PostMod+Literary+Movements

=The Postmodern Literary Movement in Poetry= By: Brittany T Post modernism is loosely definable. It's characteristics and qualities lend itself to intentionally be unique, abnormal, and cover topics that are not easy to pin point and generalize. Postmodernist poets typically agree that poetry should not be limited by syllable, meter, and stanza patterns. Most often postmodern poetry is free verse and of the experimental variety. These poets embrace spontaneity within their poetry in terms of subject, technique, and layout of the poem. Often times, society misunderstands postmodernist poetry and labels it as incompetent or not as a fraud of poetry. At first glance, these poems can seem aimless and fail to develop insights. However, postmodern poetry does have a goal, to make people climb out of their comfort zone. To indulge in topics that would otherwise have been left unexplored. To develop an insight foreign completely to that one has always known. Post modernism has a method to it's madness.

Postmodernist poetry began with the San Francisco Renaissance poets, who were more performance-oriented instead of written poetry. Next on the evolution of post modernism came [|Beat poets]. These poets were led by the brilliance of Kerouac and Ginsberg and focused mainly on turning away from American consumerism. After the beat poets came New York poets led by Ashbery and O'Hara. They channeled their energy to portray abstract expressionism. These roots have allowed postmodern poetry to blossom fully into a well rounded genre that contains many different attitudes, ideals, and styles that all combine into one massive literary phenomenon.

J.H. Prynne's poetry is said to exemplify the postmodernist ideals and philosophy flawlessly. All of his poems create an atmosphere of searching for or pondering the answers of life without actually finding out the answer to the question. One of his most popular poems, [|Rich in Vitamin C], illustrates the postmodern ideal.

Postmodernist poetry contains many of the unifying concepts that were prevalent in modernist poetry. The concepts of iconoclasm, formlessness, and groundlessness are found throughout both modernist and postmodernist poetry. However, these concepts are not exclusively found, they are actually joined by other concepts and philosophies.

The difference between modern and postmodern poetry is simply shown through Jackson Mac Low's poem, [|Words nd Ends From Ez]. This poem is a complete distruction of a modern poem that was transformed by Jackson Mac Low to become a postmodernist poetic piece. The differences are striking and apparent.

Postmodernist poetry typically does not lead to a conclusion or an answer to a philosophical question. Actually, the poetry is often times simply meant to make the uncertainty of human existence known. Postmodernist usually explore imagination verse fact and the inconsequential nature of existence. Post modernism rejects arrogance and a lack of intelligence because postmodernist poetry is meant to be devoured by intellect and open mindedness. The poetry is meant to embrace contradictions, question morality and emotions and embrace the exhilarating aspects of life. Overall, the only way to really describe the postmodern movement as a whole is to define it as a complete rejection of the past ideals and format for an enlightened and philosophical view on human existence.

A Few Important Poets of Post Modernism: [|J.H. Prynne] [|Jack Kerouac] Frank O'Hara [|Jackson Mac low] Ron Silliman Kenneth Koch Allen Ginsberg John Ashbery Elizabeth Alexander

Web Quest Questions: 1. [|What poetic movement helped to mold Postmodernism and was led by Jack Kerouac?] 2. [|What is the difference between Modernism and Postmodernism?] 3. [|What poet is said to "exemplify the ideals of Postmodernism"?] 4. [|What poet spoke at President Obama's Inauguration?] 5. [|How does Jackson Mac Low deconstruct a modern poem to create a postmodern poem in "Words nd Ends from Ez"?]