Postmodernism

Postmodernism and vignettes of nepali fictions

                                                       Pempa Tamang

Postmodernism as a critical discourse entered into Anglo-American worldview only in 1960s. But the history of the term dates back to much earlier. Charles Jencks has pointed out that the term postmodernism was used by British artist John Watkins Chapman in 1870 and by Rudolf Passwits in 1917. According to Ihab Hassan the term postmodernism was first used by Fredrick de Onis in 1934. 

The term postmodernism is derived from unusual combination of two words "post" (after) and "modo" (just now). It is because of this J.F. Lyotard has said "Postmodernism is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state , and this state is constant." This statement is baffling and paradoxical. Instead of "pre" "post" term has been used. It is contradictory but the contradiction is at the core of postmodernism

J. F. Lyotard has defined postmodernism as "Incredulity towards metanarrative." Lyotard maintained that the universal or grand theories like Enlightenment, Marxism, Capitalism, Hegelian Dialectics and scientific knowledge were unable to answer many of the questions of modern man. The idea of one grand theory to explain all the questions of existential crisis of modern man have proved itself deficient as it had failed  to meet the challenges. Human Beings  of different geographical regions have different challenges specific to their situations for which different theories or narratives will have to be developed to understand them. Lyotard says that now knowledge has had to seek its legitimation locally rather than universally .Unlike scientific knowledge little or first order narratives are self lie..  The adage "Think global act local" is summation of Lyotard's premise on postmodernism.

Frederic Jameson writes "  Postmodernism heralds end of "reality ". This also marks the end of history , power, ideology , art or social class, social democracy and even welfare state. High art or elitism is replaced by popular art or one that is designed for mass culture. 

Postmodernism had its effect on nepalese literature too. The earliest signs of high modernist-postmodernist effect can be discerned in the classic novel of Indra Bahadur Rai " There is a Festival Today". This novel was first published in 1964 . But amazingly this narrative is preemptively postmodernist. The story concludes abruptly and the reader is left flummoxed. The narrative appears unbalanced with many lose ends. It is not a conventional ready made easy to consume type fiction.

  To understand why the story has been left halfway the reader has to turn to real world from this fictional world. Our world is not harmonious at all and it is full of absurdities, oddities and abnormalities. Our dreams do not get realized and things do not turn out as we wish them to be. The principal characters in this novel Bhudev , Zanak and M.K though different from each have but in a way they all share similar fate. Bhudev is a politician but he always loses elections , Zanak is a businessman deep in debt and M K. a government servant is a habitual drinker and uninterested to perform his duty.  Its debunking of hierarchy , sheer banalities of lives and the contradictory hopes of greater  achievement are against the totalization and this anti essentialistic credential make this novel postmodernistic. It is full of light and dark humour interspersed with wits and gems of wisdom which make the text reader friendly.

Pravin Jumeli has written some fictions which can be categorised as postmodern fictions. " Games (I) keep playing" and "Farce" are two such short fictions. "Games..". is a fiction but one finds non fictional writing inserted in it to give a credential of credibility. This is contamination of reality by fiction. It is a fiction of fictionalisation of reality. This technique in postmodernism is called blurring of reality. "Farce"( the original title is Khilli) is a tale of four persons identified with four different ideologies namely Poet, Musician, Saint and Politician. Each of them is an staunch advocate of their ideology and for each of them every other idea is inferior in comparison to what they hold as dear. But in the garb of hedonistic pleasure of drinking bout each of them exhibits complete disregard of their values and ideology.   

Krishna Dharabasi has penned a memorable novel " Refugee" . It may be described as imagination of imagination as the fictions were imagined by different writers and Dharabasi has brought forward from the point where those writers have left by reimagining the themes. It is not a conventional fiction and theory of mimesis gets ruptured in this writing as it is not representation of reality. In fact it is fiction of representation of representation. But the underlying meaning of the fiction is philosophical as it tries to understand the relationship of man with the world. An individual is a citizen of some country and that is where he is supposed to belong. But does a man really own the land or country ? He doesn't . This realisation disconnects him from being attached or emotional contact with the place gets ruptured. Since he has no inalienable right he might as well not belong to the place. This makes him a refugee. 

More of modern nepali writers have been exploring their creativity through postmodern consciousness . Notable among them are Kumar Nagarkoti, Udai Thulung, Sanjeev Uprety , Krishna Baral etc...