Since late 60s and early 70s, new cultural trends developed in the western world

1. Post-colonialism. Derek Walcott

2. Feminism
3. Post-modernism
Changed the landscape, 1960s many social changes, the birth of modern feminism as a social
movement, many colonies started to achieve independence. These movements were the result of the
changes in the 60s, artists start to portray those changes.
Critics disagree regarding what is the meaning of the post, continuation or reaction. From the
beginning it is an ambivalent movement.
Late 19thc: REALISM. Reality can be perfectly portrayed by an artist. The artist tries to be as clear
as possible, reality was obvious.
In modernism, reality was more difficult to portray, it was hidden. The artist tries to discover it.
Like Guernica compared to The Waste Land.
Post-modernism. We cannot access reality. Fake news, reality being distorted. Who decides what is
clear? Our perception is probably the opposite. Extreme relativism. Impact of WWII. Reality
becomes a matter of perspective.
Modernism: of, relating to, or being an era after a modern one. Of, relating to, or being any of
various movements in reaction to modernism. Ironic self-reference and absurdity (playing with the
reader)
Combining is fundamental in post-modernism. Artist has complete freedom.
Shocking the reader, giving you what it is not expected. Things become very relative. Nothing is
sure anymore. Provoking is very post-modern.
Science and universal truths were what modernism was trying to achieve. Rules are meant to be
eliminated. Postmodernists wanted to challenge audience. An obsessive tendency to recycle the past
to make something new.
Modernism and the radio go together.
Expression and dynamics. Everything is disruptive. Notions like truth, history or reality are
questioned. Post-modernism breaks boundaries. Playing with the spectator is elemental. Truth is
hard to find, narrators are unreliable. Authors paying attention to the nature of a work of art.
The pendulum goes back and forth
1. Extreme relativism
2. Extreme intertextuality. Almost an obsession. This is a major change; high and low culture
are both in the same terms. Who decides what is important?
Meta-artistic/self-reflexivity (Las Meninas by Velázquez). A sonnet about how to compose a sonnet
written by Lope de Vega (17 th c). Obsession about how art is made, addressing the reader is typical.
The work of art looking at itself.
Remakes: nothing is new anymore. They give you something you can make a connection with. Play
with nostalgia (allusions are related to intertextuality).
Julian Barnes appeared in the 1980’s. Began his career as a television critic. He knows very well
popular culture. Obsessed with France, always writing about it. Intertextuality and references
connected to Gustave Flaubert. Barnes’s prose is elegant, witty and playful.
A plot we can follow. Psychological realism, it’s like a game. Edna O’Brien used a very realistic
style meanwhile Barnes.
19th c themes of adultery written by men. Women tended to kill themselves,