In the early 20th century, when the idea that God is dead was first introduced into the general culture, it caused infinite anguish and a great sense of loss. Writers and artists, and then people in general began to question the very meaning of life, and finally arrived at the conclusion that, if there is no God, life is inherently meaningless. Objective truth does not exist; all we have to rely on is our own perspective--our own truth--since that is all we can see.
Most of the literature written before World War II (most notably T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby) dealt with the issue of how people could go on living with these realizations.
By the end of World War II, though, these ideas had been culturally (although not necessarily individually) assimilated. After the atrocities of the war, it wasn't so hard to accept the idea that there was no benevolent God watching over every little sparrow,a nd life had been thrown away on too large a scale for people todeceive themselves that it had any real meaning. Even in the midst of their joy and relief that the war was over, the predominant attitude was disillusionment: "Okay, so God is dead and life is meaningless. Now what?"
In the aftermath of a war whose actions and results were almost incomprehensible, writers found themselves with new dilemmas: the pre-war world was gone, and a whole new world had taken its place. Postwar writers concerned themselves not so much with moaning over the loss of God, but with how to find ways to cope with a world in which the only constant was change. And as life changed ever more and ever more rapidly, literature changed with it.
Contemporary literature is difficult to characterize because it reflects contemporary life and culture, which is rapidly changing and full of contradictions. But there are certain trends which stand out. (These are generalizations, remember; there are exceptions.)
First, contemporary literature is no longer "innocent," but ironic. It reflects our political, social, and personal disillusionment, and no longer dares to believe it can create anything new. It can only cast the old in new forms. In the postscript to "The Name of the Rose," Umberto Eco explains:
I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows he cannot say to her, "I love you madly," because he knows that she knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there is a solution. He can say, "As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly." At this point, having avoided false innocence, having said clearly that it is no longer possible to speak innocently, he will nevertheless have said what he wanted to say to the woman: that he loves her, but loves her in an age of lost innocence. If the woman goes along with this she will have received a declaration of love all the same.
Neither of the two speakers will feel innocent, both will have accepted the challenge of the past, of the already s ad, which cannot be eliminated; both will consciously and with pleasure play the game of irony...But both wll h ave succeeded, once again, in speaking of love.
Some writers (although not all), in fact, believe that innovation is no longer possible. There are only so many ideas and combinations of ideas, and they've all been used. All that's left is to imitate, in as fresh a way as possible, what the past has left us. As an example, critic Fredric Jameson points to Star Wars
ในช่วงต้นศตวรรษที่ 20 เมื่อความคิดที่ว่าพระเจ้าตายถูกก่อนนำเข้าสู่วัฒนธรรมทั่วไป เกิดความปวดร้าวอนันต์และรู้สึกสูญเสีย นักเขียน และศิลปิน และคนทั่วไป เริ่มสอบถามมากความหมายของชีวิต และสุดท้าย มาถึงข้อสรุป ถ้ามีพระไม่ ชีวิตว่าตนเองมีความ ความจริงวัตถุประสงค์มีอยู่ สิ่งที่เราต้องพึ่งเป็นมุมมองของเราเอง - ความจริงของเราเอง - เนื่องจากนั่นคือทั้งหมดเราสามารถดู ส่วนใหญ่ของเอกสารประกอบการเขียนก่อนสงครามโลก (ส่วนใหญ่ Wasteland T.S. เอเลียตและห้องเอฟสก็อตดี Gatsby) ลแก้ปัญหาของวิธีคนอาจไปอยู่กินกับ realizations เหล่านี้ โดยจุดสิ้นสุดของสงครามโลกครั้งที่สอง แม้ว่า ความคิดเหล่านี้ได้รับวัฒนธรรม (แต่ไม่จำเป็นต้องแยกกัน) ขนบธรรมเนียมประเพณี หลังจากในยามสงครามสงคราม มันไม่ได้ดังนั้นยากที่จะยอมรับความคิดที่ว่า มีพระไม่กลายชมทุกนกกระจอกน้อย ชีวิต nd ก็ถูกโยนไปบนมาตราส่วนขนาดใหญ่เกินไปสำหรับคน todeceive ตัวเองว่า มันมีความหมายที่แท้จริงใด ๆ แม้อยู่ท่ามกลางความสุขและบรรเทาที่สงครามได้ ทัศนคติกันได้ disillusionment: "ถูก เพื่อพระเจ้าจะตาย และชีวิตจะไม่ อย่างไร"In the aftermath of a war whose actions and results were almost incomprehensible, writers found themselves with new dilemmas: the pre-war world was gone, and a whole new world had taken its place. Postwar writers concerned themselves not so much with moaning over the loss of God, but with how to find ways to cope with a world in which the only constant was change. And as life changed ever more and ever more rapidly, literature changed with it. Contemporary literature is difficult to characterize because it reflects contemporary life and culture, which is rapidly changing and full of contradictions. But there are certain trends which stand out. (These are generalizations, remember; there are exceptions.) First, contemporary literature is no longer "innocent," but ironic. It reflects our political, social, and personal disillusionment, and no longer dares to believe it can create anything new. It can only cast the old in new forms. In the postscript to "The Name of the Rose," Umberto Eco explains:I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows he cannot say to her, "I love you madly," because he knows that she knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there is a solution. He can say, "As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly." At this point, having avoided false innocence, having said clearly that it is no longer possible to speak innocently, he will nevertheless have said what he wanted to say to the woman: that he loves her, but loves her in an age of lost innocence. If the woman goes along with this she will have received a declaration of love all the same.
Neither of the two speakers will feel innocent, both will have accepted the challenge of the past, of the already s ad, which cannot be eliminated; both will consciously and with pleasure play the game of irony...But both wll h ave succeeded, once again, in speaking of love.
Some writers (although not all), in fact, believe that innovation is no longer possible. There are only so many ideas and combinations of ideas, and they've all been used. All that's left is to imitate, in as fresh a way as possible, what the past has left us. As an example, critic Fredric Jameson points to Star Wars
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