21st CENTURY WORLD LITERATURE

Based on the Gregorian calendar or the internationally

accepted civil calendar, the 21st century began on
January 1, 2001 and will end on December 31, 2100.
However, another way to look at the 21st century is to
ascribe this as the beginning of the third millennium
i.e. 2001 through 3000. In both points of reference, the
year 2001 marked the beginning of the 21st century and
thus, all literary works produced from that time and
the years that follow until now are the 21st century
world literature. Yet it seems arbitrary that all written
works are classified as the 21st century world literature
right away by mere time association. Beyond looking at
the publishing dates, we have to regard the
characteristics of the 21st century world literature.
Like the body of works of the 20th century, the 21st
century world literature also contains a lot of what
forms part of the past literatures. However, the
literary corpus of this century is noted for its
depiction of a dystopian world. Whereas utopia is
known as the perfect world, dystopia, on the other
hand, is the distorted world. A big majority of these
dystopian narratives are written in reaction to the
September 11 bombing of the World Trade Center
and Pentagon in Washington, U.S.A. Other dystopian
writings deal with the nightmare of terrorism and
other global catastrophes such as war, consumerism,
and harrowing effects of technology. There are also
multiple emotional themes such as the weight of
human existence, personal crises, angst, anxiety as
well as social constructs like racism, political
oppression, gender inequality, and poverty.
Yet despite its negativity, the 21st century world literature is
about the triumph of the human spirit. In its depiction of the
dystopian world, man is a survivor to the catastrophes. The
British writer, Ian McEwan who wrote the novel Saturday as a
reaction to the terror of September 11 clarifies that dystopian
writings are not meant to highlight the tragedy. He explains that
his intention in writing the novel, Saturday is to heighten the
sense of compassion among his readers because “to be
someone other than yourself is at the core of the humanity, the
essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.”
True, the 21st century world literature consists of writings which
mirror the harsh realities of the society we live in, yet these
realities are the truths that we need to know to learn the
valuable lessons of life. It is imperative that even personal
crises and social issues are tackled in literary writings because
it shows that the world we live in has a new “normal”. The 21st
century world literature does not endorse the imperfect world
but rather leads us to the way where we, at least, understand
and accept that this is part of the everyday reality.
The turn of the century also ushers the age of digital
revolution which leads to scientific breakthroughs such
as digital computing and communication technology.
Computer, cellphones and the internet are the results of
this digital revolution. This is followed by the massive
explosion of information leading to our current age,
which is the Age of Information. This is a welcome
development for the 21st century world literature
because it allows the transfer of information freely
making literature accessible to anyone, anytime and
anywhere. The Internet, for example has accelerated the
flow of information. Touted as the fastest form of media,
the Internet also makes possible connectivity of
literatures from the different regions of the world. In
short, digital technology defines what 21st century world
literature is and clearly sets apart the writings of this era
from the previous literatures.
In this regard, the medium becomes the
message which means that the form of
the medium embeds itself in the
message, and therefore, the medium
influences how the message is
perceived. In the case of the 21st century
world literature, technology is seen as
equally important as the content or
meaning of the work. It is the manner of
transmission or the “how” which gets the
attention of the readers and not entirely
the message or the “what.”
The digital technology allows the exploration of 21st
century world literature in many realms. There exists
now the growing popularity of the tri-media literature
which affords the readers an experience of the
literary work in three different formats: in print, in film
and in the internet. Commonly used in schools, the tri-
media literature engages the students in navigating,
reading and in viewing in three media. In the same
mold is the hypertext literature—a genre of electronic
literature which facilitates the interaction of the
readers via hypertext links which allows the move from
one node or lead to the next. This movement across
links provides the readers a wider database of options
for the possible development or outcome to the story
or the poem.
Similar to hypertext literature is the
microblog—a kind of discussion forum or
information site which publishes posts or
text updates in world wide web. Microblog is
more interactive in the sense that the
participants write and publish their posts or
text updates. A microblog usually features a
serialized novel distributed in small parts
which will be completed by participants who
will craft their own storylines and publish for
the consumption of the other members of the
blog.
Another important development in electronic
literature is the arrival of fan fiction. Fan fiction is
literally a fiction written by a fan who rewrites and
alters the setting, character, and plot of an
original or canonical work. The stories are written
around previously canon material which is
electronically published and archived. Fan fiction
is a kind of transformative work of an original
which is a form of homage to the writer. It
becomes popular among readers who try to alter
the story according to their preferred resolutions
or endings. In the published form of the fan fiction,
the writer often makes a disclaimer ascribing the
work to its real author as a form of courtesy.
Because of the success and the huge
readership of fan fiction, Wattpad—an
online writing community is formed in
which users are able to publish their
articles, original stories, fan fiction, and
other creative outputs. Far-reaching than
a discussion forum or blog, Wattpad
provides a wider space for the creative
outputs of budding and amateur
writers. More importantly, the literary
works are published online.
NEW GENRES OF THE 21ST CENTURY WORLD LITERATURE

Every literary piece falls into one of the main genres

of writing namely, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.
Each main genre has a group of subgenres. Some of these
subtypes or categories have only been conceived in the first
decade of the century while some have long been part of
the existing subgenres but it is only in the turn of the
century that these are given renewed interest. An example is
the speculative fiction which was first coined by Robert
Heinlein in 1941 to refer to a collective title for works that
combine science fiction with fantasy and horror. It has
resurfaced and become very popular as a broad literary
genre encompassing any fiction with supernatural,
fantastical, or futuristic elements (“Speculative fiction”,
2012). The speculative fiction completely departs from
reality because the story takes place in a different world
inhabited by characters of extraordinary abilities.
Another genre which is still under fiction is the
graphic novel. The graphic novel is a fictional
story that is presented in a comic-strip format and
published as a book. In short, a graphic novel is a
comic-book. Another illustrated story is called
doodle fiction which blends cartoons and doodles
with a realistic narration of a funny incident. When
one reads doodle fiction, one sees a lot of
handscribed fonts and sketches of caricatures.
Some of the key parts of the story are replaced
with doodle drawings and handwritten graphics in
place of the narrative texts. Doodle fiction is often
patronized by mostly young readers.
Considering literature’s huge following from the
young readers, there grows a body of works
written, published, and marketed to adolescents
and young adults. This is known as the young adult
(YA) literature with subgenres namely young adult
fiction and teen fiction. Young adult fiction caters
to readers whose age ranges from sixteen and
twenty-five, while teen fiction is written for the
ages ten to fifteen. The themes of young adult
literature are also consistent with the age of the
readers. They are carefully chosen so that the
readers would be able to identify with the
experiences, emotions, and situations of the
characters.
One of the popular genres of the 21st century which
gain a world wide readership is the manga. Manga
are the Japanese comics originally written in
Japanese language and given Japanese illustrations.
Covering a broad range of genres that include
romance, adventure, fantasy, science fiction, horror,
sexuality, etc., Manga have evolved but maintained
their original style that still conforms to the tradition
of the 19th century Japan. The popularity of Manga is
so phenomenal because of their invasion of the
countries in Asia and Europe such as Philippines,
South Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong, China, and France.
This popularity has been sustained in decades
because the Japanese comics have been adapted to
films and television.
21st CENTURY INFLUENCES/TRENDS

The still dominant influence to the 21st

century world literature is Post-Modernism which is
anchored on Post-modern theory. In this theory,
there is a notion that reality is inaccessible by
objective human investigation. It follows that
knowledge is a social construction. In connection
with literature, the meaning of words is to be
determined by readers not authors. In this way, a
reader’s interpretation of the text is more important
that the text itself. In addition to this, the reader also
makes his/her subjective interpretation of the
intention of the author. The French literary theorist,
Roland Barthes emphasizes that the origin of the
text which is the author is not important thing, rather
it is the destination—the reader.
Post-modernism soon sweeps many literary
circles as a reaction to Modernism. Post
modernism in literature is distinctly marked by
such literary conventions as fragmentation,
paradox, unreliable narrators, unrealistic and
impossible plots, parody, paranoia and many
unorthodox devices that destroy the meaning of
work if there is any at all. All literary traditions
are abandoned such as work classifications such
as genres and forms, as well as deriving the
literary merit of the work through analysis of
form and content. (Fleming, 2015)
In an online lesson transcript from study.com, the
new stylistic techniques of Post Modernism are
enumerated as follows:
Pastiche: The taking of various ideas from previous
writings and literary styles and pasting them together
to make new styles.
Intertextuality: The acknowledgment of previous
literary works within another literary work.
Metafiction: The act of writing about writing or making
readers aware of the fictional nature of the very fiction
they're reading.
Temporal Distortion: The use of non-linear timelines
and narrative techniques in a story.
Minimalism: The use of characters and events which
are decidedly common and non-exceptional
characters.
Maximalism: Disorganized, lengthy, highly detailed
writing.
Magical Realism: The introduction of
impossible or unrealistic events into a
narrative that is otherwise realistic.

Faction: The mixing of actual historical

events with fictional events without clearly
defining what is factual and what is fictional.

Reader Involvement: Often through direct

address to the reader and the open
acknowledgment of the fictional nature of
the events being described.
Another major influence or theory in the turn
of the century is transrealism. It argues for an
approach to writing novels using a plausible
setting and true to life characters. It rejects
artificial constructs such as allegorical
settings and archetypal characters, in favor of
real events and people, drawn directly from
the author’s experience. It mixes the
techniques of incorporating fantastic
elements used in science fiction with the
techniques of describing immediate
perceptions from naturalistic realism
(“Transrealism”, 2014)
But through this realist tapestry, the
author threads a singular, impossibly
fantastic idea, often one drawn from the
playbook of science fiction, fantasy and
horror. So the transrealist author who
creates a detailed and realistic depiction
of American high-school life will then
shatter it open with the discovery of an
alien flying saucer that confers super-
powers on an otherwise ordinary young
man.