Literature 6v Post-Modern period

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The Post-Modern Period

6VWO Literature

Post-modern period

• Started mid-20th century (post-war context)

• Postmodern literature represents a break from the 19th century realism.

• Shares many of the features of Modernism. Taking things a step further (deliberately mixing genres/tenses, etc.).
  

• Parody and pastiche serve to remind the reader that the work is not “real” but fictional, constructed. Everything has already been done—every story has been told, and it's impossible to be 100% original anymore

• Postmodernism celebrates fragmentation. Embracing disorder and taking a more playful approach.

 

Parody vs Pastiche

Parody

• Imitates the style and content of another work.

• Humorous or satirical.

• Often involves exaggerating or distorting the original work’s elements to create a humorous effect.

• Form of critique or commentary on the original work.

Pastiche

• Imitates the style of another work or period.

• Homage to the original work

• Often involves the use of various elements such as characters, settings, and themes to create a new work that is reminiscent of the original.

Edwin Brock

• Born in London, 1927 (-1997)

• Brock's interest in poetry was inspired by a paperback of modern verse which he read when he was waiting to be demobbed from the Royal Navy at the end of WWII.

• Worked as a police constable and an advertising copywriter until 1972

• Published ten volumes of poetry

• He is known for the frankness in his writing

• Brock is one of the few British poets of this period to be known in America

Five ways to kill a man

• Published in 1972

• Recounts four important events of inhuman killings from the history in the first four stanzas.

• This is what the poet himself has to say: “It was one of those poems which wrote itself. I can remember distinctly sitting rather stunned at the end of The War Requiem, pulling out a piece of
  paper and starting to write and
  within a very short time, perhaps
  half an hour, the poem was written
  and I can’t remember that I ever
  changed a line.”

How to analyse a poem:

1. How does it sound? (Rhyme scheme, Rhythm, Flow, Pace…)

2. What are some of the details? (People or objects, references to history or other works)

3. Who is talking? Who are they talking to? (speaker, audience)

4. What does it mean? (Themes, subjects)

5. Can you find examples of literary devices? (symbols, similes, metaphors…)