Literature and the media. From parody to aestheticization

The topic of media has been a subject of debate since its apparition as the reception of literature intertwined with that of the media. The reader also becomes involved in the reading process by means of textual correlations. In trying to decipher the mechanism through which media is depicted in literary texts, I used discourse analysis as a starting point, accompanied by the most influential critical theories of the 20th century. More specifically, I looked into the way in which language is regulated by social practice and social conditions. Over the course of this research report, I intend to examine some texts that give evidence about the changing status of the literary texts and the way in which writers understand their own medium (the system through which information is available for selection). In modernism and postmodernism man and his language construct reality. The ultimate truth was replaced by the idea of a working hypothesis. Modernist writers asserted themselves in opposition with the new technological advancements which dehumanize mankind, reducing people to machines and narrowing consciousness, therefore the quest for meaning in a meaningless world of their characters. In postmodernism, the paradigm is reversed and writers begin to use symbolic representations instead of real, palpable objects. The media is omnipresent, the new reality no one can escape from and the one which defines ourselves. The surrounding world is now experienced through TV news and reality shows. In this respect, the purpose of the media has been that of simplifying and interpreting of reality. (from the „Introduction”)