The term Postmodernism had emerged as a result of Modernism. In another words, Postmodernism can be considered as a reaction or response to Modernism in the late twentieth century. Postmodernism rejects some views of what Modernism came up with, but not all of them. Postmodernism supported some views of Modernism, it does not differ from Modernism , they seem very much like each other in many ways ; they differ from each other in the concept of attitude towards certain trends . Modernism, for example tends to presents the idea of fragmentation as something tragic, something to be commiserated. Whereas, Postmodernism does not see the idea of fragmentation as something tragic, or something to be lamented, but rather celebrates that. Postmodernism used to describe certain characteristics of post-world war II literature and to reject the idea of Enlightenment implied in Modernist literature. In this chapter, we will see the definition of postmodernism,characteristics and features,and the most famous figures of postmodernism.
1.2. The postmodern American Poetry
1.2.1. Definition
We found many definitions of postmodernism,each one of them describes postmodernism and gives the full image about what postmodernism is in many aspects and sides. Postmodernism era creates a wide range of developments in various scopes, we chose to define postmodernism in a way that it covers all what postmodernism is about.
Postmodernism is a term that encompasses a wide-range of developments in philosophy, film, architecture, art, literature, and culture. Originally a reaction to modernism, referring to the lack of artistic, intellectual, or cultural thought or organized principle. Started around 1940s, exact date is unknown. Peaked around the 1960s and 1970s with the release of Catch 22 and SlaughterhouseFive (“Postmodern presentation “).
