TO RE-EVALUATE AND REVISE THE IDEAS OF MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM: A METAMODERNIST READING OF TAKE MY HAND BY DOLEN PERKIN-VALDEZ

Abstract

This research paper aims to examine how Take My Hand (2022) by Dolen Perkins-Valdez employs strategies of metamodernism to re-evaluate and revise the ideas of modernism and postmodernism for the twenty-first century. Based upon Allan McKee’s (2003) model of textual analysis and Vermeulen and Van den Akker’s (2010) theory of metamodernism, this research examines how the novel oscillates between modernist sincerity and postmodern skepticism to suggest an emotionally resonant, an ethically engaged way of knowing and being. Through the analysis of main passages, the research contends that the narrative generates new methods of subjectivity and meaning-making that move beyond postmodern cynicism and irony, emotional association, confirming the possibility of ethical responsibility, and collective memory. This study shows that Take My Hand reflects that metamodernism strategies such as oscillation, relationality, ambivalence, and sincerity tempered by irony offer productive ways of re-engaging with meaning and reality beyond the impasses of postmodern nihilism and modernist certainty. It also proves that by embracing both irony and sincerity, critique and care, the Take My Hand not only endures eye witness to the past but also demands readers to enact and imagine a more just future. These oscillatory engagement upholds that meaning, though contested and provisional, remains both necessary and possible. This research also aims to chart and develop understandings of society about societal changes and transformation. Moreover this is also important because a breakaway from postmodernism is a great change in how society is moving forward and how society can be further developed and understood. It is a great breakthrough in the domain of social understanding and philosophy.