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Irony, playfulness, black humourPostmodern authors were certainly not the first touse irony and humour in their writing, but for

many postmodern authors, these became thehallmarks of their style. Postmodern authors willoften treat very serious subjectsWorld War II,the Cold War, conspiracy theoriesfrom a

position of distance and disconnect, and willchoose to depict their histories ironically andhumorously.

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PasticheMany postmodern authors combined, or pastedelements of previous genres and styles of literature tocreate a new narrative voice, or to comment on thewriting of their contemporaries.

IntertextualityAn important element of postmodernism is itsacknowledgment of previous literary works. Theintertextuality of certain works of postmodern fiction,

the dependence on literature that has been createdearlier, attempts to comment on the situation in whichboth literature and society found themselves inthe second half of the 20th century: living, working,and creating on the backs of those that had come

before.

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MetafictionMany postmodern authors feature metafiction in theirwriting, which, essentially, is writing about writing, anattempt to make the reader aware of its fictionality,

and, sometimes, the presence of the author. Authorssometimes use this technique to allow for obviousshifts in narrative, impossible jumps in time, or tomaintain emotional distance as a narrator.

Temporal distortionTemporal distortion is a literary technique that uses anonlinear timeline; the author may jump forwards orbackwards in time, or there may be cultural andhistorical references that do not fit.

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Technoculture and hyperrealityIn his essay of the same name, Frederic Jameson calledpostmodernism the cultural logic of late capitalism.According to his logic, society has moved beyondcapitalism into the information age, in which we areconstantly bombarded with advertisements, videos,and product placement. Many postmodern authorsreflect this in their work by inventing products that

mirror actual advertisements, or by placing theircharacters in situations in which they cannot escapetechnology.

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ParanoiaMany postmodern authors write under the assumptionthat modern society cannot be explained orunderstood. From that point of view, any apparent

connections or controlling inf luences on the chaos ofsociety would be very frightening.

FactionWriters of faction tend to blur the line between fact

and fiction to the degree that it is almost impossible toknow the difference between the two, as opposed tometafiction, which often draws attention to the factthat it is not true. of paranoia to many postmodernworks.

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Magical realismArguably the most important postmodern technique,magical realism is the introduction of fantastic orimpossible elements into a narrative that is otherwisenormal. Magical realist novels may include dreams takingplace during normal life, the return of previously deceasedcharacters, extremely complicated plots, wild shifts intime, and myths and fairy tales becoming part of thenarrative.

Flattening of AffectFlattening of affect is a scientific term describing a person'sdetachment and lack of emotional reactivity.

Used in the postmodern literature to describe technology'sdehumanizing impact.

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ParticipationMany postmodern authors, as a response to modernism, whichfrequently set its authors apart from their readers, attempt toinvolve the reader as much as possible over the course of a novel.This can take the form of asking the reader questions, includingunwritten narratives that must be constructed by the reader, orallowing the reader to make decisions regarding the course of thenarrative.

Dystopia

Dystopias are societies usually characterized by decay and/oroppressive governments.

Sources: http://postmodernblog.tumblr.com/post/106532710/a-list-of-postmodern-characteristics

http://www.onpostmodernism.com/terms/

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