemological Investigation in Detective Fiction
What Is Detective Fiction?
The Classical Model: Logic and Deduction
The Modernist Model: Legwork and Induction
The Postmodern Detective Novel: Can We Know Whodunit?
The Late Modernist Detective Fiction: Modernist with a TwistWhat World Is This? Who Am I (in It)?: The Structure of the Ontological Formation in Science Fiction
The History of Science Fiction
Ontological Certainty or Predestination: The Classical Approach
Ontological Uncertainty: The Modernist Approach—Dialectics
Who Am I?: (Moving Toward) the Posthuman Scenario
Ontological Indeterminability: The Postmodernist Approach
Conclusion, or What Does SF Tell Us About Postmodernism?The Postmodern Novel: How It All Comes Together, in a Rhizomatic Way
Svend Åge Madsen: Tugt og utugt i mellemtiden
Whodunit? And How Do We Know?
Back Then I Thought We Shouldn’t Punish One Another (Madsen 1992, 266)
Who Am I?: It Is All So Subjective
Who Is Telling This Story Anyway?: Narratological Levels and Ontological Uncertainty
The Postmodern Novel: Madsen StyleCoda: What Comes Next? (Or What to Do with a Problem Called Postmodernism?)
Where Do We Go from Here?: The Possibility of the Postpostmodern
Pro-Postpostmodernism: Or How One Argues for Postmodernism’s Afterlife
Neo-Victorianism
The ‘Outs’ of PostmodernismTrue PDF