International Journal of Language & Literature

Modernism, Postmodernism, and Metamodernism: A Critique
Tawfiq Yousef

Abstract
In this article, I want to outline a few currents in contemporary literary theory. Three varieties of modernism will be investigated. In addition to the original approach labelled modernism, the paper investigates two other approaches that grew out from this theory, namely postmodernism and post-postmodernism or what is more commonly called metamodernism. Being the practice of a wide variety of literary critics for over a century, modernism has generated its two corollaries namely postmodernism and metamodernism which have become two predominant modes of critical analysis. As such, this subject requires an updated conceptual vocabulary and a critical analysis that can respond to the new changes in the critical readings of literary works. If individualism and sincerity were the distinguishing characteristics of modernism, and fragmentation and irony were the main features of postmodernism, it is true to say that engagement and oscillation are perhaps the watchwords of metamodernism. The paper will explore the main features of modernism, postmodernism, and metamodernism with special reference to some representative works that reflect these different modes of writing and reading literary works. More space will be given to the third concept.

Full Text: PDF      DOI: 10.15640/ijll.v5n1a5