Perspectives

Literary period

“Say You” by Sara Collins was published in 2016, and it is a contemporary postmodernist short story. Some common literary conventions that are associated with Postmodernism are fragmentation and unreliable narrators.

Another postmodernist feature of the story is the use of the “show, don’t tell” technique. Often, the narrator shows us what is happening rather than saying it explicitly: “ ‘I’m going to call her Joya, if she’s a girl,” Jewel announced, wearily. She looked defiant, and unconvinced. She hooked two fingers through the fence.” (ll. 114-115).

Also, the use of explicit language is often associated with the postmodernist style of writing: “the home-grown boys who fingered the button...