Archive for May 2007
About this project!
The reason I have made this blog is because it is a school assignment. I have to make a blog, write a research paper on the author of my choice and write a creative short story that relates to the author’s genre that i’ve chosen.
I chose William S. Burroughs.
My research question is: How did Burroughs friends and drug use affect his writing.
I chose Burroughs because my friend told me she did him for a project last year and he was cool and i would enjoy researching and learning about him.
I learned that Burroughs almost single handedly created a new lterary movement: the beat movement.
I would like to know if Burroughs died because of his drug use.
Add a comment May 14, 2007
Postmodernism Characteristics
http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu/karyn.hollis/prof_academic/Courses/2104/mod_vs_post_mod.htm
Indeterminacy of Meaning
Meaning from language; not fixed
Fragmentation
Preference for montage, collage, paradox, found objects
Decanonization
Distrust of Meta-narratives
Death of God, Man, Author
Deconstruction of Phallogocentric orderSelflessness–
Surface is all; no more “deep” heros or “pregnant symbols”
No “masterpieces”
No depths, no interpretations; depthlessness
Interest in “play of language”
Failure of social and linguistic systemsTexts deconstruct themselves rather than provide stable, identifiable meaning
Language becomes subject matter–its implications in human experience
Text always in dynamic state of change; provisional meaning
Suspicions of representation
Always working within dominant discourse
Critical revisiting of literary past
Discourse shapes social roles, “reality,” human subjectivity
Reality as unrepresentable, no mimesis
Delight in artifice of writing, rather than to make contact with perceived extra-fictional reality
Prefers irony, hybridization, mutation of genres
parody, travesty, pastiche
Merging of popular and “high” cultural forms
–non-fiction novel
–mixed media
Carnivalization, inside out, clowns uncrowning of kings
Interest in performance; culture as performance of roleFragmentation of subject/ point of view
Loss of psychological unity
Past becomes nostalgia (return to past or home)
Feminist deconstructionDominance of commercialism
Human powerlessness in face of technology
Increasing fragmentation of contemporary life
Fascination with technology
Rejection of universal reason as foundation for human affairs
Politics of terrorism
Add a comment May 11, 2007
