Question

Which of the following statements are correct? A. The period from the 1960s to the present can be considered the postmodern period. B. Postmodernism came immediately after World War I. C. Well-known authors of the postmodern period are John Barth, Cormac McCarthy, Don DeLillo etc. D. Samuel Beckett's Jacob's Room is a postmodernist work. E. Eliot's “Sailing to Byzantium” is a postmodernist work.

• A. A and B Only
• B. A and C Only
• C. A, C and E Only
• D. D and E Only

Hint:

Postmodernism is generally connected with the post-1960s period and writers like John Barth and Don DeLillo.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1 : Understanding the Question:
This question asks us to evaluate five statements (A through E) concerning the timeline, major authors, and key literary works of the postmodernist period to identify the correct subset.

Step 2 : Key Formulas and Approach:
The approach involves applying literary history timelines and author/text attributions to verify which statements are accurate. We define the boundary between modernism (post-WWI) and postmodernism (post-1960s) and verify the authorship of the listed works.

Step 3 : Detailed Explanation:

• The postmodern period in literature is generally understood to have emerged in the post-WWII era, gaining significant momentum from the 1960s onward and continuing to influence contemporary writing. This makes Statement A correct.

• Statement B is incorrect because the period immediately following World War I (the 1920s) represents the high phase of Modernism, characterized by works like T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and James Joyce's Ulysses.

• Statement C is correct because John Barth (known for metafiction like Lost in the Funhouse), Cormac McCarthy (noted for dark, fragmented epics), and Don DeLillo (author of White Noise) are central figures of American postmodern fiction.

• Statement D is incorrect because the novel Jacob's Room (1922) is a pioneering modernist work written by Virginia Woolf, not Samuel Beckett.

• Statement E is incorrect because the poem "Sailing to Byzantium" is a modernist masterpiece composed by W.B. Yeats, not T.S. Eliot, and it belongs to the modernist aesthetic rather than postmodernism.

Step 4 : Final Answer:
Evaluating these statements shows that only A and C are correct, making option (B) the correct choice.
The correct option is (B) A and C Only.