Fragmentation and pastiche

Fragmented texts reflect a fragmented world

Postmodern authors often believe that the modern world has become complex, chaotic, and fragmented (‘shattered into bits’). This view is reflected in postmodern fiction which tends to be fragmented in a number of ways. For instance, there might be jumps in time, place, narrator, or character, and as a result of this, it might seem difficult to get an overview of the plot. Often the plot is not presented chronologically at all. 

One result of this fragmentation is that there is typically not just one interpretation of the text or one message, but several. This reflects the postmodern view that there is no truth - it all depends on who you ask.

One example of a text with elements of fragmentation is the popular Christmas movie Love Actually (2003). The movie takes us in and out of the lives of numerous characters while letting some of these lives intertwine and others not at all. The only unifying elements are Christmas and love.

It is an important point that this fragmentation is not negative in a postmodern context. The postmodernists typically celebrate fragmentation and chaos by playing with it. This is a clear contrast to the previous literary movement, Modernism, which...