English Final
http://birminghamfreepress.com/wordpress/?m=200803
Themes and Techniques
Irony, playfulness, and black humor became trademarks for most postmodern authors. Postmodern authors often choose very serious subjects, like wars and conspiracy theories, and depict their histories ironically and humorously. Many postmodern used pastiche, which is to combine elements of other genres and styles of literature to create a new narrative voice. Popular elements are detective fiction, science fiction, and war fiction, songs, pop culture references, and well-known, obscure, and fictional history. An important element of postmodern literature is intertextuality. Intertextuality is the acknowledgement of previous literary works in a story. Many postmodern authors feature metafiction in their writing, which is writing about writing. This is an attempt to make the reader aware of its ficitionality, and the presence of the author. Some postmodernists use temporal distortion, which is the use of a non-linear timeline. This is where the author jumps either back in time or foward through time. Many postmodern authors use paranoia in their novels. Thought process heavily influenced by anxiety and fear is Paranoia. Paranoid thinking includes persecutory beliefs because the person believes they are in danger or is threatend by something or someone.
