Postmodernism

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PostmodernismSummary and background

All new news is old news happening to new people -Malcolm Muggeridge

A late-20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism that represents a departure from modernism and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematical relationship with any notion of art.[footnoteRef:1] [1: Postmodernism, www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/postmodernism (May 8, 2015)]

It is difficult to define Postmodernism, in a level, because defining it is paradoxical to its very nature.

Furthermore, the term suffers from a certain semantic instability: that is, no clear consensus about its meaning exists among scholars. The general difficulty is compounded in this case by two factors: (a) the relative youth of the term postmodernism, and (b) its semantic kinship to more current terms, themselves equally unstable. Thus some critics mean by postmodernism what others call avant-gardism or even neo-avant-gardism, while still others would call the same phenomenon simply modernism.[footnoteRef:2] This paper, therefore, is restricted to an attempt to show the idea that surrounds Postmodernism without committing to the danger of limiting a possible concrete definition of Postmodernism. [2: Hasaan, Ihab, Toward a Concept of Postmodernism, 1987.]

History and Worldview: Pre-Modern, Modern and Postmodern

I am well aware that I have never written anything but fictions. I do not mean to go so far as to say that fictions are beyond the truth. It seems to me that it is possible to make fiction work inside of truth.[footnoteRef:3] Michael Foucault [3: Michael Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, trans. Colin Gordon, 1980.]

The above quote by Foucault reflects the Postmodernists view of history. There are two ways Postmodernists look at history. The radical Postmodernists advocate the nihilist perspective that there is no ultimate purpose of history or grand design. The less radical of them, however, believe that historical facts are inaccessible.[footnoteRef:4] That subjectivity cannot be removed discounted from the equation. In other words, the difference between terms such as revolution and rebellion depends upon its success. [4: Fayaz Chagan,Postmodernism: Rearranging the furniture of the Universe, 1998.]

Pre-Modern (classicism + neoclassicism + romanticism)

800 BC 1800s

The pre-modern worldview held that natural and supernatural exist side-by-side. Many of the people's sense of self and purpose were often expressed via a faith in some form of deity, be that in a single God or in many gods.[footnoteRef:5] And that there was no direct communication between the gods and common men but a chosen few were mediums of the gods with the men. This meant that religion had a strong hold over social order and general belief. [5: Tirosh-Samuelson, H. Happiness in premodern Judaism: Virtue, knowledge, and well-being, 2003.]

Their focus was to achieve perfection that is God through imitation of nature. It began from the Classical Period stretched up to the Romantic Period.

Classicism

People believed that nature is the creation of the divine and that men can only imitate the higher form of creation which is nature. It was marked the foundations laid down by the great philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. It ended around the Hellenistic Period.[footnoteRef:6] [6: M.A.R Habib, Literary Criticism from Plato to the Present, 2011.]

Neo-Classicism and Romanticism

The main Neo-classical movement coincided with the 18th century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, latterly competing with Romanticism.

Enlightenment was an era where intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. Coinciding with the neoclassical movement meant that the empirical way of viewing the world was reconciled with the classicism. In other words, they used the scientific methods to prove the belief about nature.

Modernism (late modern period)

1850 late 1900s

In contrast to the pre-modern era, Western civilization made a gradual transition from pre-modernity to modernity when scientific methods were developed which led many to believe that the use of science would lead to all knowledge, thus throwing back the shroud of myth under which pre-modern peoples lived. New information about the world was discovered via empirical observation.[footnoteRef:7] [7: Baird, F. E., & Kaufmann, W. A. Philosophic classics: From Plato to Derrida, 2008.]

Man was the center of perspective. Man as a self-conscious being, as a social being and men as declassified or equal beings.

Modernism vs. Post modernism

There is no sharp-black-and-white distinction between Modernism and Postmodernism since history is a palimpsest, and culture is permeable to time past, time present, and time future.[footnoteRef:8] A Peoples worldview is, then, a bit of a Romantic, Modern and Postmodern all at once. [8: Natoli, Joseph, A Postmodern Reader, 1993]

To have a better idea, however, of what Postmodernism is and, moreover, what it is not, we have to contrast the term from what it seems to counter, move-on from, or break-out of; Modernism.

Postmodernism is hard to define, because it is a concept that appears in a wide variety of disciplines or areas of study, including art, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communications, fashion, and technology. It's hard to locate it temporally or historically, because it's not clear exactly when postmodernism begins. Perhaps the easiest way to start thinking about postmodernism is by thinking about modernism the, movement from which postmodernism seems to grow or emerge.[footnoteRef:9] [9: Klages, Mary, Literary Theory: A guide for the Perplexed, 2006]

Straightforwardness, transparency and honest simplicity have been valued among the modern virtues. While irony and ambiguity characterize postmodern architecture and literature.[footnoteRef:10] As pointed out in Postscript to the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco: [10: Jencks, Charles. What is Post Modernism, 1996]

I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows he cannot say to her, I love you madly, because he knows that she knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still there is a solution. He can say, As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly. At this point, having avoided false innocence, having said clearly that it is no longer possible to speak innocently, he will nevertheless have said what he wanted to say to the woman: that he loves her; but he loves her in an age of lost innocence [footnoteRef:11] [11: Umberto Eco, Postscript to the Name of the Rose, Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch]

The Age of Lost Innocence is a pertinent classifier for our time because it stems from an insight into the most dominating of all discourses, that is, language. Since language speech and writing is the slowest changing and most imperial of all sign systems, it has to confront the problem of lost innocence every day, the perplexity of how to handle the already said.[footnoteRef:12] The result of such Phenomena is what has been coined by Jean-Franois Lyotard as crisis of representation.[footnoteRef:13] [12: Jencks, Charles. What is Post Modernism, 1996] [13: Lyotard , Jean-Franois, The Postmodern Condition, 1984]

In literature, the style and subject of postmodernism recognizes ethnic, sexual and cultural diversity. While modernist texts could only describe the other from an outside perspective, the former gives the other a voice for itself.

While postmodernist writing unabashedly exhibits difference, diversity, incoherence, and a world of surfaces, with no attempt to subsume these under identity, a framework of coherence or depth, or any vision of implied unity. Heterogeneity is presented as irreducible, recalcitrant to any form of reintegration. With modernism, difference is still rooted in identity, experimentation in tradition, and relativism in the memory of various absolutes. In modernism, diversity was brought in to consciousness and is addressed with a positive manifestation of will break down generalized assumptions and biases. While postmodernism shows cold neutrality towards these diversity. Difference is met with indifference.

Historical development of PostModernism PostmodernITY

It is observable that the beginning of the Postmodernism was not an evolution, growth or mutation from Modernism but a deliberate form of anti-modernism. This active mentality, however will change over time and a more passive outlook will be adopted by the present postmodernist.

Postmodernity is the latest phase in the broad evolution of capitalist economics and culture. It is the historical phenomenon, distinguishable from and the cause of (a) Postmodernism in literature and art; (b) in architecture; (c) and Postmodernism as a theory. The development designates a society and culture that has evolved beyond the phases of industrial and finance capitalism. This society is often called consumer capitalism, a phase characterized by the global extension of capitalist markets, mass migration of labor, the predominating role of mass media and images, unprecedented economic and cultural interaction between various parts of the world, and an unprecedented pluralism and diversity at all levels of culture.[footnoteRef:14] This drive of breaking boundaries of the half of the century has created a mentality of blind acceptance and indifference of the pluralism and diversity as mentioned in the preceding paragraph. [14: M.A.R. Habib, Literary Criticism. ]

This contemporary social order or revolution is different from its predecessors. Unlike in Classicism, Neo-classicism or Modernism, which were fueled by a will for general knowledge and unification of disciplines, postmodernisms view is in a nihilist perspective, as can be observed in their view that there can be no absolute truth.[footnoteRef:15] [15: Fayaz Chagan,Postmodernism.]

. Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.[footnoteRef:16] [16: Lyotard, Jean-Franois, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge trans. Massumi, Brian, 1984.]

Postmodernists are against metanarratives (French word trans. Big stories or stories of stories). They believe that nothing can be as affirmative as what is asserted by science and other forms of objective knowledge. Postmodernists view truth and knowledge as a claim for power. Therefore, cannot be trusted. The aim, for them, is to liberate man from all these constraints: theological, moral and social.

In our own personal subjective analysis, the Pre-modern tried to conquer the world, bang their chests, and shout, My god is perfect, My god is power. The Modern, the frontier to new heights and depths, banged their chests and shout, I am man. I can do everything with science. The Postmodernist connected peoples, bridged gaps, made commincation to anywhere at anytime possible, texted each other and twitted, #Doubteverything. #AllLies.

Postmodern Philosophy

a) All truth is limited, approximate, and is constantly evolving (Nietzsche, Kuhn, Popper).

b) No theory can ever be proved true - we can only show that a theory is false (Popper).

c) No theory can ever explain all things consistently (Godel's incompleteness theorem).

d) There is always a separation between our mind & ideas of things and the thing in itself (Kant).

e) Physical reality is not deterministic (Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, Bohr).

f) Science concepts are mental constructs (logical positivism, Mach, Carnap).

g) Metaphysics is empty of content.

h) Thus absolute and certain truth that explains all things is unobtainable.

Postmodern PhilosophersMichel Foucault

It is meaningless to speak in the name of - or against - Reason, Truth, or Knowledge

Foucault was a French philosopher who attempted to show that what most people think of as the permanent truths of human nature and society actually change throughout the course of history. While challenging the influences of Marx and Freud, Foucault postulated that everyday practices enabled people to define their identities and systemize knowledge. Foucault is considered a postmodern theorist precisely because his work upset the conventional understanding of history as a chronology of inevitable facts. Alternatively, he depicted history as existing under layers of suppressed and unconscious knowledge in and throughout history. These under layers are the codes and assumptions of order, the structures of exclusion that legitimate the epistemes by which societies achieve identities.

In addition to these insights, Foucaults study of power and its shifting patterns is one of the foundations of postmodernism. Foucault believed that power was inscribed in everyday life to the extent that many social roles and institutions bore the stamp of power, specifically as it could be used to regulate social hierarchies and structures. These could be regulated though control of the conditions in which knowledge, truth, and socially accepted reality were produced.

For Foucault, truth and knowledge were constructions we offer to persuade others. They need not correspond to reality, for we construct our own reality in such a way as to give us power over others.

Jean Francois Lyotard

He is most known for a quotation in his book The Post-Modern Condition (1979) which made him responsible for the prominence of the term Metanarratives. The book is a study of the status of knowledge in advanced societies. He recognizes the problem which have had and are still having a radical effect on the status of knowledge in the world's most advanced countries. He identifies the problem with which he is dealing - the variable in the status of knowledge - as one oflegitimation.

He argues that all societies legitimate themselves through telling and re-telling of narratives. Narratives of narratives of historical significance. These narratives have become the identity of these societies, they give them culture and meaning.[footnoteRef:17] He further posits that knowledge and power are two sides of the same question: who decides what knowledge is, and who knows what needs to be decided? [17: J. Childers,The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism1995]

In the postindustrial society, Metanarrative, narratives to which other narratives are based upon, are obsolete. He posits that it has lost its credibility and no matter what unification it uses it is dying. A process of deligitimation was inherent in terms of science, as its version of knowledge was legitimated by itself by citing its own statements in a second-level discourse, and is therefore not true knowledge at all.

Jean Baudrillard

Baudrillard is most famous for his book Simulacra and Simulation. These two terms are separate entities that are related to his theory, Hyperreality.

Simulacra are copies that depict things that either had no original to begin with, or that no longer have an original. Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time.

The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truthit is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.

Simulacra and Simulation identifies three types of simulacra and identifies each with a historical period:

First order, associated with the premodern period, where representation is clearly an artificial placemarker for the real item. The uniqueness of objects and situations marks them as irreproducibly real and signification obviously gropes towards this reality.

Second order, associated with the modernity of the Industrial Revolution, where distinctions between representation and reality break down due to the proliferation of mass-reproducible copies of items, turning them into commodities. The commodity's ability to imitate reality threatens to replace the authority of the original version, because the copy is just as "real" as its prototype.

Third order, associated with the postmodernity of Late Capitalism, where the simulacrum precedes the original and the distinction between reality and representation vanishes. There is only the simulacrum, and originality becomes a totally meaningless concept.

Principles and tenets (by: Chuck Lander of ehow.com)[footnoteRef:18] [18: Lander, Chuck, What Are the Tenets of Postmodernism in Literature? www.ehow.com/info_12274232_tenets-postmodernism-literature.html (5 May 2015)] Critique of Previous Movements

Postmodernism grew as a response to the modernist movement, which divided culture into high art and lower art. It presumed that artistic greatness had specific and definable forms. Although postmodern literature and art may seem to have no purpose outside of this context, most of the works trace back to specific tenets of previous art and literature movements, which artists in the postmodern era see as no longer valid.

Popular Culture

Postmodernists reject the idea that there is a separation between high art and popular forms of art. Therefore, postmodern literature blends high and low culture, often using slang, advertising or other aspects of popular culture to create different combinations of artistic works.

Parody and Irony

In order to undercut or criticize aspects of modern literature, postmodern works often represent modern art in parody or use it as the punchline for ironic jokes. Black humor and comedy as a response to the horrors of life grew from the cultural context after World War II in which postmodernism began. Making a joke about a modernist tenet displays, according to a postmodern ethos, the futility of trying to bring order to a chaotic and violent world.

Fragmentation

Aspects of modern and realist work, in which time and space are linear and coherent, become distorted in postmodern literature, which creates non-linear narratives and fragmented stories which may not seem to have any narrative structure at all. Postmodernism experiments with storytelling to challenge the coherency of value systems of the traditional narrative, such as the concepts of morality or the possibility of happy endings. Fragmented narratives also present the world in a way that does not follow traditional plot or standards of beauty, which postmodern artists might say demonstrates the fact that their narratives are truer to reality.

Meta-narrative

Postmodern work is often self-aware, which means that the text is aware and comments on itself as a text and a work of art. Characters in a meta-narrative often refer to and understand the fact that they are fictional characters in a story. Meta-narratives may also speak directly to the reader, a feat that is only obtainable because the text is aware of itself as a work of fiction.

Absurdity

Postmodern work can take the tenets of modernism and realism and push them to extremes, creating in some cases what is called the Theatre of the Absurd. According to the postmodern system of beliefs, the very attempt of modernists to try to make sense out of life or art is absurd. Some postmodern literature raises this criticism by creating stories, characters and art which are meant to be truer to life because of their nonsensical or absurd nature.

Criticisms

Postmodernism is whatever the f*ck you want it to be Billy Courgan

[Postmodernism is] weird for the sake of weird -Moe Szyslak[footnoteRef:19] [19: The Simpsons, Season 13 Episode 3.]

application

HAMLET

Spike Milligan (1918--2002)

Said Hamlet to Ophelia,

'I'll do a sketch of thee,

What kind of pencil shall I use,

2B or not 2B?

IN SEARCH OF CINDERELLA

Shel Silverstein (1932-1999)

From dusk to dawn,

From town to town,

Without a single clue,

I seek the tender, slender foot

To fit this crystal shoe.

From dusk to dawn,

I try it on

Each damsel that I meet.

And I still love her so, but oh,

Ive started hating feet.

http://www.reocities.com/Athens/agora/9095/postmodernism.html

http://www.allaboutworldview.org/postmodern-history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_philosophy

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Postmodernism.htm

http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Postmodernism%20and%20Its%20Critics

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/