123423 SE Literary & Cultural Studies Seminar / BA Paper / MA British/Irish/New English (2014S)

Critical self-scrutiny is one of the determining characteristics of post-modern life and culture. The loss of religious, moral and philosophical certainties, the frequently cited ‘linguistic turn’ and the intellectualisation of artistic activity have all led to a radical questioning of language and the instruments of artistic portrayal. These factors have robbed writers of the late 20th century of the uncomplicated practice of their profession and have brought about an unprecedented growth in literary self-reflection in all three genres. Guided by a growing scepticism about the aptness of linguistically transmitted experience, twentieth-century authors examine the hidden laws of seemingly ‘realistic’ literature, expose the contrived and artificial nature of aesthetic illusion and reveal language to be a creative rather than a faithfully mirroring force.
While some authors find this deeply disconcerting and engage in a serious discussion of the fictional nature of human experience, others take delight in the freedom that dissolution brings. Many self-reflexive postmodern texts take readers on a riotous roller-coaster ride, in the course of which none of art’s time-hallowed conventions are allowed to remain unharmed.