The Modern, the Postmodern, and the Fact of Transition

The Paradigm Shift through Peninsular Literatures

Robert Simon

The Modern, the Postmodern, and the Fact of Transition defines the basic parameters of Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift theory as applied to the evolution of Spanish and Portuguese societies from the 1950s to the end of the twentieth century, from the perspective of a similar shift in poetry. Kuhn’s theory states that a paradigm shift must happen in three phases: the crisis phase, the transition phase, and the adoption phase. The paradigm in question is the “postmodern” social (and thus, literary) paradigm made popular in criticism and social discourse during the 1990s. This shift in the Iberian context, therefore, will be analyzed in three phases: the first, from 1955 to 1975; and the latter two, from 1975 to 2000. This approximation provides a template for a vision of Iberian societies’ evolution as ongoing and fraught with contradictory notions of centralization and deconstruction as simultaneous and somehow complimentary.

University Press of America

Pages: 98 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7618-5764-8 • Paperback • December 2011 • $40.99 • (£35.00)

Subjects: History / Europe / Spain & Portugal, Literary Criticism / European / Spanish & Portuguese, Literary Criticism / Poetry, Language Arts & Disciplines / General

The Modern, the Postmodern, and the Fact of Transition

The Paradigm Shift through Peninsular Literatures

Paperback

Summary

The Modern, the Postmodern, and the Fact of Transition defines the basic parameters of Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift theory as applied to the evolution of Spanish and Portuguese societies from the 1950s to the end of the twentieth century, from the perspective of a similar shift in poetry. Kuhn’s theory states that a paradigm shift must happen in three phases: the crisis phase, the transition phase, and the adoption phase. The paradigm in question is the “postmodern” social (and thus, literary) paradigm made popular in criticism and social discourse during the 1990s. This shift in the Iberian context, therefore, will be analyzed in three phases: the first, from 1955 to 1975; and the latter two, from 1975 to 2000. This approximation provides a template for a vision of Iberian societies’ evolution as ongoing and fraught with contradictory notions of centralization and deconstruction as simultaneous and somehow complimentary.

Details

University Press of America

Pages: 98 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7618-5764-8 • Paperback • December 2011 • $40.99 • (£35.00)

Subjects: History / Europe / Spain & Portugal, Literary Criticism / European / Spanish & Portuguese, Literary Criticism / Poetry, Language Arts & Disciplines / General

Author

Robert Simon instructs in Spanish and Portuguese languages, cultures, and literatures at Kennesaw State University. He previously published a critical study, Understanding the Portuguese Poet Joaquim Pessoa: A Study in Iberian Cultural Hybridity (2008), various critical articles, and four books of poetry: The Traveler / el viajero / o viajante (2010), Não Tirei Fotos (2009), Os Sophíadas (2009), and New Poems from the Airplane and Graveyard (2007). He lives in Georgia with his wife and daughter.

Table of Contents

Preface
Foreword by Dr. Jorge Machín Lucas
Introduction: What is the Paradigm Shift, and Why Should We Take it Seriously?
1. 1955 to 1974, António Ramos Rosa and Herberto Helder
2. 1955 to 1975, Ángel González and José Hierro
3. 1974 to 1990, Ruy Belo and Vasco Graça Moura
4. 1980 to 2000, Ana Rossetti and Belén Gopegui
5. 1975 to 2000, Clara Janés and Joaquim Pessoa
6. Conclusions
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Notes