Modernism and Postmodernism: Continuation or Conflict Between Trends?

The purpose of this paper is to understand whether we may or not talk about a conflict between Modernism and Postmodernism. These trends are not always seen as opposed; they may even be seen as a continuation of each other. Hassan (1987:25-33) offers his views on Modernism and Postmodernism as not clearly delimited from one another. Modernism may be a continuation of Postmodernism. They may also be seen as coexisting. The ideal postmodern author should not totally move away from previous fiction, according to John Barth. Postmodernism is not viewed as a continuation or as an opposition of Modernism, according to Barth, but as a synthesis: "Barth thinks that postmodernism is neither extension of modernism, nor on the contrary the wholesale subversion of either modernism or postmodernism, or traditional bourgeois realism. Only combining the ideas together can help to get the whole story. This is where his idea of synthesis is from". (Liang) Peter Brooker states that Modernism and Postmodernism represent in fact several trends, not just one unitary trend. The paper will examine common features between the two trends found in Virginia Woolf's and Graham Swift's novel and discuss how the cultural context influences their novels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]