“Forbid us something, and that thing we desire.” — The Wife of Bath, The Canterbury Tales
“I don’t know how to feel, but I wanna try.” — Billie Eilish
“There’s battle lines being drawn / nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.” — Buffalo Springfield
Postmodernism: Because Making Sense Is So Last Century
Postmodernism isn’t here to solve your problems. It’s here to unpack them, put them in a slightly ironic collage, and set them to a remix of existential dread. And honestly? Kind of iconic.
It rejects easy answers and aesthetic perfection, instead leaning all the way into contradictions, chaos, and questioning. Sound familiar? Because Chaucer was doing that in The Canterbury Tales before it was cool.
A bunch of weirdos on a pilgrimage, each telling stories that contradict, mock, or outright roast each other? That’s Postmodernism in a tunic.
And today? We’re still remixing that same messy energy through Barbie’s identity crisis, Stranger Things’ retro dread, and TikTok cowboy-core.
Barbie vs. The Wife of Bath: Iconic, Unbothered, Complicated
Barbie, in Billie Eilish What Was I Made For?, floats through a pastel identity spiral, asking: “Am I real? Or just here to be pretty and smile?” The Wife of Bath read that and said, same bestie.
She’s the ultimate medieval icon—married five times, brutally honest about her desires, and fully aware that society tries to define her by her body, her role, and her silence. And yet, she won’t shut up. Ever. (Love that for her.)
Barbie walks out of her own fake world. The Wife of Bath hijacks Chaucer’s whole frame narrative. Both declare: I contain multitudes—and contradictions. Postmodernism claps.
Embedded Video: What Was I Made For – Billie Eilish (YouTube)
This song is basically her Prologue but with more eyeliner.
Nostalgia Isn’t Safe—Just Ask Stranger Things
Stranger Things uses aesthetics to lie to you—at first. The soft glow of 1980s suburbia, the pop songs, the bikes. But then it slaps you with monsters, trauma, and Cold War paranoia. Postmodernism says: “Never trust a vibe.”
When Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth plays during a standoff, it’s not just background noise. It’s a warning. Everything looks fine… until it very much isn’t.
And Chaucer? His pilgrims may start as your average medieval travelers, but suddenly you're knee-deep in stories of corrupt clergy, gender politics, and knights who really shouldn't be role models. The journey isn't holy—it's hilariously human. The safe shell breaks, and Postmodern truth leaks out.
Link to My Original Blog on Stranger Things + Buffalo Springfield
Cowboy-Core Meets Medieval Meme Culture
Now let’s talk cowboys. Heartless by Diplo & Morgan Wallen is all heartbreak and boot-scootin’ regret. Meanwhile, Old Town Road is a cowboy meme fever dream that broke the internet and genre boundaries at the same time.
This is peak Postmodernism: identities that exist only as ironic mashups, genres bent until they snap, and meaning that’s more about vibes than reality.
Sound familiar? Chaucer’s pilgrims are the blueprint. The Pardoner is a scam artist selling salvation. The Knight tells a “noble” story that’s just medieval fanfic with trauma.
Link to My Original Blog Post: Heartless + Old Town Road
Postmodernism = Embrace the Chaos
The Canterbury Tales doesn't offer a neat moral. Neither does Barbie. Neither does your Spotify playlist.
And that's kind of the point.
Postmodernism acknowledges that life isn’t fair, linear, or rational. It’s full of contradictions, identity crises, genre switches, and moral grey areas. Chaucer, in his own chaotic brilliance, was already there—writing a book that questions truth, authority, and narrative structure while pretending to just be a bunch of road trip stories.
Postmodernism looked at The Canterbury Tales and said: “We see you. And we brought glitter.”
Final Thought: Be a Mess. On Purpose.
Barbie doesn’t figure it out. The Wife of Bath doesn’t apologize. Stranger Things never resolves cleanly. Chaucer never finishes the tales.
And yet—each of these still matters. Still resonates. Still leaves a mark.
That’s the heart of Postmodernism. You don’t have to wrap things up in a neat little moral. You just have to show up, tell your story, contradict yourself, and maybe confuse a few people along the way. Same energy. Different century.
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Translated by Nevill Coghill, Penguin Classics, 2003.
Eilish, Billie. “What Was I Made For? (Official Music Video)” YouTube 13 July 2023
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW8VLC9nnTo. Accessed 14 May 2025
This blog perfectly explains the chaotic structure of Postmodernism. I loved the comparison between Barbie and the Wife of Bath, two icons separated by centuries but connect in their refusal to be defined by others. I also liked your point about Stranger Things because the show pulls you in with nostalgic comfort, only to unravel it with monsters and moral ambiguity kinda like The Canterbury Tales. Do you think Chaucer meant to be this postmodern, or is it that modern audiences are finally catching up to his layered storytelling?
This post is really fun and makes postmodernism easy to understand. I liked how you connected The Canterbury Tales to things like Barbie and Stranger Things, showing that the same ideas still pop up today. The funny tone and simple examples made everything feel less complicated while still getting the main point across.
I love the connection behind the sources showing how the incomplete story is still a good story that resonates with the reader, showing how the cliff is just waiting for us to jump off of it to see what the next thing is, it really shows the conflict but interege one has in their mind.
I love how you connect Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales with modern media like Barbie and Stranger Things without flattening either. The Wife of Bath as a proto-Barbie? Iconic and surprisingly apt. The parallels drawn between Chaucer’s fragmented, self-aware narrative structure and modern cultural texts like Barbie and Stranger Things are both insightful and convincing. Particularly effective is the alignment of the Wife of Bath with Postmodern notions of identity, performance, and contradiction. And the idea that Postmodernism isn’t about solving but remixing, re-framing, and embracing contradictions really hits. You make chaos feel not only meaningful, but kind of empowering.
In the above post, postmodernism is undefined, its unclear, and there is only the unknown. It is dramatic chaos and speaks to me through the included sources. My favorite part of the post was the comparison of the Canterbury tales to the barbie movie, specifically the song, "what was I made for". This song is an anthem to all women on their purpose In life, speaking about values, roles, and the inner thoughts of the women through the chaos of life. I love this song connection because it deeply portrays how the women in the tale feels, being the ideal talk of the town, ultimately overlooked. The relation I notice the most is the continuous acknowledgement of a mess, and imperfections. I find this to be a universal truth, and a deep view of postmodernism.