Postmodernism is a complicated term, or set of ideas, one that has only emerged as an area of academic study fairly recently, or at least post 1968. Postmodernism is hard to define, because it is a concept that appears in a wide variety of disciplines or areas of study, including art, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communications, fashion, and technology. The first movement in Postmodernism was in architecture.
In my opinion, postmodernism is a form of rejection. As far as I understand, it is a rejected passion for the new. Artists, authors, architects etc strive to create something different, something new, perhaps to create a market niche. I believe that postmodernism is a paradox of what is old and what is new, juxtaposed together to create a new concept. .
"For every feature you select for examination, another one bearing on the question can be offered with equal aplomb, even though it may point in an entirely different and even contrary direction. Earnest examinations of the fit between theory and reality are met with an ironic smile. Contradiction and circularity, far from being regarded as faults in logic, are in some versions of post-modern theory actually celebrated".
Kumar (1995: 103)).
What I understand from this is that selecting a piece of postmodern text and examining it is insignificant. By the time you have written your analysis on the text, another one comes along, breaking the boundaries of postmodernism in some other way. Also, by defining postmodernism we are being quite unpostmodern as postmodernism is rejection of all truths and definitions.
For analysis on the topic of post 1968 postmodernism, I have chosen three, what I believe to be, post modernistic authors. I chose Umberto Eco and his novel "Name of the Rose", Italo Calvino and his book "Mr Palomar" and Irvine Welsh with "Marabou Stork Nightmares" and "Trainspotting".
Umberto Eco, born in 1932 in Alessandria Italy is one of the main parties in the postmodernism movement.
