Revolutionary Developments In Postmodernist Literature

The development of modern literature is undeniably linked with Postmodernism, a literary movement which emerged during the period of the 60s and the 70s. The arise of Postmodernist ideas was a total revolution, because it provoked a change in previous perspectives: there was a change in Criticism and also in the ways of teaching American Literature. However, when we talk about Postmodernism, it is impossible to forget Feminism and feminist ideas, which have been linked with this new perspective since then. After the repressed period of the 50s, feminist voices found in the Postmodern world their best way for self-expression. The aim of this essay is to highlight the importance of these new techniques in feminist literature which function as literary devices for expressing the repression and slavery of women, using three stories of ethnic women writers: Tillie Olsen`s Tell Me a Riddle, Grace Paley`s The Long-Distance Runner and Maxine H. Kingston`s White Tigers. During the rise of Postmodernism, Lyctard and Fredric Jameson became the two main literary critics of the moment: on the one hand, Lyctard dictated that in Postmodernism there was an absence of a discursive framework that served to legitimize social order, that is, in a way he assumed that in the same way that this new world was becoming chaotic, so it was the literature. As we can see in Grace Paley`s The Long- Distance Runner, the way in which the author presents some of the dialogues of the story is somehow chaotic, because all the characters speak at the same time. On the other hand, Fredric Jameson focused his critic in the foundational skeleton of art, which in this case, was substituted by superficial aspects. In Postmodern literature self- 1 conscious way styles predominate, as we can see in Tillie Olsen`s Tell Me a Riddle, where the whole story is subjected to the mind of the main character. It is also important the way in which authors used previous techniques, but in a parodic way. A clear example of this technique is Maxine H. Kingston`s White Tigers, where she uses traditional Chinese fairy tales as an ironical device for women`s situation in Chinese world. One of the main features of Postmodern literature is the idea that reality is no longer something objective, but it belongs to the self-conciousness of the individual (the whole story of Tell Me a Riddle is subjected to Eva`s mind). This new literature dismantles previous ideas that defend the reliability of the character, but it defends that everything is "distorted" through the main character`s mind. As we can see at the final part of The Long-Distance Runner, it seems that the whole story has been imagined by the main character, so we are not able to distinguish between reality and fantasy. As it has been already mentioned, Postmodernism breaks previous traditions: while the traditional canon was predominated by male writers, now the minorities emerge, in a sense, due to the powerful feminist critics as Kate Millet and Betty Friedan. Women writers, black writers and other minorities become visible and they will become the top writers of the modern world. These three stories are a reflect of the new feminist voices, coming up with feminist ideas and feminine main characters, which are common contemporary women characters of middle class families, influenced by cultural (patriarchal) traditions. Tillie Olsen`s Tell Me a Riddle is a story where readers are set in the minds of the characters during the great part of the time (we are able to know their inside world). However, there is not only a single perspective, but the story presents different points of 2 view, a technique which is typical of Postmodern literature. The work is presented through a kind of sketches, that is, the author jumps from one chronological moment to another without any link, however, the reader is able to identify the relation between each other. The reconstruction of the past becomes really important since Eva gets sick and the author presents this event through fragmentation: because our reconstruction of the past is subjected to memories, which are not clearly set in our minds, our view and explanation of past events are not clearly presented. As I have already mentioned, the unreliability of the narrator in this case is evident In delirium or not... (1834). We are subjected to Eva`s point of view during the great part of the story, so we do not know if she is telling past events or just inventing them. With the possibility of seeing her from different points of view, the reader realizes about the fact that the narrator cannot be trusted. The author uses Italics in some parts during the whole story: on the one hand, they express important or deeper thoughts dealing with the main idea of the story which is the search for freedom, but on the other hand, they also refer to historical moments dealing with Eva`s past. Another important element that deals with Eva`s past is the use of intertextuality: the author names different references that link the major themes of the story and which reflect the personality of Eva. Finally, it is important to mention that silences are evident during the whole story, not only in particular moments, but they are graphically presented. The use of these devices represent quite effectively the incommunication problem that surrounds the whole protagonist family. In contrast to the 3rd person narrator of Tell Me a Riddle which introduces the reader in the characters` inner world, we have the story The Long-Distance Runner, written by Grace Paley. In this case, the work is written in 1st person narrator, a narrator which tries to sympathize with the reader since the very beginning directing to them 3 through questioning Isn`t that true? (179). The author uses different symbolic names that represent what the character wants to reach, even the main character itself is called Faith. As I have previously mentioned, the use of dialogues in this story (which are presented through Faith`s thoughts, an important element of the subjective narrator) are kind of chaotic in the passage where Faith meets people from different nationalities. This chaotic dialogue does not only show the absence of social order, but it also presents the racial differences in new multicultural cities as New York. The author gives voice to social minorities and it comes up with prejudices and worries of these interracial kind of cities. As in Tell Me a Riddle, the main character reconstructs its memories of the childhood, in this case, memories which come to the surface while she is visiting her childhood`s flat. The author uses the building as the reminder of Faith`s childhood and as she passes different flats, we get deeper in her memories. Another identical device to Tell Me a Riddle used by Grace Pale is the use of silences in order to represent incommunication We had an extraordinary amount of silence after that (184). The ending of the story reinforces the idea of the unreliability: the story is presented as a kind of dream. We do not know if the events have happened or they have been part of her imagination. This mixture between reality and fantasy which is highlighted in the last paragraph by the author herself is part of the Postmodern idea of the new world (this idea of dreaming although being woken up, imagining a life you cannot have is very much present in this revolutionary kind of literature). In the case of White Tigers, written by Maxine H. Kingston, although the great part of the story is presented in 1st person singular, there are two important new technical devices: on the one hand, in the first paragraph we find the first person plural. Using this, the author wants to pluralise the story, that is, she wants to represent a 4 collective (the situation of Chinese women) rather than presenting an individual story. On the other hand, we find a story within the story which is also presented in 1st singular person, an important device in order to highlight the subjective perspective of both characters. The author presents nature as something connected to the mystic, an idea that has been developed through tradition and which is very important in Chinese world. The woman warrior of the story becomes a kind of admirable subject for the main character because of the fact that she goes against the prototypical role of women. It becomes an example for the main character for identifying and constructing her own identity. The author plays with the mixture between present and past, in order to show that something happening in the past can be still important in modern world, as it happens with the repression of women in Chinese modern world. But it also uses it in an ironic way: although it seems to be a fairy tale, the end of this tale finishes with the confinement of the woman warrior at home. The fairy tale does not serve as a great example for the main character, but from the fairy tales, I`ve learned exactly who the enemy are (2112). The story is circular in a way: it starts in the present, then it goes to the past in order to present the fairy tale, and then it comes back to the present. At the final part, and using irony again, the author does not present the fairy tale as a kind of epiphany, but the main character understands the final part as something that has to be avoid: woman should not stay at home, they have to be active. The identity of the main character is clearly formed in this final part and her identity as an active woman is presented as a way of being in conflict with her own culture. Tell Me a Riddle, The Long-Distance Runner and White Tiger are three contemporary stories that represent quite well the new perspectives of writing and search for identity of women. Although they have differences, they also have 5 similarities which undeniably refer to a Feminist movement that is still very important nowadays.