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• July 18, 2025
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Hello NET/JRF aspirants, we have already discussed about Blue Humanities in our previous blogs. Here we will continue discussing the concepts related to this newly emerging literary field. Today, we are discussing liquid modernity. Have you ever heard about this? Nope! No issues! We will cover it today. Liquid modernity is a concept in Blue Humanities which may help you to understand literature in a fluid manner. If you are aspiring to become an Assistant Professor in English, learning about these new concepts will help you in a major way! You might face questions related to these concepts in your UGC-NET English Literature exam. The NET English Literature syllabus covers all aspects of English Literature. Therefore, you must update yourself on trending topics. If you want proper guidance, you may consider joining UGC-NET online classes or offline classes provided by coaching institutes like Sahitya Classes. Now, let’s delve deeper into the concept of liquid modernity.
NET English Literature syllabus. Have you heard of it? If not, then read on…

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What is Liquid Modernity?

The concept of liquid modernity as interpreted by scholar, Raymond L.M. Lee, was developed by Zygmunt Bauman, who suggests a rapidly changing order that undermines all notions of durability. The concept also carries a sense of rootlessness to all forms of social construction.

In Liquid Modernity (2000), Bauman focused on diluting the ideological superstructures that had dominated the had western world. Interestingly, he wrote, “Fluids neither fix space nor bind time. Fluids do not keep to any shape for long and are constantly ready (and prone) to change it.” Therefore, it is readily used in the discourses related to gender, sexuality, and race.

How is liquid modernity related to ecocriticism?

There is an interlink between liquid modernity and ecocriticism. Bauman related liquid modernity to a sociological phenomenon. But he never undermined that environmental crisis is the epicentre of liquid modernity. Bauman considers change as the only permanence and uncertainty as the only certainty. Carson Chan in his thematic essay How ‘Liquid Modernity’ Shaped Art and the World has rightly pointed out that our digital resources and tools have helped us to shape visual epistemologies of new oceanic depths.

Chan also suggests that ‘water’s disposition for depth, complexity, and boundless fluidity, as well as its proximity to questions of mortality, has made it a potent motif in contemporary art and literature.’ He poses a creative and critical reflection that the ocean is an art: art without the burden of institutional life, without any cultural politics, art that solely and soulfully belongs to artists, and art facing the urgency of socializing for those who care about life. Martínez claims the ocean as a means to ‘reprogramme our senses’ and as a source of ‘potential for transforming the future of architecture, of communications, of gender entanglement, of economy, of art.’ Martínez claims that the image of the ocean reflects our imagination. It is how we aspire to become and channelize the act of becoming.

It is a free-flowing narrative which always helps us to understand the depth of oceans and environmental crisis. There is a kind of change-agent presence in our dialogue like Kline critiques Martínez to state that ocean is art, and is conscious of how humanity has built institutions in service of its own dissolution. Like morning fog, it is art that dwells in the beauty and tragedy of its own vanishing.

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Literary texts used in Blue Humanities

Margaret Atwood – Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy)

• Theme: Biotech, environmental disaster, ethics
• Connection: Shows how liquid modernity leads to ecological collapse, emotional detachment, and technological dystopia.
• Liquid Modern Element: No fixed moral compass, unstable identities, and commodification of life.

Amitav Ghosh – The Hungry Tide

• Theme: Ecology, migration, language
• Connection: Set in the ever-shifting tide country, it reflects human life caught in natural and cultural flux.
• Liquid Modern Element: Unstable geographies, hybrid identities, and fluid boundaries.

1. G. Ballard – Crashor High-Rise

• Theme: Technology, urban disintegration, dehumanization
• Connection: Dystopian reflections of modern life driven by speed, consumerism, and alienation.
• Liquid Modern Element: Hyper-modern settings that erode traditional values and community.

Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go

• Theme: Cloning, memory, unstable identities
• Connection: Reflects the fragility of human relationships and the ethical ambiguity of technological modernity.
• Liquid Modern Element: A sense of ephemeral existence, lack of rootedness, and blurred lines between humanity and utility.

Virginia Woolf – Mrs Dalloway

• Theme: Time, identity, trauma
• Connection: Fragmentation of time and consciousness mirrors the instability of the self in a fast-changing society.
• Liquid Modern Element: Stream-of-consciousness as a narrative tool reflects fluidity of thought, relationships, and memory.

Ali Smith – Autumn (and the Seasonal Quartet)

• Theme: Time, art, Brexit, memory
• Connection: Engages with contemporary disorientation and the fluidity of identity and history.
• Liquid Modern Element: Narrative fragmentation, temporal instability, and resistance to fixed meanings.

To uncover more such concepts on Blue Humanities, follow Sahitya Classes!

If you want to prepare for the UGC-NET English, you can join Sahitya Classes. At Sahitya Classes, every aspect of the NET exam syllabus for English literature is covered. You will also receive UGC NET notes for English literature along with exclusive UGC-NET online classes. Our new batch has already started. Prof. Vineet Pandey has covered Digital Humanities, Electronic Literature, and Blue Humanities as per the current syllabus. If you want to understand these trending topics in an easier manner, please enroll yourself in our online/offline batch.

If you need updated information on such trending topics, you can simply book a call with our counsellors and order your UGC NET English notes pdf.

To learn more about digital humanities, please watch our video. If you want to join our online/offline batch, connect with us!

Happy Reading!

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