What Is Post-Postmodern Literature? An Introduction

Because Postmodernism proper wasn't a huge fucking mess by itself already.

David Foster Wallace's seminal essay E Unibus Pluram, on the need to overcome postmodernism in literature:
Michael Chabon's brilliant essay Trickster In a Suit of Light, on how entertainment is often perceived as quintessentially bad (especially in the American short story market):

James Wood's less awe-struck (but very healthy) essay on why Post-posmodernism might not be that incredibly cool after all:

Andrew Hoberek's article After Postmodernism is also real dope, but it's not available for free online. It's on Jstor; if you're a college kid, chances are you'll be able to get it through your Uni.
Otherwise you'll have to get creative.
EDIT: apparently you can read the essay online if you register as a free user on jstor. Thanks to Paolo for the info!

... Follow me on GoodReads!

[TrollBridgerton]

Man, you're the kind of guy I'd like to get a beer with.

[pekkanurminen]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. A great article on post-postmodernism has been written by a literary scholar Mehdi Ghasemi under the title of "Hyperhybridism: Postmodernism is Old but not Old Fashioned." Check it out. He is also a fiction writer and employs some features of post-postmodernism in his fiction books written in the hybrid genre of "noveramatry."

[lolololalala]

Congrats from Spain! I am working on my BA dissertasion right now, trying to apply a Post-Postmodern reading to a couple of non-ficiton essayistic works and your videos have been incredibly useful, especially to stop freaking out about the nonexistence of the whole thing. Anyways, thanks a lot!!

[thisisyrrobotfriend]

your comment that post-postmodernism should seek to repair emotional disconnection between the reader and literature reminds me of the part of Infinite Jest where Kate Gompert is describing the difference between anhedonia and clinical depression, and she mentions how art/culture teaches us to wear masks and hide our emotions. it comes off like a critique of our valuing this disconnect from emotion and our fear of appearing childlike in our sentimentality, especially in the context of the book as a whole.. so cool to find out that this section, while not only being super poignant, is also engaging in the discussion of how to advance past postmodernism

[CharlieBrown-osqw]

I'd read the comments but I don't want spoilers about Infinite Jest (460 pages in!) I read E Unibus and thought it was great, but I feel naive in the fact that I haven't experienced a whole lot of literature and honestly I feel *too* open in terms of accepting these theories. But I think it's really cool stuff, and important subject matter. Thanks for the awesome video!

[ocean.almajeda]

Holy shit... only in the last 18 months have I known about the named existence of postmodernism, when I began my postgraduate studies (Counselling Therapy) in a field opposite to my undergraduate (Zoology). I finally had a name and an academically reported movement to the way I thought and moved through society. It's been presented to me as current and the way of the future, but I have felt already ready to evolve from it. And I've ended up here! I decided to look into it after I heard it mentioned by a YouTuber I admire, Frank James, and then seeing life present examples of it now that I had an idea of it.
Yay! I'm going to read these articles. I'm super pumped!
lol i came to the party a couple years late

[thuntz]

Thank you for hearing us and discussing this topic! I wouldn't mind if you did a more extensive video. :)

[jelef]

THank you! This is great. I'm teaching a class on contemporary American literature and this was very helpful. I was a student of Andrew Hoberek's, so I"m using his work, and glad you found it helpful, too!

[KnowledgelostOrgOnline]

So glad you did this video, I don't think I have seen many people talk about post-postmodernism on BookTube. I really need to get a copy of Maps and Legends, Chabon is such a great author

[EliotmGunn]

Have you considered reviewing House of Leaves by Danielewski?

[ianian]

Postmodernism is the Vaporwave of literature.

[RyanRabid]

"...which has the worst name in the history of human thought." hahaha I couldn't agree more.
1) Your ideas on why Franzen is both popular and also gets criticized for being unoriginal makes so much sense to me. Thank you for saying them. I agree, Franzen's tactics sit so well with me because they seem to shrug off the burden of cleverness of Post-Modernism... he seems to just get down to the dirty work of characters and family dramas and straightforward plots.
2) So DFW's E Unibus Pluram is a bit of a holy text for me, especially as of a year ago when I was on the verge of entering a creative writing program. I was convinced I was going to enter an atmosphere where postmodern ideas like irony and metafiction ran rampant, and I was going to have to maneuver through that to try to write stories that, if they ran the risk of anything, ran the risk of being oversentimental. I know it's different at every school, but that hasn't been my experience. I think creative writing culture has moved pretty quickly past intense irony worship. For personal reasons, this is something I'm celebrating. (I guess that's just an anecdote I thought you might enjoy, from a CW perspective.)
3) Really excellent video, thanks once again! Brilliant as always!

[tornados]

I subbed recently after watching your review of broom of the system... the only thing that i've read that comes close to this topic, but it's a very interesting discussion and a hard thing to get your head wrapped around

[gabrielabilevich]

very thorough explanation, for a short video. I`m also interested in the topic for a postgraduate thesis

[davidallenwallace]

Hopefully, you still read comments on this thread. I have a few questions for you: what if post-postmodernism is dead? I think the world is ready to move past the work of David Foster Wallace (no relation), and react to the post-postmodern. Do you think we're ready for a new literary movement? Wallace's "breakthrough" with Infinite Jest was almost 30 years ago; how his relevant in 2021?

[asherdeep]

This is great, as most your videos are. My main interest is "post-postmodernism, " too--and I hope to be reading Eugenides and Lethem soon.

One thing, though: I thought Zadie Smith was a part of this scene, too--apparently her White Teeth was a part of it (?). (Note: I haven't read White Teeth myself, but have read Smith's On Beauty, which didn't strike me as post-postmodern.)

[pabloguzman]

I was thinking about The corrections while you were discussing an then you showed up Freedom. I really enjoy how Franzen manages to offer an intellectual view of our contemporary years while at the same time he is making you feel the narrative in a classical way. I read Middlesex a couple of years ago but I didn't even consider the postmodern aspects of the novel. I felt like I was reading classical literature set in our modern world. I'm very interested in this subject (I also watched your video on post modernism a few minutes ago and really enjoyed it. I've been following your book reviews and top lists for a while and I think this “introductory” series is a great addition to your channel) and I'd like to ask you if you have some bibliography recommendations on Literary theory in general, because though I'm more interested on contemporary texts, I feel like I need to have more academic background to fully understand what I want to understand. I'm actually studying biochemistry so it's hard to tell when a specific academic literary text is worth to be read :)

[bedet]

I have no idea if you read comments on old videos (I won't be offended if you don't ;) ). But I'm curious if you see a difference between PPM and the so-called "New Sincerity" movement. Are they just two different ways of basically saying the same thing? Or is there a meaningful difference?

[NCbassfishing]

Postmodernism is David Foster Wallace in a pair of khaki shorts.

[redforrori]

Interesting, thank you :) Honestly--I could listen to you talk about carrots, and still find it fascinating. I like your voice. Cheers.