One way that postmodernist fiction departs from modernist fiction other than the subject matter is the way it is presented on the page. In Ragtime, Doctorow gives the reader a picture of the setting of the novel by telling it through an unknown narrator, which is filled with subtle bias and a story-telling feel to it. At the end of Chapter 6, during the "it became fashionable to honor the poor" last paragraph, Doctorow includes a few aspects of postmodernist fiction that makes it clearly not modernist, and not a normal setting of a backdrop of a novel.
Doctorow uses repetition that is sort of conversational in this last paragraph.
"In the canneries and mills these were the hours they were most likely to lose their fingers...or their legs crushed; they had to be counseled to stay alert."
and
"In the mines they worked as sorters of coal and sometimes were smothered in the coal chutes; they were warned to keep their wits about them." (page 34 for my version).
These two sentences have similar structures and are adjacent, with a semicolon in between a clause describing the dangers of child labor and a clause explaining what was being done about it.
Another example of repetition:
"One hundred Negroes.... One hundred miners....One hundred children."(p. 34)
And also:
"There were oil trusts and banking trusts and railroad trusts and beef trusts and steel trusts." (p. 34)
These instances of repetition, I feel, sets this novel apart from modernist fiction because it is a completely new way of telling "history." Also, I don't remember seeing so much repetition in non-postmodernist fiction. In my opinion, it makes the tone seem more conversational.
My favorite postmodernist author, Haruki Murakami, takes this non-standard way of formatting to another level. It an eerily postmodernist way, Murakami, in his surrealist novel Kafka on the Shore, writes some portions of the thoughts of his main character, Kafka, from a boy named Crow's perspective, in boldface (I think the boy named Crow represents Kafka from a parallel world). I've never seem another novelist write in this format. This stood out to me and gave me the impression that Murakami was trying to depart from the normal standard of the format of novels, just like Doctorow in Ragtime is pioneering a new way of telling history, or at least giving readers the backdrop of a novel.
Doctorow uses repetition that is sort of conversational in this last paragraph.
"In the canneries and mills these were the hours they were most likely to lose their fingers...or their legs crushed; they had to be counseled to stay alert."
and
"In the mines they worked as sorters of coal and sometimes were smothered in the coal chutes; they were warned to keep their wits about them." (page 34 for my version).
These two sentences have similar structures and are adjacent, with a semicolon in between a clause describing the dangers of child labor and a clause explaining what was being done about it.
Another example of repetition:
"One hundred Negroes.... One hundred miners....One hundred children."(p. 34)
And also:
"There were oil trusts and banking trusts and railroad trusts and beef trusts and steel trusts." (p. 34)
These instances of repetition, I feel, sets this novel apart from modernist fiction because it is a completely new way of telling "history." Also, I don't remember seeing so much repetition in non-postmodernist fiction. In my opinion, it makes the tone seem more conversational.
My favorite postmodernist author, Haruki Murakami, takes this non-standard way of formatting to another level. It an eerily postmodernist way, Murakami, in his surrealist novel Kafka on the Shore, writes some portions of the thoughts of his main character, Kafka, from a boy named Crow's perspective, in boldface (I think the boy named Crow represents Kafka from a parallel world). I've never seem another novelist write in this format. This stood out to me and gave me the impression that Murakami was trying to depart from the normal standard of the format of novels, just like Doctorow in Ragtime is pioneering a new way of telling history, or at least giving readers the backdrop of a novel.
I also noticed how Doctorow uses a lot of repetition, in my opinion almost to connect or link different portions of the novel. I found some examples of really similar phrases when Doctorow was describing both Ford and the little boy. I definitely think the style is quite distinguished and possibly serves to go against the conventional way of writing--typically lots of repetition is not viewed as a positive thing. I also had sort of a jolt moment with regards to the Murakami thing. I have really enjoyed some of his books and up till know I hadn't really thought of him as a postmodern author, but thinking about it, it really does make sense.
ReplyDeleteYes, and with Mumbo Jumbo, this unconventional postmodernist formatting is even more apparent!
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