The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018
Postmodern Period (in English and American literature)
Postmodern Period (in English and American literature): Less coherent and less well defined than many other literary eras, a period usually said to have begun in both England and North America after World War II and which many would say has continued into the twenty-first century. The Postmodern Period follows the Modern Period in English and American literature, which began around 1914. Both modernist and postmodernist works tend to express feelings of anxiety and alienation experienced by individuals, but postmodernist works tend to be even darker, suggesting the meaninglessness of the human condition in general through radically experimental works that defy conventions of literary cohesion and even coherence. Postmodernist novels fitting this description are often referred to as antinovels.