PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS AND STRUCTURAL MECHANISMS OF POSTMODERN LITERARY PRACTICE

Abstract

Postmodernism has emerged as one of the most influential aesthetic and intellectual paradigms in contemporary literary studies, fundamentally reshaping traditional assumptions concerning truth, representation, authorship, and historical knowledge. This article investigates the philosophical foundations and structural mechanisms of postmodern literary practice through the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-François Lyotard. Particular attention is paid to intertextuality and metafiction as core narrative strategies that translate postmodern epistemology into literary form. Drawing on the theoretical contributions of Bakhtin, Kristeva, Hutcheon, Waugh, Genette, and Currie, the study demonstrates that postmodern literature constructs a decentralized, polyphonic, and interpretively open textual space that resists fixed meaning and grand narratives.