https://ijmri.de/index.php/jmsi
volume 4, issue 5, 2025
437
THE DEVELOPMENT OF POSTMODERNISM IN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Rakhmanova Viktoriya
Teacher, Uzbekistan State World Languages University
ABSTRACT:
The article refers to Postmodernism in American literature, which emerged in
the mid-20th century as a reaction against the ideals of modernism, embracing complexity,
ambiguity, and skepticism toward universal truths. Characterized by fragmented narratives,
metafiction, pastiche, and irony, postmodern American writers challenge traditional storytelling
conventions and question established cultural and social norms
Keywords:
Postmodernistliterature,metafiction,fragmentation,sceptecism,narrativeness,irony,stor
ytelling,Intertextuality,literary styles,literary trends.
A New Shift in the Value Paradigm researchers recognize the United States as the birthplace
of postmodernist literature -- it was from here that postmodernism spread across Europe. The
theory of postmodernism began skepticism.to take shape in the United States on the wave of
interest in the intellectual-philosophical, post-Freudian and literary concepts of the French
poststructuralists. Postmodernism in American literature is a literary movement that developed
after World War II, roughly beginning in the late 1940s and flourishing from the 1960s onward.
It arose as a reaction to Modernism, questioning traditional values, literary forms, and the
concept of objective truth.
The key features of postmodernism are the following: Metafiction (Writing that is self-aware; the
text draws attention to itself as a work of fiction.)
Fragmentation (Nonlinear narratives, broken timelines, and disjointed plots reflect the chaos
and disillusionment of modern life.) Intertextuality & Pastiche (Mixing different genres, cultural
references, and literary styles.)
Irony, Parody, and Dark Humor (A common tool for critiquing culture, politics, and media.)
Skepticism toward "Grand Narratives"(Challenges overarching ideologies or truths (e.g., religion,
nationalism, historical objectivity).
Simulacra and Hyperreality (Reality is seen as constructed or simulated, often through media and
technology (influenced by Jean Baudrillard).
American soil turned out to be the most favorable for the perception of new trends for a number
of reasons. Here, there was a need to comprehend those tendencies in the development of art and
literature that had made themselves known since the mid-1950s (the emergence of pop art, which
made quotation the leading artistic principle) and were increasingly gaining strength, which led
to a change in the cultural paradigm in the mid-1970s: modernism gave way to postmodernism.
The time did not inspire hope, it left no way out. The way out was the exciting path of literary
play, daring experiment, parody. These two moments: first, the sense of the absurdity of social
life and history, and second, the taste for literary play, -- in various combinations, determined the
essence of American postmodernism, which was the main trend of US literature in the 60-70s,
remained an important factor in its development until the mid-80s and largely influenced its
future fate. As is known, literary postmodernism is not specific to American literature alone. And
therefore, the words of some critics sound paradoxical, asserting: "Unlike modernism, which
appeared in Europe, postmodernism is a purely American phenomenon." Meanwhile, there is a
large grain of truth in this paradox. Indeed, unlike European postmodernism, postmodernism in
the USA is not genetically connected with the "high" modernism of the beginning of the century.
https://ijmri.de/index.php/jmsi
volume 4, issue 5, 2025
438
Virtually devoid of a literary basis, postmodernism in the USA arose exclusively on a socio-
cultural basis. Modern America, with its purely technological superiority, cultural heterogeneity
and rapid erosion of moral and political convictions from modern American life, was a country
of a distinctly postmodern culture. This tendency characterizes the works of the emerging
postmodernist literature, in which the gap between "art for the educated" and its simplified
version "for the uneducated" is overcome, an exit beyond the established boundaries of literary
trends, genres, reader expectations, etc. is outlined. The act of trampling boundaries is considered
by Fiedler as an act of gaining freedom. The harbingers of the latter are John Barth and Norman
Mailer, who were the first to combine the mass and the elite in their works. The American
theologian Harvey Cox in his works of the early 70s, devoted to the problems of religion in Latin
America, widely uses the concept of "postmodernist theology". However, the term
"postmodernism" gained popularity thanks to the architect and theorist Charles Jencks. In his
book, The Language of Postmodern Architecture, he noted that although the word itself was used
in American literary criticism in the 1960s and 1970s to denote ultramodernist literary
experiments, the author gave it a fundamentally different meaning. In his article, The Rise of
Postmodern Architecture, Jencks proposes ideas about the pluralism of art and the rejection of
templates: the more options for reading the meaning (the image of a building), the more
significant the meaning itself. (Jenkins, 2004) The ideas of French poststructuralists, and
especially Jacques Derrida (who worked at Yale University for some time), that migrated to the
United States helped to better understand the processes taking place in American art and gave
new impetus to discussions about postmodernism. In 1975, the magazine "October" began to be
published, edited by Rosalind Krauss, which played a major role in promoting the discoveries of
representatives of the new French philosophy, cultural studies, psychoanalysis, literary criticism
and in uniting the efforts of American intellectuals to understand the phenomenon of
postmodernism. The theory of postmodernism received a systematic design in the works of the
American scientist I. Hasan. Over time, the conceptual paradigm of postmodernism in the United
States influenced not only literature and art, but also the entire complex of humanities, including
psychoanalysis, criminology, psychology, law, sociology, business and management.
Some of the most notable Postmodernist authors include:
Thomas Pynchon: Known for his complex, paranoid narratives, Pynchon is a key figure in
Postmodernist literature. His novels, such as 'Gravity's Rainbow', are characterized by their
complexity, playfulness, and experimentation with form and style.
Don DeLillo: DeLillo is a prominent Postmodernist author known for his exploration of the
intersection of politics, media, and culture. His novels, such as 'White Noise', are characterized
by their playfulness with language and narrative structure, as well as their blurring of boundaries
between high and low culture.
Toni Morrison: Morrison is a Nobel Prize-winning author known for her use of magical realism
to explore the African American experience. Her novels, such as 'Beloved', are characterized by
their experimentation with form and style, as well as their rejection of grand narratives and
metanarratives.(Lee,2025) One of the most prominent American writers of postmodernistic era is
Jonathan Franzen.
Jonathan Franzen turns to the genre of social / family novel at the beginning of the 21st century,
which in the modern literary process looks no less than strange. On the one hand, the novels
"The Corrections" and "Freedom" create the impression of a long and endless series - a product
for the masses. But Franzen declares: I wanted to write a Great Social Novel. For the author, it is
not the game with a bizarre pattern of form, not the eccentricity of style, not the performance that
is of great importance, his attention is riveted to the social subtleties of the family way of life in
the USA. Franzen amazes with his deep encyclopedia and meticulousness of the characters of all
the heroes - central and episodic. Franzen shocks the reader with the naked truth of life: a
detailed description of Albert's illness, Richard Katz's carnal thoughts, Harry's dreams and
desires, Walter's mania on the issue of overpopulation. However, Franzen gives us the
opportunity to classify his works as postmodernism. The author uses such techniques as
https://ijmri.de/index.php/jmsi
volume 4, issue 5, 2025
439
discreteness of narration, pluralism of genres (letters, autobiography of the hero), intertext.
Franzen strives to destroy the stereotyped perception of modern American society: they also
suffer, they are the same as us. The only thing that prevents him from remaining firmly within
the framework of postmodernism is axiology. Jonathan Franzen offers the reader not just to
immerse themselves in the epicenter of the events of September 11 or the atmosphere of a
steamship cruise. The writer insistently asserts: something is wrong with this world, something is
missing. The absence of values sucks in all the best in human life like a black hole, leaving
one alone with a sense of guilt, depression and anger. They are the ones that come when faith in
the triumph of truth and the desire for it disappear in the souls of the heroes. Franzen's novels are
acutely social, psychological and, in their own way, life-affirming. The author has fulfilled his
duty - he writes the truth of life in the language of life itself, he does not put a cross on this life,
the writer appeals to the enduring values of life: love, kindness, loyalty and honor.
The Corrections in the autobiography and in the plot of the novel Jonathan Franzen's novel "The
Corrections" was published in 2001 and brought the forty-two-year-old writer worldwide fame.
The book instantly became a bestseller and received the prestigious National Book Award in the
USA, was translated into 35 languages. The idea for the novel came to the writer in 1993, during
a period of difficult relations in marriage and family: the threat of divorce loomed, the father was
terminally ill, the deplorable financial situation oppressed the spouses. By the end of 1994, the
marriage finally fell apart, affecting the author's worldview, but not depriving him of faith in the
sacredness of marriage: "This change could have become a source of joy and liberation for me,
but I still experienced a terrible sense of guilt. Loyalty, especially to one's family, has been and
remains one of my core values. Loyalty to the grave has always given my life meaning. I suspect
that writers, less burdened by notions of loyalty, find writing easier, but every serious writer has
to some extent, at some point in their lives, experience an internal struggle between two desires:
to write well and to be good." Franzen comes to the realization that the inclusion of
autobiographical details in the plot does not interfere with the plot at all, on the contrary, it
makes it real. The inevitable feeling of guilt for a writer is embodied in the leitmotif of the novel:
all the characters in The Corrections experience guilt to one degree or another, and strive not
only to understand its causes, but also to overcome it. Initially, the main plot line was supposed
to be the life of a young Midwesterner, Andy Eberant, who goes to prison for twenty years for
the murder committed by his wife. The hero underwent many transformations during the work
on the novel, but in the end he was awarded a gravestone and an epitaph: "quotes from the
second part of Faust: "Den konnen wir erlosen"". Andy was the embodiment of depression and
guilt - "above all towards women, especially in terms of the age limits of motherhood". However,
changes in the author's life did not allow such a hero to become the face of the novel: "I still felt
very guilty, but I had distanced myself from my wife enough to see that I was not the source of
all the troubles". It was important for Jonathan Franzen to write a Great Social Novel, a real one,
without false notes and, especially, without heroes, which Andy turned out to be. Therefore,
Franzen honestly admits to himself: "I will succeed in a new novel only if I change as a writer.
And that means I change as a person" . In parallel with the image of Andy, the author writes the
story of Enid and Lambert, arranging for himself a "long and pleasant vacation.Franzen comes to
the conclusion that the main thing is to remain true to yourself, then the story becomes real. For
almost ten years, Jonathan Franzen worked on the novel "The Corrections", simultaneously
making corrections to his personal life and the lives of the characters. The main characters of the
novel are Alfred and Enid Lambert, an elderly married couple, and their three children - Gary,
Chipper and Denise. Franzen writes an image of a modern American family, detailing the
characters and the setting, the time itself and the world around the characters.
Postmodernism represents a significant shift in American literature, marking a departure from
the certainties and conventions of earlier literary movements such as modernism. At its core,
postmodernism is characterized by its deep skepticism toward grand narratives and universal
truths, embracing instead fragmentation, paradox, and ambiguity. This movement challenges the
https://ijmri.de/index.php/jmsi
volume 4, issue 5, 2025
440
traditional boundaries of storytelling by experimenting with form, structure, and language—often
blurring the lines between fiction and reality, author and reader, text and context.
The postmodern literary landscape reflects the complexities and uncertainties of the
contemporary world, where identities are fluid, histories are contested, and meaning is constantly
constructed and deconstructed. Through techniques like metafiction, pastiche, and unreliable
narration, postmodern writers invite readers to participate actively in the creation of meaning,
highlighting the subjective nature of experience and truth. This approach not only destabilizes
fixed interpretations but also encourages a critical engagement with the text and the cultural
conditions it emerges from.
Authors such as Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Kathy Acker, and Toni Morrison exemplify the
diverse voices within postmodern American literature, each bringing unique perspectives to
questions of identity, power, race, and technology. Their works demonstrate how postmodernism
serves as a lens through which to interrogate the socio-political realities of the late 20th and early
21st centuries. Moreover, postmodernism’s influence extends beyond literature, impacting
philosophy, art, and cultural criticism, making it a pivotal movement in understanding
contemporary thought and culture.
While some critics have viewed postmodernism as nihilistic or excessively relativistic, its
contribution lies in its ability to open new avenues for exploring the fragmented nature of reality
and the multiplicity of human experience. It challenges readers and writers alike to rethink the
role of narrative, question authority, and embrace complexity without resorting to simplistic
answers. In doing so, postmodernism enriches American literature by expanding its formal
possibilities and deepening its thematic concerns.
In conclusion, postmodernism in American literature is not merely a stylistic trend but a
profound cultural response to the conditions of modern life. It compels us to confront uncertainty,
ambiguity, and the constructed nature of meaning, ultimately reshaping how stories are told and
understood.
As American literature continues to evolve, the legacy of postmodernism remains central to its
ongoing dialogue with history, identity, and the ever-changing landscape of human experience.
References:
1.
Everett H. Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics, Reviews of Modern
Physics - 1957. - Vol. 29. - PP. 454-462
2.
Kurzweil E. The Age of Structuralism: Lévi-Strauss to Foucault. - New York: Columbia
Univ. Pr., 1980. - 256 pp.
3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
4.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/02/04/gravitys-rainbow-2
5.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/20/don-delillo-white-noise-review
6.
7.
8.
