The word "postmodernism" was first seen by Christopher? Anisz's Selected Poems of Spain and Spain America, edited by 1934. Charles, the main theorist of the "Black Mountain Poetry School" in the United States in the 1950s? Olson often uses the word "postmodernism", which makes it more and more influential. At this time, the concept of postmodernism is just a backlash against the modernist literary trend of thought implied in literature, and there is no clear connotation definition. In 1960s, American critics had a profound discussion on postmodernism. The debate between Lyotard and Habermas in 1970s and 1980s raised this debate from North American critics to the level of philosophy, aesthetics and cultural criticism. Hassan tried his best to "summarize" the connotation, essence and extension characteristics of postmodernism. In the mid-1980s, the International Society for Comparative Literature organized three international seminars, which formally took it as a cutting-edge theoretical research topic and pushed the debate on postmodernism to a climax. Since then, postmodernism has become a well-known and widely used cultural term in the West, which is widely used in philosophy, aesthetics, literature and art. On the one hand, bread contains the continuation and development of modernism, and tends to extremes, with the meaning of absurdity, collapse and complete decadence; On the other hand, it shows the meaning of "pioneer", "newest" and modernization, and becomes a universal humanistic context and cultural tendency in post-modern society.
Postmodernism literature is the product of western industrial society. The theory of post-industrial society is a representative figure of futurism, Daniel, who was popular in the United States from 1950s to 1960s. Bell first proposed that human society has entered post-industrial society (or late capitalist society) from pre-industrial society, industrial society (or capitalist society). The post-industrial society is dominated by scientific knowledge and information technology, and characterized by informationization, computerization and automation of production affairs. The knowledge industry will become the leading industry of society. In the post-industrial society, all traditional lifestyles, cultural customs, value judgments, aesthetic standards, etc. Will be abandoned, all the traditional theoretical methods of class social analysis are outdated, social classes will be re-divided, and the combination of knowledge and education will be the standard. A brand-new era of technology and information has arrived. Bell's post-industrial society theory is generally accepted by western society. All kinds of humanities and theoretical propositions formed on the basis of post-industrial social theory are collectively called postmodernism. Post-modern literature, as the product of post-industrial society, is also the core and subject of post-modern literary trend of thought.
Since the 1950s, with the rapid development of science and technology, mankind has entered the fourth technological revolution with electronic computers as the core, that is, the era of electronic technology. The unprecedented development of science and technology has profoundly influenced and even standardized human behavior and values. Scientific achievements make everything lose its sacredness, mystery and historicity. Knowledge and education, science and information have become the centers of post-industrial society. On the other hand, after the 1950s, there were many crises in world wars, local wars, thermonuclear wars and cold war trade between the East and the West. Westerners turned from pessimism of fear and despair to radicalism of drug abuse, fighting, sexual liberation and rock music, hoping to get rid of their crazy venting. People give up paranoid beliefs and absolute social goals, and are unwilling to shoulder the heavy responsibility of politicians and philosophers, thus forming a diversified standard of living. The variation of value, the transformation of freedom, the popularity of various liberation movements, the division and factional struggle on a global scale, the wanton arrogance of terrorism, and the prevalence of nihilism and anarchy constitute a world picture without authority, loss of center and decomposition. The randomness and diversity of social psychology have become the main characteristics of post-modern society, which has greatly influenced post-modern literature.
Characteristics of post-modern literature
Postmodernism literature is the inheritance, transcendence and deviation from modernism literature, which is based on irrationalism and shows a fierce anti-traditional tendency. In contrast, modernist literature tries to establish new rules and paradigms centered on "expressionism" after abandoning the creative principle centered on "reflection theory" in traditional literature. Postmodernism, on the other hand, pushes the anti-tradition to the extreme, opposing both the old tradition of realism and the new rules of modernism. Deny the integrity, certainty, standardization and purpose of works, advocate unlimited openness, diversity and relativity, and oppose the restrictions of any norms, models and centers on literary creation. Even trying to deconstruct traditional forms such as novels, poems and dramas, and even the narrative itself. In post-modern literature, the aesthetic scope of art is infinitely expanded, including street culture, popular literature, underground culture, advertising language, common sense of consumption, life guide and so on. , have been carefully packaged and boarded the sacred palace of literature and art. After the culture has been "technical" and "industrialized", a large number of cultural masterpieces originally created by writers and artists have now been designed and produced by computers. Especially with the popularization of computers and the mass production of audio, video and laser discs, literature and art are no longer Chun Xue, but become daily consumption and commodities that everyone can enjoy at will. The development of science and technology has changed the position of culture in social life and people's cultural consciousness, resulting in a wide range of anti-culture, anti-aesthetics and anti-art tendencies. Although there are different opinions on the phenomenon of post-modernism literature, we can still see some artistic features of it as a whole from the theoretical opinions and creative practices of writers and from the aesthetic photos of their works.