Repetition:Identity And Difference From The Postmodern Perspective

The focus of human beings on repetition comes from the individual’s experience of nature in the beginning,and the research on the problem of "repetition" has existed since ancient times,which can be traced back to the bible,the ancient Greek Homer epic and Plato’ s thought.In the beginning,this paper discusses the multiple meanings and narrative traditions of repetition,and traces the various interpretations and reflections on the problem of repetition in history.However,in the postmodern era,the expansion of the new forms and meanings of repetition in literature seems not to attract people’s attention.To grasp the change and development of the concept and phenomenon of "repetition" is conducive to understanding the basic characteristics of postmodernism and to take care of the current reality.In history,the focus on repetition is mainly on the level of philosophy and poetics.In the first chapter,this paper selects the philosophical fragments of historical significance,and analyzes the repetition view of Plato,Nietzsche,Kierkegaard and Deleuze from the three aspects of "repetition is memory","repetition is action"and "repetition of difference".Through these different philosophical views,it can be seen that philosophers’ thinking on repetition is in constant change and development,and repetition develops from the original "identical repetition" to "difference repetition",which makes repetition no longer a mechanical movement,but generates creative value in difference.Structuralist narrative theory and Miller’ s deconstructive criticism enrich the interpretation of repetition on the poetry.Gennett put forward the concept of narrative frequency,and analyzed the phenomenon of repetition in narrative structure by classifying the frequency of events,so as to further explore the meaning of repeated narration.Miller divides repetition in literature into "Platonic repetition" and"Nietzschean repetition".The first type of repetition imitates what already exists,and the second type of repetition creates new meaning in writing and being read.In addition to the two types of repetition,Miller also divided the repetition phenomenon in the novel into small repeats,the repetition of events and scenes in a work,and the repetition of motives,themes,events and characters in a work and other works.In the postmodern era,repetition has different postmodern features and aesthetic tendencies from the previous,which is closely related to the postmodern core.It is mainly manifested in the time resetting and space juxtaposing,the difference interpretation of homogeneous repetition,the fracture of continuity and the promise of infinity.Postmodern novels break the one-dimensional time,and narrate repeatedly what happened at the same time,making the text present a sense of uncertainty.The repeated interpretation of the classical text is the repeated rewriting of the classic.The interpretation excludes the single logos,breaks down the text-centered theory,and emphasizes that there is no definite interpretation.Repetition creates a break in postmodern novels and reflects the disappearance of postmodern historical consciousness.The repetition of the postmodernist novel shows the promise of the infinite,because postmodernism has no future,only the eternal present.The value orientation of postmodernism influences the performance of repetition in postmodernism novels,which is different from that before.Similarly,the repetition in postmodernism novels also points to the characteristics of postmodernism,which are uncertain,diversified,fractured and instantaneous and eternal.Repetition contains the difference,and the two embody each other.In postmodern culture,repetition presents a contradiction:on the one hand,it advocates the differentiation:on the other hand,it is full of imitation and duplication.Behind the difference of consumerism is the false individuation,which is the convergence of identity repetition.The synonyms of repetition in postmodern culture are duplication and simulacra.The simulacra proposed by Baudrillard dispels the boundary between reality and fiction and presents a kind of hyperreality.The public gets lost in the endless repetition of representation.Repetition is no longer the reflection of philosophy and the expression of literature and art,but a common phenomenon in postmodern life.The universality of current repetition provides reference for thinking about the trend and meaning of postmodernism.