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Nazlpnar 1

Muzaffer Derya Nazlpnar

Prof. Dr. Hasan Boynukara

Postmodernism

20th April 2012

MODERNISM vs. POSTMODERNISM

There is an episode of The Simpsons in which the barman, Moe, tries to transform his

dingy bar into somewhere cool and futuristic, decorating it with randomly chosen objects

such as suspended rabbits and eyeballs. His regulars dont get it. Faced with their non-

comprehending stares, he explains: Its po-mo! . . . Post-modern! . . . Yeah, all right weird

for the sake of weird (Homer the Moe, Simpsons Archive).

The Simpsons is widely considered one of the most exemplary postmodern texts

because of its self-reflexive irony and intertextuality. However, is postmodernism really weird

for the sake of being weird, as Moe and most other critics stated? What is its difference from

the previous movement, Modernism? To tell the truth, neither modernism nor postmodernism

are simple or clearly defined concepts. Most of the critics think that its best to think of

modernism and postmodernism as existing in a mutually constitutive relationship. Neither

form of life is separate or total; each contains the seeds and residues of the other. In fact, each

requires the continued existence of the other in order to appearthrough oppositiondistinct

and coherent.

Turning to the meaning of terms, modernism describes a collection of cultural

movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It consists of a series of

reforming movements in art, architecture, literature, music and applied arts. It was the era

characterised as the heir to and the fulfilment of the Enlightenment triumph of Truth and

Reason over medieval era superstition and ignorance. Modernist society believed among other

that progress could only be built on the principles of scientific research, mass production, and

processes of industrialisation. Thus, it led to progress in all the aspects of life by changing the

approach of mankind of looking at them.

Postmodernism, on the other hand, refers to the state that lacks a central hierarchy and

one that is complex, ambiguous and diverse. It is the era of the space age of consumerism,

late capitalism, and most recently, the dominance of the virtual and digital. The result of this

is a cultural eclecticism, as summarized in a much-quoted sentence from the philosopher Jean

Franois Lyotard: one listens to reggae, watches a western, eats McDonalds food for lunch

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and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and retro clothes in Hong Kong

(Lyotard 1984:76). The key factor behind this expansion is the rise of technology, so day by

day, the postmodern society has become increasingly high-tech, saturated by products and

consumer goods. The consequence of this kind of postmodern living is that people become

more engaged with symbolic representations rather than real, tangible objects. Existence

becomes more virtual than real. As the postmodern philosopher Jean Baudrillard has stated

virtual reality is already here, and we all live in it almost every moment of our lives

(Baudrillard 1994).

One of the key questions behind these debates is how the particular conditions of

postmodernity/postmodernism differ from those of modernity/modernism. Basically,

modernism, beginning in the 1890s and lasted till about 1945, was based on using rational,

logical means to gain knowledge while postmodernism, starting after the Second World War,

especially after 1968, denies the application of logical thinking. Rather, the thinking during

the postmodern era is based on unscientific, irrational thought process, as a reaction to

modernism. A hierarchical and organized and determinate nature of knowledge characterizes

modernism. However, postmodernism depends on an anarchical, non-totalized and

indeterminate state of knowledge. While the modernist approach is objective, theoretical and

analytical, the postmodernism approach gives importance to subjectivity. It lacks the

analytical nature, and thoughts are rhetorical and completely based on belief. The

fundamental difference between modernism and postmodernism is that modernist thinking is

about the search of an abstract truth of life while postmodernist thinkers believe that there is

no universal truth, abstract or otherwise.

Moreover, modernism attempts to construct a coherent world-view whereas

postmodernism attempts to remove the difference between high and low. Modernist thinking

asserts that mankind progresses by using science and reason while postmodernist thinking

believes that progress is the only way to justify the European domination on culture.

Modernist thinking believes in learning from past experiences, and trusts the texts that narrate

the past. On the other hand, postmodernist thinking defies any truth in the text narrating the

past and renders it of no use in the present times. Modernist historians have a faith in depth.

They believe in going deep into a subject to fully analyze it. This is not the case with

postmodernist thinkers. They believe in going by the superficial appearances, they believe in

playing on surfaces and show no concern towards the depth of subjects. Modernism considers

the original works as authentic while postmodernist thinkers base their views on hyper-reality;

they get highly influenced by things propagated through media.

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During the modernist era, art and literary works are considered as unique creations of

the artists. People are serious about the purpose of producing art and literary works. These

works are believed to bear a deep meaning, novels and books predominated society. During

the postmodernist era, with the onset of computers, media and advancements in technology,

television and computers become dominant in society. Art and literary works begin to be

copied and preserved by the means of digital media. People no longer believe in art and

literary works bearing one unique meaning; they rather believe in deriving their own

meanings from pieces of art and literature. Interactive media and Internet lead to distribution

of knowledge. Music like Mozart, Beethoven, which was appreciated during modernism,

becomes less popular in the postmodern era. World music, Djs and remixes characterize

postmodernism. The architectural forms that have been popular during modernism are

replaced by a mix of different architectural styles in the postmodern times. Where modernist

art forms privilege formalism, rationality, authenticity, depth and originality; postmodernism

favours pastiche to original production, and the mixing styles and genres. We consume the

representations, in other words the hyperreal, rather than real. The problem is that

postmodernism, which is playful and ironic, has swallowed everything, and it is impossible

simply to ignore or extinguish it. To sum up, I find the postmodern theory confusing and

sometimes outrageous, but still exciting and attractive for me.

Work cited

Baudrillard, J. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.

Lyotard, J. F. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University

of Minnesota Press. 1984.