Literature Shaped by 9/11: Teju Cole's Evaluation of Postmodernism in Open City Anonymous College

Described by Fredric Jameson as a loss of historicity and by Brian McHale as a fascination with the ontological, the term postmodernism seems to have taken many different variations. At its very essence, this movement encompasses a questioning of the nature of what is real, both at a physical world level but also to the degree of representation and fiction (Gibbons). A famous explanation of postmodernism is captured in the words of Jean-François Lyotard as a hostility or incredulity towards grand narratives. This is a movement that developed in the mid to late 20th century, despite certain features of postmodernism having been around much earlier than that. A seemingly recent and contemporary literary tradition, many critics argue that we are witnessing the death of postmodernism. They claim that the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s was a moment in which the world began “rearranging itself” (Gibbons). In his article for The Guardian, Hari Kunzru says that “…the events of 11 September signalled the death of postmodernism as an intellectual current” (Kunzru 3). Along this line of questioning, critic maintain that these are two global events which spurred on the end of postmodernism.

Open City by Teju Cole documents the...