SECTION:
Apocalypse Now? Eschatalogical Tendencies in Contemporary Literature
Victoria Lipina-Berezkina (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine)
"Apocalypses Large and Small" in Contemporary Literature and Theory"Endings, endings everywhere; apocalypses large and small" - by this subtle rhythmic allusion to a classical masterpiece (Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner") John Barth, the premier theorist and practitioner of postmodernism, starts his both serious and playful meditations on the concepts of the end of history and art in one of his latest books On with the Story. Stories (1996). The writer's comment on apocalyptic forecasting, which is usually connected with the death of postmodernism (Danto, Ziegler, Federman, Kernan, Morawski), is both theoretical and literary. J.Barth defends the artistic possibilities of the novel and literature in general from the death prediction. And here he is deliberately polemical.
The writer had all grounds to disagree with the idea of the death of postmodernism, which was discussed at the Stuttgart seminar The End of Postmodernism(1992), the general tone of which, however, was far from resembling a funeral. He declared that Postmodernist literature is "by no means finished". Even Federman in his ready-to-agree impulse suspected that what he had presented at the seminar was again another postmodern text.
Several years later John Barth will answer as an artist by his new book On With the Story. Stories (1996).
The paper focuses on the changes in postmodernist poetics of contemporary literature (English, American, Russian) suggesting that the Postmodernist literature at the end of the century is very much in tune with the deep roots of humanistic and personal involvement characteristic of the classical tradition. It proves that postmodernism does not mean dehumanization and the immorality of art. Intrinsic humanistic values are ingrained in any real art, and will be present until an author, a human being, creates literature.
The analysis of the novels of John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Stephen Dixon, Luigi Malerba, Peter Ackroyd and Vladimir Sorokin proves that the epoch of creativity has not ended and the aesthetic desire for Truth, that still "teases us out of thought" (Keats) outlines the current tendency in postmodernist art..
|
INST |