Postmodern collage, in Ashbery or Bernstein, juxtaposes found texts for ironic multiplicity; it appears to deconstruct unity, celebrate hybridity, and question authorship, thriving in late 20th-century poetry amid globalization and media saturation.

Postmodern collage assembles disparate fragments—quotations from multiple sources, varied stylistic registers, different media references, cultural debris—into eclectic, non-linear compositions that resist unified interpretation or single authorial voice. The technique reflects postmodern skepticism about grand narratives, stable identity, and artistic originality. Poets like John Ashbery, Charles Bernstein, and Harryette Mullen create collage texts where meaning emerges from juxtaposition rather than linear development. Unlike modernist fragmentation (which often mourns lost unity), postmodern collage celebrates multiplicity and refuses nostalgia for wholeness. The technique appropriates, samples, and recombines existing materials, questioning authorship and originality while demonstrating how culture consists of endlessly recirculated signs. Postmodern collage can include found text, multiple fonts or visual elements, abrupt tonal shifts, and refusal of hierarchical organization. Students should examine how fragments relate—through contrast, echo, irony, or seemingly random juxtaposition. Understanding postmodern collage requires recognizing that incoherence may be purposeful rather than failed coherence, and that meaning can emerge through accumulation and juxtaposition rather than linear argument or narrative.