Re: jds&postmodernism
Kevin Burns (kevbur@Muze.com)
Thu, 27 Aug 1998 09:12:06 -0400
Good question--M versus PM
How could Salinger's work be resistant to literary theory? It has always
been the wonderful works , wonderful in themselves-which both please and
instruct us-- that curiously *justify* lit theory (which one can take or
leave)--
Ihab Hassan's chart in which he double-lists the characteristics of
Modernism/Post-Modernism came to mind, so I quickchecked it and I see
words on both lists that click with a global reading of Salinger's
work....and it looks like JDS, perhaps, stands at a juncture of
Modern/PoMo....
I will pick 5 matchings from Hassan's chart, the first word being a
characteristic of Modernism, the second being a characteristic of
PostModernism. (It is an interesting list)
Form/Antiform
Form--his stories are New Yorker stories (whatever that really means)
Antiform-his texts are definitely "open, disjunctive"
Purpose/Play
Salinger's wonderfully digressive narrative strategies (purposeful)
certainly highlight play.
Design/Chance
Again, Salinger is a writer of great craft, who works from plan, and
everything is certainly *placed*....yet Chance is everywhere....
Master Code/Idiolect
Idiolect-certainly the narration in Catcher.
lisble (readerly)/scriptible (writerly)
Things break down here. I need to look at this more. Certainly his
stories would fall under readerly texts, to me anyway. Maybe Catcher
could be argued as falling under *writerly*. But this and eveything else
makes good classroom argument.
Maybe some of the characteristics that people have ascribed to Zen in
Salinger might also be ascribed to nascent PostModernism.
Maybe it's the *tug* in Salinger's work between Modernism and
PostModernism that gives his work special resonance.
I hope I have not ruined anyone's day.
Rereading Will's posting, I am smiling at the wonderful phrase "new
reading opportunities"--yup, yup, yup, yup, yup.
> ----------
> From: WILL HOCHMAN[SMTP:hochman@uscolo.edu]
> Reply To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
> Sent: Thursday, August 27, 1998 8:40 AM
> To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
> Subject: jds&postmodernism
>
> I'm interested in the way postmodernism (whatever that really means
> beyond
> fragmentation and synthethis) creates new reading opportunities in
> salinger's fiction. I think that "Hapworth" gets a better context
> these
> days than when it was published, but what about other salinger work
> and
> postmodernism? Is mr. salinger resistent to lit theory or are amateur
> readers assisted with new approaches to lit? will
>