Jumpers
Postmodernism exists, as the name suggests, as a development, or in many cases a criticism, of modernist philosophical ideas. While modernism mourns the loss of certainty while at the same time striving to achieve universal truths through a rational approach, postmodernism actively encourages and revels in the notion of there being no truth whatsoever. Meaning and truth become fragmented as they only exist temporarily and subjectively – truth is in the individual perception of reality rather than in anything concrete. 6 These beliefs expose themselves through literature in a complete repudiation of realism and representation; no form of literature can portray reality effectively. Irony and playfulness became central to postmodernist literature, even when dealing with serious themes, as postmodernist authors saw profundity as yet another injection of presupposed moral values into their work. The use of pastiche, intertextuality, and metafiction all served to remind the reader or audience that the piece of literature was not a true reflection of reality and that the authorial intention mattered very little. 7 Finally, once again in order to undermine the concept of representation, writers introduced magical realism into their work, breaking up an otherwise ‘ordinary’ narrative with the insertion of strange or even impossible occurrences. 8 Postmodernist literature, in accordance with postmodernist philosophy, aimed to eliminate objective interpretation through a variety of literary techniques. Stoppard’s Jumpers is a play directly concerned with philosophy, as George Moore, the protagonist, is a moral philosophy professor. His faculty members are part of an acrobatics team, the so-called ‘Jumpers’. Archie is the vice chancellor of the university and represents th e philosophical position of the entire faculty, a position with which George alone disagrees. George’s wife, Dorothy or ‘Dotty’, is aptly named; once a talented singer, her romantically idealistic perception of the moon is shattered by the broadcast of a lunar expedition. She is left depressed and unstable. Archie is a consistent comfort to Dotty as she sees him regularly, often without George’s knowledge, who is apathetic towards his wife’s mental state. A performance of the Jumpers at the Moore’s house en ds with the murder of one of the gymnasts, later revealed to be Duncan McFee, a rival philosopher. Inspector Bones visits the Moore residence to look for clues. Despite suspecting Dotty, whose condition is widely known, his idolization of the ex-singer distracts him, and the case is never solved. The play is interspersed with long speeches on philosophy by George as he dictates notes to his mute secretary. The play ends with a dream-like coda in which George and Archie present their views in a symposium, the latter speaking mostly nonsense and calling forth impossible and fictional witnesses to provide testimony. The various techniques employed in Jumpers highlight Stoppard’s ability to fluently combine modernism and postmodernism, and their diversity is part of the reason why it is so hard to define the play as either genre. George assumes the role of the anti-hero common to both modernist and postmodernist literature. As the central character, Stoppard invites the audience to sympathize with him in his qu est to answer his own question ‘Is God?’ (I, pp. 15 – 16). He explains, as he dictates to his secretary, that the question ‘Does God exist?’ (I, pp. 15 -16) is flawed in that it suggests the possibility of there not being a god of some kind, a notion which he finds unacceptable. His statement that ‘the question will not go away’ (I, p. 17) is problematic, as it quickly becomes clear that he exists in a world that has long surpassed that question – a world governed by the ‘Rad - Libs’, who violate the sanctity of
6 Drake, Modernism vs. Postmodernism. 7 What is postmodernism? What are the characteristics of Postmodern Literature? 8 Magical realism
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