Postmodernism in American Literature

Postmodernism in American literature

The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison often makes us question the credibility of what is being told, and uses many striking, sudden shifts between the past and present, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction. This blurring of the truth is a common element of postmodern fiction. In fact, many scholars would say that Beloved is a great example of postmodernism. (Ebrahimi 2005) Morrison uses this technique to bring about the suffering, growth, and resurrection of her characters, and abstractly, the entire black community. With the use of postmodern elements such as resurrection/reconstruction, self-reflection, and multi-narratives, Toni Morrison successfully develops the characters and the plot and in doing so furthers the emotional connection between the reader and characters.

First, let us define what postmodern fiction is. The term “postmodern” is too vague to define simply because it encompasses a very large amount of subjects and there are too many discrepancies in defining its genuine characteristics. Vaguely, postmodern fiction is a literary movement after World War II against modernist literature. It stands to question the reality, hierarchy, and organization of the principles of our society through literature. It questions the social, political, and economic conditions of certain historic and present events. “While postmodern fiction challenges mimetic representation, it also offers a new, more overtly textual and self-reflexive form of representation that exposes its own filtered or biased quality” (Michael 43) Instead of focusing on identifying universal themes in a literary work, it seeks the instability and ambiguity of human experience, with many interpretations. Techniques such as resurrection/reconstruction, self-reflection, and multi-narratives are all applied conventions of postmodern fiction and allow us to stray from the regular conventions of modernism.

Whereas Modernism focused on central themes and a united vision in a particular piece of literature, Postmodernism sees human experience as unstable, internally contradictory, ambiguous, inconclusive, indeterminate, unfinished, fragmented, discontinuous, "jagged," with no one specific reality possible. Therefore, it focuses on a vision of a contradictory, fragmented, ambiguous, indeterminate, unfinished, "jagged" world. ("An Introduction to Modernism & Postmodernism.")

Thus, postmodern fiction is a style of literature to represent a new age of questioning oneself and discovering the truth.

In Beloved, postmodern aspects are very prominent throughout the novel and are what give it its tone and uniqueness. In fact, Toni Morrison probably based much of how her novel was written off postmodern styles and characteristics. As stated earlier, postmodernism was a response to the chaos and inhumane acts from World War II, and the story in Beloved is based specifically after the end of slavery, symbolizing resurrection, or reconstruction, much like what was happening after WW II. Thus, resurrection, or reconstruction is a fundamental postmodern characteristic and is constantly expressed throughout the novel. The concept of resurrection is an ancient concept with many mythical/religious allusions. The comparison is too the mythical figure known as Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself for mankind. In Beloved, Sethe sacrifices her own child to save her from the cruelty of slavery. Eighteen years later, the baby is reincarnated through a young woman named Beloved, which is, ironically, the name on the tombstone of the baby.

A fully dressed woman walked out of the water. She barely gained the dry bank of the stream before she sat down and leaned against a mulberry tree. All day and all night she sat there, her head resting on the trunk in a position abandoned enough to crack the brim in her straw hat. Everything hurt but her lungs most of all. (Morrison 60)

This passage demonstrates resurrection as post-modernist and presents itself as a tool with which Sethe’s and Beloved’s characters develop, as much of the story is about telling a story, or metafiction, which is another post-modern characteristic, and gives us a sense that these events and their emotions are being recapitulated or recycled.

Through literature we seek to find meaning and truth of certain events, objects, etc. This is very much a modernist mentality. In postmodern fiction, we avoid drawing conclusions and begin to question everything we think we know to be true in our society, especially about ourselves. This puts us on a path towards self-reflection. This is the