/lit/ - Literature

>>3508225
>ultimately affirm a transcendence or, perhaps naively, an optimism about society
Nope, just more bourgeois ideology.

Just accept that Literary Criticism has failed as a discipline, and someone needs to muck out the stables. Someone who is the son of Zeus.

>>3508230
Well it has and it hasn't, I think post-modernist literary criticism has failed because it never really authoritatively provided a manner of reading and interpreting texts. Hopefully we're beginning to move past all that shit.

>>3508234
To clarify, I don't endorse any rigid set of rules with regards to a text's quality; however, I think having a clear conception of what a movement signifies (ala Modernism) gives more scope to analyse and critique a piece of writing, by reference to the dominant spirit of the movement that writing is within/resisting.

>>3508242
The rot set in a fair bit before that, particularly with the claim that "schools" of writing exemplified the modern condition and provided deeper than justified insight into the nature of contemporary being.

This 'cultural shift' is forced, superimposed. You can't will a new movement.

>>3508251
But surely you'd agree when I say that fiction is different from forty years ago.

Go to bed, Michael Roth.

>CEOs and politicians, architects, and artists alike are formulating anew a narrative of longing
structured by and conditioned on a belief (‘‘yes we
can’’, ‘‘change we can believe in’’

Does the article even mention literature

>>3508253

NOT EVEN FORTY; APPROXIMATELY TWENTY.

DFW, Zadie Smith and Franzen already have a term: maximalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_realism

>>3508269
>>3508270
To me these terms have always been far more prescriptive on style of writing rather than tone and concepts behind writing. Franzen to me is still a post-modernist.

>>3508274
Unless its a very specific 'movement', say cyberpunk, style is the prominent linking thing.

Don't know if you're OP, but writers that are about;

>irony and cynicism but ultimately affirm a transcendence or, perhaps naively, an optimism about society.

You could say that about Naturalism in 1860s. So, what's different about naturalism and postmodernism (for example)? Style.

>>3508278
You're right, actually. That's an incredibly valid point. I hadn't thought about it that way. I suppose I'm just used to thinking about style and concepts as intertwined, ala postmodernism after WW2 carrying a profound sense of paranoia offset by a playful and irreverent treatment of structure, but it's never an easy, cut-and-dry thing.

If you want Postmodernism, Dellilo's the way to go

>>3508295
I've always found him lacking in empathy. His prose to me is too calculating, plays out like an autopsy. Maybe I've read the wrong Delillo. Recommendation?

>>3508269
>>3508270
Both of these terms are worthless and hardly describe anything

>>3508344
No dude, I totally get your vibe, I've only finished two of his shorter novels and left meh at best, I've ditched three of his between 50-80% through including White Noise. Stick with Pynchon, guy is incredibly fun and I think there is a great deal of empathy in his works.

Bump because nothing frustrates me more than perusing lit and seeing the front page covered in:
>Why don't you have a gf /lit/
>video games /lit/
>how many pages do you skip in books

>>3508377
I feel the same about Delillo AND Pynchon. Maybe I'm a girl? I don't know, they both feel so detached and I appreciate the skill/art of their wordplay but the feels aren't enough.

DFW has feels to me, but really only his novels, not so much the short stories. Not a big fan of Zadie but I'll read her.

Can I add that I just started House of Leaves which is (to me) a lower tier attempt at melding horror with pomo, I would like it a lot better if the narrator didn't keep 'then this happened to me, oh wait no it didn't' but I'm out of thinks to read so I'll probably finish it.

>>3508225
Hopefully I'll fit into post-postmodernism when my novel is published.

If I ever finish it, that is.

>>3510897
Isn't there a better term for what comes next?

>>3510913
there are many terms out there vying for supremacy, several of which have been mentioned in this thread

Sorry I can't read that article in its entirety, currently reading some shit about the Behistun Inscription.

Lately I've begun to turn on Zadie Smith. I read her recent piece on joy in the New York Review of Books and it just seemed lazy, especially when stacked up against a counterpoint some guy from the NYT wrote where he cited passages wherein Aquinas demolishes her arguments.

>>3508225
I'd call Franzen's attitude towards contemporary lit "cynical," but not his actual writing.

>>3508259
>To the huddled masses, keep on yearnin'!

Where does New Sincerity fit in? As a reaction to postmodern irony and cynicism wouldn't it not be post-postmodern? Or what about post-irony? Thinking in terms of films.

OP, what overarching movement would the general works here fall under?

http://thejogging.tumblr.com/

really disgusts you to see these cultural marxists pissing away their lives in the third world.

>>3511078
Protip: "maximalism," "hysterical realism," and "New Sincerity" have no meaning outside the insular discourse of a handful of critics.

I really wish people would stop throwing these around like they're real things.

>>3511086
As opposed to you, ubermensch, you deigns visit us peons here at 4chan? What a glorious life you must lead!

>>3511090
New Sincerity is burning a man alive in the middle of a factory because he raped one of his workers.

It isn't a literary movement, it is a state of praxis.

>>3511090
thats how they become real things though

first, academic ideas, then, these get diffused to the public via mainstream press

its just starting to happen right now, just give it another three or four years and itll be in the discourse. only time will tell though if it really becomes an era thing like post-modernism, modernism, romanticism, etc

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/11/sincerity-not-irony-is-our-ages-ethos/265466/

>>3511103
It seems too early to say, though. Plus, I'm not sure if this new sincerity is necessarily reflective of the state of fiction, or less - the world. This will sound pandering or pretentious, but what do we say of writers like Tao Lin? Artists like Ai Weiwei? Film makers like Miranda July or Harmony Korine? Surely they're emblematic of something.

Bumping