Okuzeka
Literature vocabulary · Literary Movements

Postmodernism

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˌpəʊstˈmɒdənɪzəm/nounAdvanced term

In literature, Postmodernism means: A movement in literature after the Second World War that plays with form and questions truth, often through irony, parody, mixing genres and fiction that comments on itself.

In Turkish: postmodernizm, modernizm sonrası

How it is used

Associated with writers such as Italo Calvino, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth and, as a forerunner, Jorge Luis Borges. Key ideas include metafiction, pastiche and intertextuality. In Turkish literature, Orhan Pamuk's The Black Book is a frequently cited postmodernist novel.

Example sentences

  1. Calvino's novel about a reader trying to finish a book is a classic of Postmodernism.

  2. The postmodernist narrator keeps reminding us that we are reading a story.

Common collocations

  • postmodernist fiction
  • literary Postmodernism
  • postmodern novel
  • postmodern irony
  • ModernismAn early twentieth-century movement that broke with traditional forms and experimented with new ways of writing, such as fragmentation, multiple viewpoints and stream of consciousness.
  • intertextualityThe way texts shape and depend on other texts, through quotation, allusion, parody, imitation or rewriting, so that meaning comes partly from these connections.
  • ironyA contrast between what is said and what is meant, or between what is expected and what actually happens, often used for humor or criticism.
  • literary movementA group of writers in a particular period who share similar ideas, styles and aims, such as Romanticism, Realism or Modernism.

More terms: Literary Movements

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: