Postmodernism

1
Postmodernism

• Jean-Francois Lyotard
• The Postmodern would be that which in the modern
  invokes the unpresentable in presentation itself,
  that which refuses the consolation of correct
  forms, refuses the consensus of taste permitting
  a common experience of nostalgia for the
  impossible, and inquires into new
  presentations--not to take pleasure in them, but
  to better produce the feeling that there is
  something unpresentable.

2

• Postmodernism presents a set of complex
  philosophical and theoretical issues.
• One way to begin thinking about postmodernism is
  by thinking about modernism, the movement from
  which postmodernism seems to grow or emerge.
• As you know, modernist literature tends to share
  certain characteristics. From a literary
  perspective, the main aspects of modernism
  include
• The following notes on modernism and modernity
  versus postmodernity are taken from Mary Klages
  Page at http//www.colorado.edu/English/courses/EN
  GL2012Klages/pomo.html

3
Modernism

• an emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in
  writing an emphasis on HOW perception takes
  place, rather than on WHAT is perceived.
• a movement away from the apparent objectivity
  provided by omniscient third-person narrators,
  fixed narrative points of view, and clear-cut
  moral positions.
• a blurring of distinctions between genres, so
  that poetry seems more documentary and prose
  seems more poetic.

4
Modernism, cont.

• an emphasis on fragmented forms, discontinuous
  narratives, and random-seeming collages of
  different materials.
• a tendency toward reflexivity, or
  self-consciousness, about the production of the
  work of art, so that each piece calls attention
  to its own status as a production, as something
  constructed and consumed in particular ways.
• a rejection of elaborate formal aesthetics in
  favor of minimalist designs and a rejection, in
  large part, of formal aesthetic theories, in
  favor of spontaneity and discovery in creation.
• A rejection of the distinction between "high" and
  "low" or popular culture, both in choice of
  materials used to produce art and in methods of
  displaying, distributing, and consuming art.

5

• Postmodernism, like modernism, follows most of
  these same ideas, rejecting boundaries between
  high and low forms of art, rejecting rigid genre
  distinctions, emphasizing pastiche, parody,
  bricolage, irony, and playfulness.
• Postmodern art (and thought) favors reflexivity
  and self-consciousness, fragmentation and
  discontinuity (especially in narrative
  structures), ambiguity, simultaneity, and an
  emphasis on the destructured, decentered,
  dehumanized subject.

6

• But--while postmodernism seems very much like
  modernism in these ways, it differs from
  modernism in its attitude toward a lot of these
  trends.
• Modernism, for example, tends to present a
  fragmented view of human subjectivity and
  history, but presents that fragmentation as
  something tragic, something to be lamented and
  mourned as a loss. Many modernist works try to
  uphold the idea that works of art can provide the
  unity, coherence, and meaning which has been lost
  in most of modern life art will do what other
  human institutions fail to do.

7

• Postmodernism, by contrast, doesn't lament the
  idea of fragmentation, provisionality, or
  incoherence, but rather celebrates that.

8
Modernity vs. Postmodernity

• Following Frederic Jameson, there is another way
  to conceive the relationship between modernism
  and postmodernism, and this is to recognize them
  as distinct cultural formations.
• Modernity is fundamentally about order about
  rationality and rationalization, creating order
  out of chaos

9
Modernity vs. Postmodernity (cont.)

• The ways that modern societies go about creating
  order have to do with the effort to achieve
  stability.
• Lyotard equates that stability with the idea of
  "totality," or a totalized system.
• Totality, and stability, and order, Lyotard
  argues, are maintained in modern societies
  through the means of "grand narratives" or
  "master narratives," which are stories a culture
  tells itself about its practices and beliefs.

10
Modernity vs. Postmodernity (cont.)

• Postmodernism then is the critique of grand
  narratives, the awareness that such narratives
  serve to mask the contradictions and
  instabilities that are inherent in any social
  organization or practice. In other words, every
  attempt to create "order" always demands the
  creation of an equal amount of "disorder," but a
  "grand narrative" masks the constructedness of
  these categories by explaining that "disorder"
  really is chaotic and bad, and that "order"
  really is rational and good.

11
Modernity vs. Postmodernity (cont.)

• Postmodernism, in rejecting grand narratives,
  favors "mini-narratives," stories that explain
  small practices, local events, rather than
  large-scale universal or global concepts.
  Postmodern "mini-narratives" are always
  situational, provisional, contingent, and
  temporary, making no claim to universality,
  truth, reason, or stability.

12
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown

• Master Narratives and metanarratives of history,
  culture and national identity as accepted before
  WWII (American-European myths of progress). Myths
  of cultural and ethnic origin accepted as
  received.
• Suspicion and rejection of Master Narratives for
  history and culture local narratives, ironic
  deconstruction of master narratives
  counter-myths of origin.
• The following breakdown can be found at
  Georgetowns Po-Mo page, located at
  http//www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/
  pomo.html

13
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown (Cont.)

• Faith in "Grand Theory" (totalizing explanations
  in history, science and culture) to represent all
  knowledge and explain everything.
• Rejection of totalizing theories pursuit of
  localizing and contingent theories.

14
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown (Cont.)

• Faith in, and myths of, social and cultural
  unity, hierarchies of social-class and
  ethnic/national values, seemingly clear bases for
  unity.
• Social and cultural pluralism, disunity, unclear
  bases for social/national/ ethnic unity.

15
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown (Cont.)

• Master narrative of progress through science and
  technology.
• Skepticism of idea of progress, anti-technology
  reactions, neo-Luddism new age religions.

16
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown (Cont.)

• Sense of unified, centered self "individualism,"
  unified identity.
• Sense of fragmentation and decentered
  self multiple, conflicting identities.
• Hierarchy, order, centralized control.
• Subverted order, loss of centralized control,
  fragmentation.

17
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown (Cont.)

• Faith in "Depth" (meaning, value, content, the
  signified) over "Surface" (appearances, the
  superficial, the signifier).
• Attention to play of surfaces, images, signifiers
  without concern for "Depth". Relational and
  horizontal differences, differentiations.

18
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown (Cont.)

• Crisis in representation and status of the image
  after photography and mass media.
• Culture adapting to simulation, visual media
  becoming undifferentiated equivalent forms,
  simulation and real-time media substituting for
  the real.

19
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown (Cont.)

• Faith in the "real" beyond media, language,
  symbols, and representations authenticity of
  "originals."
• Hyper-reality, image saturation, simulacra seem
  more powerful than the "real" images and texts
  with no prior "original". "As seen on TV" and "as
  seen on MTV" are more powerful than unmediated
  experience. Dichotomy of high and low culture
  (official vs. popular culture).

20
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown (Cont.)

• Knowledge mastery, attempts to embrace a
  totality. Quest for interdisciplinary harmony.
  The encyclopedia.
• Navigation through information overload,
  information management fragmented, partial
  knowledge just-in-time knowledge. The Web.

21
Modernism vs. Postmodernism A Breakdown (Cont.)

• Seriousness of intention and purpose,
  middle-class earnestness.
• Play, irony, challenge to official seriousness,
  subversion of earnestness.