Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect, and Depth after Postmodernism

Description

Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect, Depth brings together many of the most influential voices in the scholarly and critical debate about post-postmodernism and twenty-first century aesthetics, arts and culture. By relating cutting-edge analyses of contemporary literature, the visual arts and film and television to recent social, technological and economic developments, the volume provides both a map and an itinerary of today’s metamodern cultural landscape. As its organising principle, the book takes Fredric Jameson’s canonical arguments about the waning of historicity, affect and depth in the postmodern culture of western capitalist societies in the twentieth century, and re-evaluates and reconceptualises these notions in a twenty-first century context. In doing so, it shows that the contemporary moment should be regarded as a transitional period from the postmodern and into the metamodern cultural moment. Metamodernism Contents List of Figures and Table Acknowledgements 1 Periodising the 2000s, or, the Emergence of Metamodernism Section I: Historicity i. Metamodern Historicity 2 The Metamodern, the Quirky and Film Criticism 3 Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the Rise of Historioplastic Metafiction 4 Super-Hybridity: Non-Simultaneity, Myth-Making and Multipolar Conflict 5 The Cosmic Artisan: Mannerist Virtuosity and Contemporary Crafts Section II: Affect ii. Metamodern Affect 6 Four Faces of Postirony 7 Radical Defenselessness: A New Sense of Self in the Work of David Foster Wallace 8 Contemporary Autofiction and Metamodern Affect 9 The Joke That Wasn’t Funny Anymore: Reflections on the Metamodern Sitcom Section iii: Depth iii. Metamodern Depth, or ‘Depthiness’ 10 Reconstructing Depth: Authentic Fiction and Responsibility 11 Between Truth, Sincerity and Satire: Post-Truth Politics and the Rhetoric of Authenticity 12 Notes on Performatist Photography: Experiencing Beauty and Transcendence after Postmodernism Epilogue 13 Thoughts on Writing about Art after Postmodernism References Index About the Contributors