Perspectives

Literary period

Published in 2017, the short story “This Is All Mostly True” by Kathy Stevens fits the literary movement we call Postmodernism. Postmodernist works can be recognised through themes, context, and narrative techniques. In “This Is All Mostly True”, we notice that Kathy Stevens explores the themes of family dysfunction, illness, friendship, and isolation. These themes can often be found in postmodern works, as they often focus on exploring how people are influenced and shaped by their circumstances.

In terms of postmodernist narrative techniques, “This Is All Mostly True” uses fragmentation (the events are not strictly chronological) and focuses on the description of the events, but does not express a clear message or draw a final conclusion. Also, Stevens creates a story in which the deeper meaning of the events is mostly implied, and the conflict ...