Postmodernism, as you may know, in literature has the
characteristics of being self-contradictory, disjointed, and having an
unreliable narrator. Those characteristics,
in and of themselves, are not quite all too apparent in Dr. Martin Luther King’s
“I Have a Dream” speech. However, when
one understands that postmodernism was basically formed as a response, or
counter, to the accepted status quo and/or dogma of society at large, one can
begin to see elements of postmodernism in Dr. King’s speech. Postmodernism can be seen almost as a
rebellion of sorts that flies in the face of current practices and norms, so to
speak. That said, there are many
elements where Dr. King proposes the opposite of the way things are. For instance, he says he has a dream where
former slaves and former slave owners of the red hills of Georgia can sit at a
table as brothers. He also mentions he
has a dream where his four children will not be judged by the color of their
skin. These dreams/hopes of his can be seen to be
postmodern by the way they go against the accepted norms of the day.
