| Although the "post" in Postmodernism implies that the theoretical framework came 'after' modernism, my thesis in this dissertation is that postmodern mentality has occurred historically throughout much of American literature regardless of era, locale or genre. Postmodern mentality has been part of the literary fabric of our country from the start, since early American text was not unique to this continent, but was borrowed from the European writers who preceded those who settled here. American students must understand themselves as part of the hermeneutic circle that is our diverse culture. By engaging student readers in active cultural participation, whereby they feel 'author-ity' over the text, they understand themselves as inherently linked to history. This dissertation thus investigates the very ways in which American literature, both palimpsestic and carnivalesque, evinces postmodern characteristics. This text investigates the postmodern elements of literature by authors such as: Phillis Wheatley, Washington Irving, W. E. B. DuBois, Frances E. W. Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Stephen Crane, Henry David Thoreau, Willa Cather, Richard Wright, Don DeLillo, and Donald Barthelme. The postmodern elements of such writing cannot be overlooked in the classroom. Postmodern pedagogy blurs the cultural with the academic, thereby enabling otherwise voiceless Americans to learn how to sing, to weave, to build and to teach---techniques that Americans have always counted on for their survival. |
