End of Irony? Estonian Literature after Postmodernism

Abstract

In their work published in 2001, “After Postmodernism” (López, Potter 2001), the editors Garry Potter and José López claim that postmodernism was the most influential intellectual trend of the last third of the 20th century, and one of the central trends in the Western cultural-theoretical thinking since the 1960s. Postmodernism managed to grasp the spirit of the time and at the same time challenge self-confidence, presented by the mind, objectivity and knowledge (ib. 3). At the same time the authors have to admit that by the beginning of the 21st century the heyday of postmodernism had passed, postmodernism was in the “stage of decline” and “out of fashion” (ib. 4). Today, in 2011, we have to admit that the early-decade prediction of Potter and López has come true; postmodern society is retreating and the postmodernist theory is on the decline and losing its central role.