Beowulf Meets Post-Modernism

Introduction

A golden hero swings his sword against monsters in the deep—but through the postmodern lens, even legends lose their shine. When viewed through a postmodernist lens, Beowulf shifts from an epic of valor to a commentary on performative heroism, unstable legacy, and the illusion of control. Through fragmentation, dark irony, and self-aware storytelling, Beowulf parallels the absurdity and anxieties exposed in works like “SURE, THE VELOCIRAPTORS ARE STILL ON THE LOOSE, BUT THAT’S NO REASON NOT TO REOPEN JURASSIC PARK.”, Nye’s “Making a Fist,” and Gorillaz’s “Humility.”

Comment 1: Postmodernism Unmasks the Hero.

 One of postmodernism’s key traits is anti-logic, which flips traditional wisdom on its head. In Beowulf, the line "Fate often saves an undoomed man when his courage is good" captures the heroic belief in destiny and bravery. But read postmodernly, it feels absurd—a PR slogan for valor in a world where everyone still dies. This mirrors “SURE, THE VELOCIRAPTORS ARE STILL ON THE LOOSE, BUT THAT’S NO REASON NOT TO REOPEN JURASSIC PARK.”, where Ludlow casually admits, “Yes, more visitors will die,” but offers T-shirts and plaques instead of solutions. Both texts turn serious stakes into a branding opportunity. Here, Beowulf’s message becomes less about actual salvation and more about the illusion of control, much like Ludlow’s corporate spin. In both cases, black humor exposes how systems turn danger into narrative. Ludlow does it for profit. Beowulf does it for glory. Neither changes the end.

Comment 2: Tragedy, Memory & Survival.

Postmodernism also values historiographic metafiction, questioning how we record and retell history. Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Making a Fist” is a personal survival poem, beginning with Borges: “We are all dead men conversing with dead men.” Just like Beowulf, Nye’s speaker reflects from a future self. Her sick childhood moment becomes a metaphor for endurance. Beowulf, too, reflects from the edge of death. The line, “After this, the prince of the Weders had survived

many wars, but his last day had come,” isn’t triumph—it’s surrender. Nye says, "You know you’re alive when you can make a fist." It’s the same quiet resistance as Beowulf taking his final stand.

Watch a narrator read Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Making a Fist.”

Both texts resist epic closure. They suggest memory is all we leave behind—and even that is flawed. Like Nye’s fist or Beowulf’s funeral pyre, these are small gestures in the face of forgetting.

Comment 3: Minimalism, Metafiction & the Fractured Self. 

Another key postmodern feature is minimalism—the art of saying more with less. In the line, “Then the mighty war-spirit suffered, tormented by waves,” Beowulf battles nature itself, but the grandeur hides a powerless truth: he’s just surviving. Gorillaz’s “Humility” echoes this. The video shows 2-D skating through Venice Beach, smiling on the outside, hollow on the inside. The jazzy sound is chill, but the lyrics hint at isolation: “Calling the world from isolation...”

Gorillaz's "Humility"

Both texts convey confidence while exposing fragility. The calm tone hides emotional chaos, like Beowulf masking fear with honor. Both characters seem aware they’re part of a show. Metafiction, another postmodern trait, is visible in how 2-D interacts with a real world that doesn’t respond to his cartoon presence. Likewise, Beowulf ends with a narrator reminding us the hero is gone: “His last day had come.” The epic breaks itself.

Conclusion

Beowulf may swing his sword with strength, but through a postmodern lens, we see the cracks in the steel. His tale becomes less about triumph and more about the stories we tell to survive chaos. Postmodernism doesn’t destroy Beowulf’s legacy—it complicates it. It asks: was he brave, or just performing bravery because that’s all the world allowed? And what happens when even legends die? Even the strongest hero can’t outrun entropy. But maybe, like a fist in the backseat or a song called “Humility,” that’s not the point. Perhaps survival is not slaying the dragon, but daring to feel small and real, in a world that keeps pretending.

Works Cited

Beowulf. Trans. Seamus Heaney. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. www.somanybooks.org/eng205/Beowulf.pdf. Accessed 12 May 2025.

Gorillaz. "Humility." The Now Now, Parlophone, 2018. Music video directed by Jamie Hewlett. www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5yFcdPAGv0. Accessed 12 May 2025.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. "Making a Fist." The Words Under the Words, Eighth Mountain Press, 1995. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54308/making-a-fist. Accessed 12 May 2025.

"SVSLBTRNRJP" McSweeneys Internet Tendency. www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/sure-the-velociraptors-are-still-on-the-loose-but-thats-no-reason-not-to-reopen-jurassic-par. Accessed 12 May 2025.