A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction

by Linda Hutcheon

A Poetics of Postmodernism is neither a defense nor a denunciation of the postmodern. It continues the project of Linda Hutcheon's Narcissistic Narrative and A Theory of Parody in studying formal self-consciousness in art, but adds to this both an historical and an ideological dimension. Modelled on postmodern architecture, postmodernism is the name given here to current cultural practices characterized by major paradoxes of form and of ideology. The "poetics" of postmodernism offered here is drawn from these contradictions, as seen in the intersecting concerns of both contemporary theory and cultural practice.

Genres: Nonfiction, Theory, Philosophy, Criticism, Literary Criticism, Cultural Studies, Reference

284 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 1988

Reviews

[Mattia Ravasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Featured in my Introduction to Postmodernist Literature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT4L4...
Very interesting, very illuminating, though I don't buy Hutcheon's theory, or to put it differently, I don't like her categorization very much. Also, seriously Linda, a simile's not a metaphor, that's basic.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 2 out of 5]

In using the word "Poetics" in her title, Linda Hutcheon compares herself to Aristotle, Donald Trump would have been more modest and might have been more informative . There is certainly no Aristotelian typology in Hutcheon's book and no proposed norms. She admits as much in her conclusion where she writes: "Instead of a poetics what we have then is a problematics: a set of problems and basic issues that have been created by the various discourses of postmodernism." (P. 224)
What the reader gets in Hutcheon's book is, first, a thorough but dimwitted survey of the academic literature on postmodern literature and an exposition on "Historiographic metafiction" which is a category of the author's invention. This is where my problems begin. Hutcheon's book is filled with gobbledygook where plain speech might have worked better.
Historiography is the study of the writing of history. Hutcheon however uses the term "historiographic" to refer to novels set in the past. A work of historiographic metafiction is then an historical novel that alerts the reader to fact it is a product of the writing process.
The two defining attributes of historiographic metafiction are self-reflexivity and parody. It is also "inescapably political" (p. 4) because it consistently subverts historical myths and nostalgia.
Hutcheon also insists that historiographic metafiction is "ex-centric" in that its protagonists are frequently not white middle class males but instead blacks, Asians or women.
Historiographic metafiction is not revolutionary. It builds on tradition. "There is no radical new substitution of signs for the real. Postmodernist art foregrounds the fact that we know the real, especially the past, only through signs." (p. 230) Postmodernism reveals the literature of the past for what it is: a body of written texts. By undermining the illusions of literature it contests. By discussing the works of the past, postmodernism builds on tradition. Hutcheon concludes: "The double encoding [of the postmodern is] both contestatory and complicitious with capitalist mass culture and humanist high art." (p. 230). Using the postmodern approach, the author than can have his or her cake and eat it too. Historiographic metafiction is then an unqualified good.
The two leading novelists the genre appear to be John Fowles ("The French Lieutenant's Woman") and E.L. Doctorow ("Ragtime") who she constantly refers to. Umberto Eco ("The Name of the Rose") , Salman Rushdie ("Midnight's Children", Julian Barnes ("Flaubert's Parrot") and D.M. Thomas ("The White Hotel") are also mentioned frequently. Hutcheon seems eager to include as many prominent writers as possible in her category. She also cites Carlos Fuentes ("Old Gringo") Kurt Vonnegut ("Slaughterhouse Five), Norman Mailer ("The Armies of the Night.), Truman Capote ("In Cold Blood'), and Gunther Grass ("The Tin Drum'). Being a patriotic Canadian, Hutcheon also adds to her category Rudy Wiebe ("The Temptations of Big Bear"), Joseph Skvorecky ("Dvorak in Love") and Joyce Kogawa ("Obasan"). I personally think that Hutcheon has put some authors into her tent of historiographic metafiction that do not belong there but she nonetheless has demonstrated that the number that do belong is large enough that one can say that a school or tendency does in fact exist.
What I find particularly deplorable about Hutcheon is that denigrates liberal humanist while misrepresenting the liberal humanist position on human language. In the view of Hutcheon, the great contribution to our culture of historiographic metafiction is that it reveals the falsehood of "humanist faith in language and its ability to represent the subject or 'truth', past or present, historical of future". (p. 187) Language is not so much a means of communication but an instrument of political power. "Language paradoxically both expresses and oppresses, educates and manipulates." (p. 199)
Hutcheon, unlike Jacques Derrida whom she claims to be a follower of, does not seem to be aware that it was the liberal humanist Jean Jacques Rousseau in his "Discourse on Inequality" who said that the role of language in society was to impose order and enforce economic inequality. If Hutcheon had said that the dominant popular art forms of liberal capitalist society assume that language is able to represent the truth, she might have been on surer ground. Hutcheon has written an interesting work of literary criticism but when she ventures into either philosophy or history she exposes her limitations.

[Dajana]

Svakako vrlo korisna studija, uz napomenu da smatram da je to sve moglo na mnogo manje strana. Previše ima ponovljenih teza i parafraza jednog istog (nešto kao kad Bahtin govori o karnevalizaciji), ali bar sam zapamtila, pa to i nije tako loše. :)

Svakako preporučujem, ali bih se složila sa Tijaninim upozorenjem da je bolje čitati u originalu. Ja sam čitala sve u prevodu čisto zato što mi je prevodilac profesor Postmoderne teorije i književnosti i zanimalo me je sa čim imam posla. :D

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love both of Hutcheon's books I've read so far, in fact I keep returning to A Theory of Parody throughout my own work. But A Poetics of Postmodernism has a broader focus and will almost certainly become my go-to text for Hutcheon references in future.

Essentially Hutcheon's argument is that postmodern historiographic metafiction (a term she coined) is principally concerned with the epistemological status of the past (and therefore the present, which is constructed out of the past). This is the historiographic component--a concern with the logic, limitations, and strategies through which historical meaning is made and related. The metafictional aspect of these texts is the preoccupation with their own methods of historical meaning making, a meta- interrogation of the strategies used to narrativize and make sense of historical events, texts, and, artifacts.
So, for instance, a play like Tom Stoppard's Travesties shows us the processes through which Henry Carr tries to relate the history of his experiences in Zurich in 1917. The form of the play--with its breaks, repetitions, and shifts in the nature and dialects of its characters--prevents any mistaking the play for realist history, and the parodic interplay of various intertexts (Carr's faulty memories, as well as The Importance of Being Earnest, Tzara's poetry, Joyce's Ulysses, and the writings of Lenin) hints at the crucial role playaed by culturally constructed narratives and texts in constructing histories.

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 5 out of 5]

прекрасна Гатчен-2: весело, що на початку одразу "вибачається" за лінгвістичні варваризми (problematize, theorize, contextualize, totalize, particularize, textualize, etc.), але каже, що то не вона винна, а дискурс постмодернізму, в якому вони вживаються. далі вона бореться водночас і голіруч з усіма теоретиками і доводить, що основа постмодернізму - це історіографічна металітература, через що сама ж велику частину постмодерністської літератури відкидає (ту, де нема історії+металітератури), але натомість залучає до неї те, що до неї постмодернізмом не вважалося. насамкінець звіряється, що "поетики" в неї не вийшло, хіба що "проблематика". Гатчен прекрасна.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful for its descriptions and analysis of a type of fiction Hutcheon terms “historiographic metafiction," in which actual historical persons are represented interacting with fictional or even intertextual persons: novels like Ragtime, The Public Burning, The White Hotel and Famous Last Words are among the examples that Hutcheon discusses.

The book includes an extensive bibliography of works relating to the critique and theorizing of postmodernism.

[Filip · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quintessential text on postmodernism in literature and an invaluable resource for my personal research. Hutcheon does wonderful work in a little over two hundred pages, and I can't recommend it enough. Riveting stuff!

[Emannuel K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essa foi uma leitura demorada. Comecei a ler esse livro quando estava fazendo os primeiros esboços de um projeto de pesquisa para o mestrado, recomecei ele quando estava prestes a fazer a qualificação e terminei, finalmente, agora, quando me preparo para elaborar um projeto de doutorado. Apesar da demora, é uma leitura que foi muito importante para mim. Apesar de ter uma abordagem bem diferente da minha, a visão de pós-modernismo que é apresentada nesse texto fundamental de Linda Hutcheon bate muito com a minha visão, e com muitas coisas que pretendo explorar numa carreira acadêmica. O livro quebra com muitos dos preconceitos relacionados ao tema, que quase sempre é visto negativamente. Afinal, pessoas de todos os lados políticos e teóricos concordam em criticar tudo aquilo que é pós-moderno, muitas vezes usando essa palavra justamente para definir aquilo do que não se gosta. Para essas pessoas, não sei se a leitura seria muito boa, pois a teimosia é algo difícil de se desvenciliar, mas, para quem tem uma cabeça mais aberta, pode ser um rumo na floresta de significados do estudo da literatura e das artes. É fácil de ver que muitas coisas mudaram desde a publicação dessa obra, que os rumos do fazer artístico não estão mais no mesmo lugar, mas suas considerações continuam sendo importantes, se não por outro motivo, ao menos pela insistência de muitos em chutar o cachorro morto do pós-moderno.

[Sanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku yang sow-sowan d1b4c4, sebab harus dan perlu demi selesainya skkripsweet yang tidak penting-penting amat bagi perk3mb4ngan ilmu sastra. Jika saja menulis karya sastra dapat menjadi tugas akhir, barangkali saya akan lebih bersemangat mengerjakannya—selesai lebih cepat pula. Tapi entah kenapa, sekalipun profesor sastra di kampus saya sudah mencetuskan tentang kemungkinan profesi penulis, yang saat ini masih menjadi profesi pinggiran, suatu hari menjadi profesi yang pusat, menjadikan penulisan karya sastra sebagai tugas akhir belum diizinkan.

Kembali ke buku ini. Hutcheon mendasarkan gagasan posmodernismenya pada bidang arsitektur, utamanya karya Paulo Portoghesi. Modernitas yang ingin 'ditangguhkan' --barangkali kata ini tidak begitu tepat--oleh Hutcheon adalah jenis yang mengabaikan sejarah. Karena itu, karya historiografi metafiksi (sebutah Hutcheon untuk fiksi posmodernis) menggunakan sejarah sekaligus menyalahgunakannya. Penggunaan dan penyalahgunaan sejarah dilakukan untuk menyampaikan, hmm apa ya, semacam pendapat penulis, juga berusaha 'memunculkan' yang pinggir. Tapi bukan berarti menghancurkan pusat. Karena ketika pusat hancur, pusat-pusat baru akan muncul. Gitulah. 'not here not even there' menjadi semacam rumus yang seringkali saya temui di sini.

[David]

Another of those books of theory which I suppose I should have read 30 years ago at the start of my university teaching career instead of now nearing the end of it. I suspect that if I had seen this one when I was 29-30, I probably would have been much more resistant to its instabilities than the intervening 30 years have made me. Lots of good research on Hutcheon's part--her range of reference is encyclopedic--and (not surprisingly) a good sampling of Canadian textual examples, usually missing from international scholarship.

[Prerazmišljavanje - Katarina Kostić]

U mom paklu se iznova i iznova pada na kolokvijumu iz ovoga.

[Courier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredibly repetitive but has some interesting points but at what cost (i cannot for the life of me stand the word paradox anymore)

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it would be a lie to say I completely read this book, but books like these aren't always for reading front-to-back. Hutcheon has a truly deep understanding of the content, and she very thoroughly details the conversation surrounding postmodernism. Some of it is a bit over my head, but Hutcheon overall is skilled at making big ideas accessible and digestible.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Er, yes. I think I get the picture now. Problematizing the paradox of historiography as metafiction. OK. Good.

[Vanessa Hack Gatelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lendo pela quarta ou quinta vez, achei repetitivo (mas também, né...).

[Camila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this for the third time for research reasons and I still don't get why Hutcheon repeats herself so much.

[Khanim Garayeva · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Poetics of Postmodernism reflects Linda Hutcheon’s theorising postmodernism and historiographic metafiction, a type of narration that is principally concerned with the constructed nature of the past. The past which is the source of the present that is established on the past. The past that is not a nostalgic reminiscing of the forgotten but its parody. However, throughout the book, Hutcheon broadly elaborates on the modelling, limiting, decentering, contextualising, historicising, intertextuality, referencing, subjectivity, discourse and paradoxicality of the postmodernism, and thus, articulates the essential nature of historiographic metafiction. This book can be considered as one of the foundational studies of postmodernism with practical readings of major literary works as underlying basis.

[Patrick Diego · Rating 5 out of 5]

Achei a análise coerente, com categorias interessantes pra pensar o pós-moderno em termos de uma poética (no sentido generalizado mesmo). As críticas à concepção marxista de pós-modernidade (Jameson e Eagleton) é interessante. Agora é ler o outro lado.

[Mahitosh Mandal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucid and comprehensive. Critiques Baudrillard in a way that I had always considered as appropriate, even before reading this book.

[Nessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfuly enlightening book

[Kris Polidano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yup, that postmodernism sure is problematic!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should be an essential text on postmodernism just for its bibliography. Index is also quite useful. An interesting aspect of this book first published in 1988 is that it argues(d) the need for a poetics of postmodernism - which we take for granted now. This "arguing for" makes for more engaged reading than some of the other tomes in which so much is assumed. Strong sections on historiographic metafiction.

[F]

One of the best introductions to postmodernism by a very well-known scholar in the field. Between Hutcheon and Jameson, I find that I prefer Hutcheon, and that is my tea.