A Reflection on the "Pop" Literary Trend

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Shahid Beheshti University

10.22059/jor.2022.350794.2355

Abstract

The German literature of the 1960s and 1970s witnessed the emergence of a young generation that avoided fixed patterns of identity and reflected its individual and social experiences with a language inspired by the elements and rhythms of up-to-date music. The writers of this literary trend, soon called “pop”, shed their intense light on the areas where the media signs and patterns and the advertisement images were mixed with the warp and woof of life. They focused on where the commodification of relations in modern industrial societies had taken root. In the first stages of its emergence, pop literature did not obtain much success in the German literary community. Still, the second wave of this current appeared in the 1990s with increased power and greater reliance on the new media of the digital age and was widely welcomed by the audience.

The present article first focuses on the cultural origin and literary approaches that have contributed to the formation of German pop literature and then analyses its similarities and differences with the parallel currents of that era. Afterwards, three pop writers are briefly introduced, whose works display various examples and interpretations of this emerging literary movement. According to the results of the present article, reflecting the sense and style of the young generation’s life, particular focus on the representation of the current time, intentional superficiality, tendency to activism, and the presentation of the literary text as a media event are among the most significant components of the pop trend.

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Main Subjects

Research in Contemporary World Literature

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 09 March 2024

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