In my attempt to read Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling, there was one unshakable impression that coursed through my thoughts: this book feels very postmodern. The main elements of the text that brought this opinion to my thoughts is the level of disconnection and fragmentation that is present in the text, which are both key characteristics of postmodern literature.
The term postmodernism is highly contested as it is the newest of the literary classifications. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms explains the contentions surrounding the term and provides a general understanding of the term. The part of this definition that most resonated with this text is that
"Postmodernism may be seen as a continuation of modernism's alienated mood and disorienting techniques and at the same time as an abandonment of its determined quest for artistic coherence in a fragmented world". (Baldick)
Postmodernism embraces uncertainty and plays with the established traditional structures and theories of writing. In much of the same vein, Mackenzie's text is playing with writing forms that were being developed at the time.
Many early novelists were using the epistolary form to shape their novels and tell their stories through a first-person perspective. Rather than follow this trend, Mackenzie his story through the eyes of a young man who obtains a journal of a man who tells the story of Mr. Harley. To add to the distance felt by the reader of the novel from its protagonist, the journal is missing several pages that had been removed by the in-test reader's companion who had been using it to load his musket.
Through Mackenzie's exploring with the format in which he presents his story, it creates a sense of fragmentation and distance that resembles that present in postmodern literature. Both Mackenzie and postmodern authors play with the forms commonly used in novel writing. Although postmodern literature is generally attributed to the later 20th-century, this example of late 18th-century literature emphasizes the contentions around the term 'postmodernism' as its characteristics can be found in literature beyond its generally determined in its definition.
Works Cited:
Baldick, Chris. "postmodernism." The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. : Oxford University Press, January 01, 2008. Oxford Reference. Date Accessed 31 Mar. 2019 <http://www.oxfordreference.com.proxy.hil.unb.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780199208272.001.0001/acref-9780199208272-e-905> .