Explain the basic features of postmodern literature and magic realism

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

As a style, postmodernism is marked by a bemused awareness of a historical past whose "reality" has been processed by mass communication and information technology. Postmodern artists appropriate (or borrow) preexisting texts and images from history, advertising, and the media. Their playful amalgam of disparate styles mingles the superficial and the profound. Postmodernism is also pluralistic, and works carry many-faceted meanings, as well as the incorporation of numerous, yet disparate, stylistic influences.
Postmodern writers share the contemporary philosopher's disdain for rational structure and the deconstructionist's fascination with the function of language. They tend to bypass traditional narrative styles in favor of techniques that parody the writer's craft, mingle past, present, and future events, leave situations unresolved, and freely mix the ordinary and the bizarre. The language of postmodern fiction is often diffuse, discontinuous, and filled with innuendo and "commentary," often in the form of length footnotes.
Magic realism is a mostly Latin American style that describes a genre in which unreal or surreal elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting. Magic realist stories often feature unexpected shifts in time and place and dreamlike, mythic settings.