THE PARADOXICAL NATURE OF THE REAL AS THE INFINITE REAL IN METAMODERNISM

Literature has been recently experiencing a new perception of human reality within “Metamodernism,” an umbrella term introduced by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker in ۲۰۱۰ to dub the dominance of a literary movement since the ۱۹۹۰s. As a contemporary movement, Metamodernism offers a new perspective on the apprehension of what it considers to be “the Real” in older movements. Metamodernism aims to elucidate the contemporary approaches toward what makes reality in life and its reflection in literature, thus introducing the concept of the “infinite Real”. In this light, it will investigate the conversions of “the Real”, since the ۱۹۹۰s, from a solidified unchangeable truth to an infinite number of approaches to the concept, all being dynamic and giving rise to even more possibilities of what makes “the Real”. In this context, Metamodernism is represented as a new movement in culture and literature since the late ۲۰th century, and “the Real” is disregarded in being an unalterable and verified truth away from the current worldly state of affairs for the sake of the “Infinite Real”. To investigate the transformation of “the Real” into the “infinite Real’ in Metamodernism, this study follows an interdisciplinary approach, exploring literary, philosophical, and psychological aspects that make it possible to deplore “the Real” and welcome the “infinite Real” in contemporary literature in particular. The results are to reveal that in the contemporary era, the nature of “the Real” in both macro and microlevels of culture and literature differs from person to person, perception to perception, not to mention period to period, paving the way for the infinity of realities happening simultaneously.

Keywords:

infinite real , metamodernism , real , subjectivity