Self-Reflexivity in African Fiction:A Study on Coetzee's Summertime

One of the things that distinguish postmodern aesthetic work from modernist work is extreme self-reflexivity. Postmodernists tend to take this even further than the modernists but in a way that ends often to be more playful, even irreverent. This same self-reflexivity can be found everywhere in pop culture, for example the way the Scream series of movies has characters debating the generic rules behind the horror film. In modernism, self-reflexivity tended to be used by "high" artists in difficult works. Post modernism, self-reflexive strategies can be found in both high art and everything from Seinfeld to MTV. In postmodern architecture, this effect is achieved by keeping visible internal structures and engineering elements (pipes, support beams, building materials, etc.).