The document discusses postmodernism and how it differs from modern thought. Postmodernism rejects universal truths and objective reality, seeing them as social constructs. It emphasizes relativity, fragmentation, and skepticism of grand narratives. Postmodernism has influenced many fields by challenging traditional concepts of knowledge, truth, identity and values.
THEOCENTRIC--Hamlet tells us "There is a Divinity that shapes our ends...” Western art. HUMANISTIC--"Man is the measure of all things." We chart our own destiny. NATURALISTIC--We are shaped by our environment, for the good or bad. Darwinian influence of survival of the fittest. ECONOMIC--Social power lies in money and weath. As Marx said, history is the story of class struggles in which the 'have-nots' struggle to dispossess the 'haves' who naturally will fight to keep what they own. Those who have economic power control cultures, language and shape us as consumers.
“ Modernity" is older than "modernism;" the label "modern," first articulated in nineteenth-century sociology, was meant to distinguish the present era from the previous one, which was labeled "antiquity." Scholars are always debating when exactly the "modern" period began, and how to distinguish between what is modern and what is not modern; it seems like the modern period starts earlier and earlier every time historians look at it. But generally, the "modern" era is associated with the European Enlightenment, which begins roughly in the middle of the eighteenth century . (Other historians trace elements of enlightenment thought back to the Renaissance or earlier, and one could argue that Enlightenment thinking begins with the eighteenth century. BAUDRILLARD
ACTUALLY, WHEN TALKING ABOUT THE HISTORY OF WESTERN INTELLECTUALISM AND ART, YOU NEED TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN three ERAs: MODERN MODERNISM OR MODERNIST POSTMODERN You are in the midst of this revolution WHERE MOD AND POMO BEGINS AND ENDS IS FUZZY
TO UNDERSTAND POSTMODERNISM, FIRST NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS MEANT MY MODERNITY AND MODERNISM WHAT IS MODERNITY? BASIC PRINCIPLES
THIS PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE SUGGESTED A PHILSOPHY OF LANGUAGE AND HOW WE VIEW OURSELVES
And this is THE CLASS MODERN VIEW OF LITERATURE LITERATURE IS UNIVERSAL TRUTHS
THERE WAS INTELLECTUAL UPHEAVAL IN THE EARLY 1900s Sigmund Freud's view of the unconscious as the determinant of motivation and behavior Karl Marx's view of consciousness as a product of sociohistorical factors Friedrich Nietzsche's annunciation of the death of God Devastation of the war , modernism embodies a lack of faith in Western civilization and culture -- its humanism and rationalism. Picasso, Kafka, Joyce, Dadaism and surrealis, existentialism, search for meaning Rise of fascism, anarchy, nihilism Rebellion against liberal humanism, positivism, reason, progress, god-centric world
Revolution in science AT THE SAME TIME Bend the rules of science Observer’s position effects interpretation of reality
IN THE WORLD OF ART, THE REVOLT AGAINST MODERN RATIONAL THINKING BECAME VERY EVIDENT REVOLT AGAINST REPRESENTIONAL ART Antiprepresentational "Modernism can be thought of as the self-conscious response in the arts to the experience of modernity "a radically altered aesthetic form and perspective: the modernist stress upon art as a self-referential construct instead of as a mirror of nature or society" Cubism--different perspectives of reality
In literature, POETS, NOVELISTS AND PLAYWRIGHTS BECAME TO PROCLAIM THE END OF THE RATIONAL WORLD EXISTENTIAL THEMES BEGAN TO APPEAR LIFE WITH NO CENTER YEATS LANDMARK POEM THE NEW ORDER OF THINGS WAS AWORLD WITH NO CENTER
In writers such as HEMINGWAY, FAULKNER, VIRGINIA WOOLF, FROST AND JAMES JOYCE, existential themes bgean to appear WHOLE DIFFERENT TYPE OF LITERATURE MIRRORED WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN VISUAL ARTS Exploration of man as an alienated individual, inward looking Focus on impressionism, and subjectivity Movement away from tradition 3rd party ways of story telling Self consciousness bred a new style called stream of consciousness Spontaneity and discovery in creation Experimentation Still reflected western tradition Eliot--rich language and symbols of experience The Lost Generation--Gertrude Stein, Fitzgerald
THAT IS THE MODERNIST VIEW OF THE WORLD LESS REALISM AND NATURALISTIC INTERPRETATION EMPHASIS ON THE SUBCONSCIOUSNESS EXPERIMENTATION IN AESTHETICS HOW DOES POSMODERNISM DIFFER? Not opposite to--an extension of BULLETS
THAT IS THE MODERNIST VIEW OF THE WORLD LESS REALISM AND NATURALISTIC INTERPRETATION EMPHASIS ON THE SUBCONSCIOUSNESS EXPERIMENTATION IN AESTHETICS HOW DOES POSMODERNISM DIFFER? Not opposite to--an extension of BULLETS
ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT IT JAMESON OFTEN GIVEN CREIDT FOR POPULARIZING PM AN AMERICAN MARXIST--NOT IN POLITICAL BUT LITERARY SENSE CULTURAL MATERIALIST ECONOMICS DICTATE REALITY
THESE ARE SOME BASIC CONCEPTS THAT CUT ACROSS ALL ASPECTS OF POSTMODERNISM On objective essence, no central truths Don’t mourn or worry about it--that’s just the way life is
Even marriage Islam Mormons of the 19th c Chinese concubines Family Motherhood Plato China one-child India--girls are bad
THIS VIEW OF THE WORLD HAS A BIG IMPACT UPON KNOWLEDGE AND LANGUAGE THEORY HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW? HOW DOES LANGUAGE MEAN? HERE ARE SOME KEY PRINCIPLES: BULLETS POSTMODERNISM CHANGES EVERYTHING VIEW OF THEOLOGY PSYCHOLOGY MILITARY
HERE ARE SOME OF THE UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS OF PM THEORY ABOUT LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE--ALSO APPLIES TO HISTORY AND PSYCHOLOGY
WHICH BRINGS US TO POSTMODERNIST LITERATURE? HAVE YOU READ VONNEGUT? BARTH? PYNCHEON? ATWOOD? Experiments with modes to create a stream of consciousness so vivid that the author disappears Experimented within traditional frameworks POSTMODERNIST Challenged the traditional narrative and genre boundaries Creates ruptures, gaps and ironies that continue to remind the reader that the author is present See traditional linear representatives of reality false Challenge structures and taboos of contemporary society SEE THE WORKINGS But Quixote self-reflective Many current novels very traditional
Mixed techniques--essay--newsreels (Dos Passos), memos,, etc. Kundera Pycheon: Gravity’s rainbow: ambiguous unresolvable allegory Conspiracy and paranoia are common themes, biting social critique (Kurt V) Workings of the machine are visible BARTH, BRAUTIGAN, BURROUGHS, DOCTOROW, ECO, HELLER, GASS, MAILER, MORRISON, OATES, PYNCHON, ROTH, GAO, KUNDERA
The encyclopedia Web Architecture of NY LA and Vegas Phallic order Queer sexual identities
Lake Shore apartments in Chicago Built in 1948--changed the look of every American citY Originally, the term comes from architecture, where modern architecture denotes the familiar glass, steel and concrete buildings with their straight, rectangular, geometric shapes. This led in the 1960's to a reaction by younger architects, who included different decorative elements inspired by earlier periods in their design. This eclectic mixture of styles was called "postmodern architecture ". From there the term "postmodern" quickly spread to art, where it denoted a departure from the radicalism and abstraction of the old avant-garde, replacing them by a fusion of different popular and traditional elements, like Warhol's Pop Art or rock music incorporating African and oriental motives.
Simplicity Form should follow function Le Corbusier church Expressionist modern
More responsive to its context Many styles Fragmented, seemingly disjointed JP Getty Museum in LA
Art Museum in Paris Le Boo Boo
Frank Gehring /Prague
Cubism New way of looking at reality
American Robert Rauschenberg Throws into question idea of creativity and originality Silk-screen canvases and montages Fragments From production to reproduction ART DISPENSES WITH AURA ANDY WARHOL AS WELL Frank plagarism, repetition of existing images
MacNewspaper Sound bites
Reality as entertainment
Andy Warhol Body Piercings Boy George Annie Sprinkle MTV Videos Madonna Gus Gus Rap Levi's Commercials The X Files Blade Runner Frankenhooker Jerry Springer Real World Cops Bill Clinton on MTV Body modification The Web Salon Cyberpunk Affinity group credit cards Arugala salads with duck meat, goat cheese and pine nuts
THIS IS POWERFUL STUFF NOT ACADEMIC BABBLE Galileo Spanish Inquisitions McCarthy with hunts Dissenters during Prague Spring China Tianamen Square Taliban
All I am saying is that our society is no longer White Christian Male centric 1950s Ten Commandments in school Women knew their place in the home Hindus, Blacks, Gays were others Communists were evil Sex not talked about or exploited What was good for GM was good for America Now Still be Christian But recognize that there are other world views IN FACT--NEVER HAVE BEEN MORE RELIGIONS AND CULTS POSTMODERNISM HAS GIVEN RISE TO MORE CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS, EASTERN ORIENTED FAITHS, NEW AGE, SHAMANISM, DRUIDS, SATANISM, CULTS--PEOPLE ARE FRAGMENTED SEARCHING FOR MEANING--RESULT OF NO CENTER TO THE WORLD CHALLENGE TO CATHOLIC CHURCH--ABSOLUTISTS AND THOSE VIEW CATHOLICISM AS A CAFETERIA--POSTMODERN CHALLENGES
Assume that the world is the way we experience it. MOST US ARE UNFORMED CITIZENS OF THE POSTMODERN WORLD CONFUSED, UNLEAR OF OUR OWN CENTERS WANT THE GOOD OLD DAYS CREATED POLARIZATION--RELIGIOUS RIGHT, WHITE SUPREMACIST, ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS--PEOPLE WHO CANNOT DEAL WITH THE POST MODERN WORLD We accept social rules of the group--go along with them--accept external reality.
The forces of postmodernism will prevent will ultimately defeat any power trying to corral people into a single world view. Afghanistan
The forces of postmodernism will prevent will ultimately defeat any power trying to corral people into a single world view. Afghanistan
