Officer Redneck
5th Period
From Manners to Postmodern
Introduction
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is rooted in the Victorian tradition, exploring themes like class, morality, and intense emotion through a dark, gothic lens. Yet the novel also anticipates Postmodern ideas. Its layered, unreliable narration draws on metafiction, while the blurred identities and haunting repetitions suggest a simulacrum which is a world where reality is unstable and characters become echoes of each other. Through its contradictions and refusal to offer clear meaning, the novel deconstructs traditional thoughts like love and hate, civilization and savagery. Though Victorian in form, Wuthering Heights reaches forward, hinting at a world where truth is fragmented and endlessly questioned.
Summary of Element One - Deconstruction
Links to Postmodernism in Your Literary Tradition Text
In Wuthering Heights Catherine declares"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
to Nelly, expressing her deep, spiritual connection to Heathcliff, which surpasses societal norms. Traditionally seen as a romantic declaration, this quote emphasizes emotional unity. Postmodernism questions the stability of identity and love. Catherine's claim of soul-sameness can be reinterpreted as a performative illusion, a desire for completeness in a fragmented, class-divided world. The “same soul” becomes not a truth but a longing shaped by social trauma and isolation.
Links to Postmodern Media Source(s)
Cody Jinks, “Loud and Heavy” YouTube
This song is a gritty, emotional storm, the kind you don’t see coming until it’s already rolling in. First time I heard it, I had to stop what I was doing and just listen. You ever had a song do that, this was the one for me.
My Take - Within the meanings behind each text, you can see the connection to the deconstruction of one's emotions and feelings and tying them back into themselves to show this complex being and thought process behind everything little conflict and life as a whole.
Summary of Element Two -Metafiction/self-awareness
Links to Postmodernism in Your Literary Tradition Text
In Wuthering Heights a big part of Heathcliff's character is seen when he says "I cannot live without my soul!" after Catherine's death, suggesting his identity is intertwined with hers. By highlighting the extremity of Heathcliff's declaration, postmodernism reads it as a performative gesture within a melodramatic narrative. It reveals how language and emotion are shaped by genre based conventions, making the quote less about "truth" and more about how characters play roles.
Links to Postmodern Media Source(s)
Tenacious D, “Tribute ” YouTube
The song is about singing a song, not the song itself. Which is the textbook definition of postmodern self-awareness. The video pokes fun at how people chase perfection in art. They perform "the greatest song in the world"... but forget how it goes. That idea of losing the perfect moment really resonates with anyone who's ever tried to recreate a fleeting moment of inspiration.
My Take - In both sources, they drive greatly in the idea that there is metafiction and self awareness of everything we do for it to be real or for it to be seen as real, which is a key idea in postmodern literature.
Summary of Element Three - Simulacrum
Your Literary Tradition Text
In the later parts of Wuthering Heights Catherine exclaims "I am Heathcliff!" which expresses a desire for unity with Heathcliff that surpasses physical or social boundaries. This is traditionally viewed as the peak of Catherine’s emotional expression of love and identity. This blurs the line between oneself and other, suggesting identity is unstable and relational. Postmodernism sees “I am Heathcliff” not as truth but as a symbolic collapse of selfhood where Catherine’s identity is not her own, but a simulation built from longing, trauma, and social constraint.
Links to Postmodern Media Source(s)
Elissa Bassist, “Writer Math” McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
In Elissa Bassist’s Writer Math, math class is not about numbers, it’s about trauma, insecurity, and rejection, with just a dash of crippling self-awareness. Instead of solving equations, you spiral through them. The piece masquerades as a standardized test, but each “problem” is just a punch to the ego in the language of long division.
My Take - In both sources, both the writers seem to drive their idea of the breakdown between a physical and emotion barrier and seem to branch into their own version of how to feel and see things. Which ultimately is the idea of Simulacrum.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen from past literature as compared to that of the present, we can come to realize that the past was built on ideas that shape the present future and do the past literature, we are able to find these ideas for the postmodern thinking of today. As well as being able to see the influence from the past till now and how they are interwoven throughout all we read and hear and see.
The way you pulled Wuthering Heights into the postmodern world is very interesting. It is not easy to bridge the Victorian era with Tenacious D, but you managed to pull it off. Your take on Catherine saying “I am Heathcliff” was an impactful take. The idea of identity as a simulation shaped by longing and trauma is unique. The line, although haunting, is a very layered take, and reading it through the lens of simulacim added to the layered effect.
In your sources you portray chaos through descontruction of emotions and physically, to alleviate the crisis of decay. The introduction of your sources to be firey of tension, make the claim of "the past being built on ideas that shape the present" to shine through and portray accurate comparisons of internal comprehensions. I love how you weave the same elements through each story, showing how postmodernism stories all connect in ways, even when it is not clear from the surface. Fantastical job with summing the whole article up through wuthering heights, and making a universe trapped with love, light, and uncertainty.
I really liked how you broke everything down — especially the part about Catherine saying “I am Heathcliff.” You explained it in a way that actually made me stop and think, like wow... that’s not just dramatic, it’s actually kind of scary and deep. The media connections were super fun too. “Tribute” was such a perfect choice for metafiction — like literally a song about a song? Genius. And I felt that when you talked about “Loud and Heavy” hitting you so hard you had to just stop and listen — been there. Your “My Take” sections were strong and felt really personal, which made the whole thing more interesting. Overall, it was thoughtful but also felt real. Loved it!