oops. I forgot to include how I could use postmodernism as a theoretical framework in my research...okay, SO
- Twain was the first to really move away from the traditional autobiography and write not from a linear, more "objective" view of his life. His autobiography was highly original in that it was fictionalized in many parts, it was not chronological, and it was representative of the FRAGMENTED self––which is very postmodern. Twain is never really looked at as a postmodern writer, BUT HE IS. Think about it––his life's work, fictional novels, were all essentially based on parts of his own life. So, one might ask, what was true and what wasn't? Well, in postmodern thought, the truth would depend on who you ask––and even then that would not be the definitive truth, because such a thing is unattainable by humans. Why was Twain's autobiography such a colossal failure, both among readers and critics? Because it was a POSTMODERN text that came out in the height of MODERNISM.
- So was Connecticut Yankee––I finally get it!––in the novel, the panacea of the world's ills could not be solved by technology, even when a man travels back in time and thinks he can "save the world" through technological advancements from the future. Human progress is really not progress at all, because we have the same problems in the dark ages that we do now, just in different forms. THIS is so postmodern. This is what Twain was getting at. Wow. cool.
- These are some thoughts. So, moving on to the celebrity area of ideas, Twain may have been the first celebrity because he was the first major figure to deliberately fragment himself, even posthumously. Parts of Twain were in his books, in his self- corporation, in his lectures, even in his trademarked pen-name.
Crown Jewel
(one of) Twain's favorite cigars
Byron's MOM
This is Lord Byron's mom. She liked books. And cake. (Well, it's actually not historically documented whether or not she liked cake, but I think it's safe to say she did because, well...everyone likes cake. And I will leave it at that.)
Twain
"Fool! The next time you want an image of me, search my full name! Otherwise you'll keep finding Shania in a push-up bra!"
KAWFEE
mmmmm
oh I really like where you are taking this. Like I said in my previous comment, I don't really understand pomo. ( In actuality I don't think I fully understand any of the theories so far, but I'm working on it.)
ReplyDeleteWhat I love so much about this post is the fact that you took your framework and gave me context and understanding through example.
You talk about the "fragmented self" which I think is so important when discussing Twain. And, I guess in terms of celebrity too. The foundation of being a celebrity is exposure and importance to the public world. But, completely conjoined to this idea there has to be a private self of the person, or at least I tend to believe this.
Twain seems so postmodern because he lived his life in this gray area between public and private, intertwining the two together till there was no differentiating for the outside observer. Is this what you call " anti- dualistic"?
I hope I'm starting to understand this a bit and not just rambling on incoherently.
oh, and how does Byron fit into all this? Can one use Pomo as a theoretical framework for Byron, even though he was way before the pomo revolution?
ReplyDeleteRight on, Ben! Also consider that he understood that the autobiographical "I" never actually represents the real, lived, biological experience of a person-- it (the autobiographical "I"... that is the "I" that narrates an autobiography) is always a imperfect mirror, a pastiche, a fictionalized sense of the natural, lived experience. That's completely po-mo. Have I told you about Sidonie Smith's book _Reading Autobiography_? I feel like I have, but I can't remember. She's a lit critic/scholar out of the the University of Michigan who really investigates the po-mo autobiographical "I." If you go in that direction, I would recommend that you read some of her work. I think some of her books are on google books.
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