Postmodern Literature: Calvino, Borges, and Self-Reflection

Introduction to Postmodern Literary Convention

Postmodern texts have a distinct tendency to dismantle literary convention by addressing the reader in casual language, making frequent use of colloquialism and oral rather than written styles and standards. Most importantly, works defined as postmodern employ unconventional strategies to draw the reader in and out of the narrative in order to elicit self-reflection. The works of Calvino and Borges are clear examples of this rejection of traditional literary conventions. This essay briefly discusses and analyzes how Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler, and Borges's "Borges and I" and "The Lottery in Babylon" undermine the expectations of traditional literary convention, and examines the strategies each uses to produce what might be called postmodern texts.

Calvino's Narrative Disruption and Reader Address

Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler begins by addressing the reader with a title that leads into a sentence but remains an incomplete thought. It then opens with a brief admonition, instructing the reader to pay attention to the work, remove distractions, and even yell at family members to eliminate possible future interruptions. From there, the work provides the reader with a casual conversation — essentially about what the reader must do to prepare for reading the next chapter. The result is a commentary not so much on the story itself, but on the state of the context in which many people live, including what amounts to an assassination of the speed and noise at which we conduct our modern lives.

The conventional literary criticism of the work is rooted in the fact that it pulls the reader in and out of the tale, acting much like life itself — full of interruptions and even unsolicited advice about how one should live, rather than simply allowing the opportunity to do so. The instructional chapters lead the reader into the narrative chapters by tying themes together to form a relatively cohesive read that is almost completely unlike any other novel of conventional literature. It is therefore a significant example of metafiction and postmodern literature more broadly. The work is a constant reminder that the reader is the main character of the novel, offering casual observations that any reader might genuinely feel: "I am not at all the sort of person who attracts attention. I am an even more anonymous presence against an even more anonymous background." (Calvino 14). The casual and conversational dialogue in the narrative sections also reflects a rejection of traditional literary conventions — very much a "Who's on First?" quality of exchange (50).

In the lengthy introductory chapters, Calvino expresses universals that also detract from what would be considered conventional literary style. In one section, he describes how the narrative is unfolding unconventionally but intentionally, to allow the reader to "feel around" the story rather than move through a conventional storytelling process that "gets to the point": "I am producing too many stories at once because what I want is for you to feel, around the story, a saturation of other stories that I could tell and maybe will tell or who knows may already have told on some other occasion, a space full of stories that perhaps is simply my lifetime..." (109). The work describes, through its non-narrative chapters, the way one might feel about a long-winded storyteller who gets halfway through a tale and forgets what he or she was saying.

Borges and I: Identity, Self, and Detachment

Borges's "Borges and I" is a commentary on how an individual can feel like an observer in his or her own life. Borges describes himself from a perspective outside himself, as if the psyche is separate from the person. The casual manner in which he describes mundane observations — such as seeing his own name on mail and on paper, as if he has no identity connected to that name — brings the reader to the conclusion that feeling like an outsider in one's own life is not only logical but likely felt by many others. He then moves on in his brief prose to extrapolate whether there is really only one self — one Borges — and, if so, ruminates whether there might really be two cultures rather than two selves.

An example of Borges's casual style can be found in the manner in which he describes himself, as if having a conversation with the reader about a philosophical and very real disconnect from self and identity — much in the same way that Calvino admonishes his reader to yell at family members before beginning to read:

"It would be an exaggeration to say that ours is a hostile relationship; I live, let myself go on living, so that Borges may contrive his literature, and this literature justifies me. It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition." (Borges 1)

This passage is an example of Borges stressing a universal emotional challenge: how often the individual gets lost in a public image and fails to integrate internal thoughts with public expectations. The work is, in many ways, an oral commentary on self-actualization.

Conclusion: Self-Reflection as the Goal of Postmodern Literature

"The Lottery in Babylon" provides a text that demands the reader analyze his or her actions as they affect the whole, as well as look at issues and concerns in his or her own culture that might mirror those events in the work — that is, self-reflection as a motive for postmodern literature. The nature of rejecting received history and foregrounding individual intention is an example of how the postmodern text demands self-reflection. Across all three works examined here, Calvino and Borges consistently reject the conventions of traditional literary storytelling in favor of casual, philosophically charged, and reader-implicating prose that insists the audience turn a critical eye not only on the text, but on themselves and their world.

Works Cited

Borges, Jorge L. "The Lottery in Babylon."

Borges, Jorge L. "Borges and I."

Calvino, Italo. If on a winter's night a traveler. New York: Harvest, 1982.