Culture

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Postmodernism
and
Culture
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CULTURE

• refers to patterns of human activity and the
  symbolic structures that give such activity
  significance.

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POSTMODERNISM

• term used to designate a multitude of trendsin
  the arts, philosophy, religion, technology, and
  many other areasthat come after and deviate from
  the many 20th-cent. movements

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Lyotards view

• An era in which people have rejected the grand,
  supposedly universal stories and paradigms such
  as religion and gender that have defined culture
  and behavior in the past, and have instead begun
  to organize their cultural life around a variety
  of more local and subcultural ideologies and
  myths.

Incredulity towards metanarratives
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Various Definitions

• A worldview that emphasizes the existence of
  different worldviews.
• There is no single way to define postmodernism,
  and that is the single most postmodern thing
  about it.

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The development of postmodernism

• Features of postmodern culture begin to arise in
  the 1920s with the emergence of the Dada
  movement, which featured collage and a focus on
  the framing of objects and discourse as being
  important, than the work itself
• Another strand which would have tremendous impact
  on post-modernism would be the existentialists,
  who placed the centrality of the individual
  narrative as being the source of morals and
  understanding.

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• Postmodernism has manifestations in many modern
  academic and non-academic disciplines
• philosophy, theology, art, architecture, film,
  television, music, theatre, sociology, fashion,
  technology, literature, and communications are
  all heavily influenced by postmodern trends and
  ideas, and are thoroughly scrutinised from
  postmodern perspectives
• Exactly when modernism began to give way to
  postmodernism depends on the observer and the
  theoretical framework

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GLOBALIZATION

• It refers to the worldwide exchanges brought
  about by modern communication and infrastructure.
• It describes how human beings are becoming more
  intertwined.

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CONTRIBUTION TO POSTMODERNISM

• Journalists, politicians others use the word to
  signify that something profound is happening.
• It is eroding local cultures and traditions
  through a global culture.

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Consumerism

• The features of culture that have contributed to
  postmodernism include consumerism, the
  fragmentation of authority, and the
  commodification of knowledge
• Consumerism is a term used to describe the
  effects of equating personal happiness with
  purchasing material possessions and consumption.
• In an abstract sense, consumerism refers to the
  belief that the free choice of consumers should
  dictate the economic structure of a society

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• Since consumerism began, various individuals and
  groups have consciously sought an alternative
  lifestyle through simple living.
• While consumerism is not a new phenomenon, it has
  only become widespread in the 20th century and
  particularly in recent decades, under the
  influence of capitalism and globalization
• A culture that is permeated by consumerism can be
  referred to as a consumer culture

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• "Overcoming Consumerism" is a growing philosophy.
  It is a term that embodies the active resistance
  to consumerism.
• anti-consumerists tend to believe that
  consumerism is an artificial creation sustained
  by artificial social pressures, while
  libertarians tend to believe that consumerism is
  natural and the only way to eliminate it is
  through artificial social pressures.

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Post-modernism

• or have we moved beyond modernism?

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Epistemological Relativism

• There is no such thing as objective knowledge.
• Everything is viewed through the lens of our
  values and our culture.
• Question- How can we make judgements about the
  world around us if all knowledge and truths are
  relative.
• This is a central critique of the epistemological
  relativism generated in much of Postmodern
  thought.

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Postmodernism in language

• It refers to the use of postmodern ideas in the
  field of linguistics.
• An important concept in postmodernism's view of
  language is the idea of "play" text.
• Play is the means by which the reader constructs
  or interprets the text, and the means by which
  the author gains a presence in the reader's mind.
  
• In the context of postmodernism, play means
  changing the framework which connects ideas, and
  thus allows the troping, or turning, of a
  metaphor or word from one context to another, or
  from one frame of reference to another.

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• Roland Barthes argued this concept, and coined it
  'Death of the Author' this allows for 'freedom
  of the reader'. It is the reader's freedom which
  gives meaning to a text, not the author's
  intention. Barthes is well known for having
  stated, "It is language that speaks, not the
  author".
• In post modernistic view ,author shall choose
  words which transmit the idea as transparently as
  possible to the reader. Thus postmodernism in
  language has often been identified with poor
  writing and communication skills.

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Postmodern Literature
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Postmodern literature ?

• arose as a series of styles and ideas in the
  post-World WarII period .
• explores subjectivism, turning from external
  reality to examine inner states of consciousness.
• explores fragmentariness in narrative- and
  character-construction.

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Some Attributes of Post-Modernist Literature

• the writing of reflexive or meta-fiction
• the use of paradox
• a crossing or dissolving of borders -- between
  fiction and non-fiction, between literary genres,
  between high and low culture

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Gender

• The postmodern novel was also part of a larger
  social project integration and ending
  discrimination against women.
• Perspective of postmodern writers on the life of
  women

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Other sub-genres?

• Excrement Literature
• Electronic literature
• Hypertext fiction

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Some of the authors of Postmodern Literature

• J.R.R. Tolkien
• Salman Rushdie
• C.S. Lewis
• Dan Brown

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J.R.R Tolkien

• the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord
  of The Rings another fiction The Silmarillion.
• The covers of the Lord of the Rings series

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Tolkiens RNG
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Salman Rushdie

• an Indian-born British essayist and author of
  fiction.
• His novel, Midnights Children, however,
  catapulted him to literary fame and is often
  considered his best work to date.
• He is best known for the violent criticism his
  book The Satanic Verses (1988) inspired in
  radical Muslims.

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Clive Staples Lewis

• an Irish author and scholar, of mixed Irish,
  English, and Welsh ancestry.
• work on medieval literature
• Christian apologetics
• fiction, especially the childrens series
  entitled The Chronicles of Narnia and his science
  fiction Space Trilogy.

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C.S.Lewiss The Chronicles of Narnia The
Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
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Dan Brown

• Dan Brown is an American author of thriller
  fiction, best known for writing the controversial
  2003 bestseller, The Da Vinci Code

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POSTMODERN ART
Enosh Nikhil
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• Postmodern art (sometimes called po-mo) is a term
  used to describe art which is thought to be after
  or in contradiction to some aspect of modernism.
• Postmodern art uses a vocabulary of media, genres
  or styles as parts of an extended visual language
  that goes beyond the boundaries of the modernist
  vocabulary

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• 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.

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• In his theoretical writings, Jean Baudrillard
  concludes that what motivates art's historical
  change is not any 'authentic' or 'original'
  impulse, but simply fashion, pivoting on the
  desire for novelty, which he sees as an organic
  and integrated process.
• The basic premise behind postmodern art is that
  all forms of novelty and rebellion have already
  been explored,

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• Even if everything being done wasn't true the
  particular emphasis on rejection of that which is
  old or already done is only handicapping to an
  artists self-expression.
• Artist Allison Hetter, when asked what
  post-modernism was, replied with the simple
  phrase "Everything's been done already." Many
  observers feel that we are in the stage of the
  po-po-mo where "Everything's been re-done
  already".

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• Some of the famous modern art pieces of
  sculpture, photography, architecture and painting

Judy Chicagos Dinner Party
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Richard Serra's "Tilted Arc", 1981
(now destroyed)
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Vietnam War Memorial (1982)
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Pacita Abads How Mali Lost
Her Accent, 1991
Hung Lui Three Fujins, 1995
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Jesse Trevino Senora Dolores Trevino, 1982
Faith Ringgolds
Dancing at the Louvre, 1991
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Photo above from Larry Powell's book "Hunger of
the Heart Communion at the Wall"
Sandy Scoglands Revenge of
the Goldfish, 1981
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Sculpture of Walking Man by George Segal

A Ceramic Sculpture by Joan Miro
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MUSIC

• POST MODERN MUSIC

• MUSICAL STYLE - Tends to be self
  referential and ironic. Favours eclecticism in
  musical form and genre
• MUSICAL CONDITION - Simply state of music in
  post modernism .It doesnt have any particular
  style or characteristic

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• JONATHAN KRAMERS VIEW -gt

• is on some level and some way ironic
• challenges barriers between high and low styles
• questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and
  populist values
• embraces contradictions
• distrusts binary oppositions
• includes fragmentations and discontinuities
• presents multiple meanings and multiple
  temporalities

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• THEORIES

• it is a degenerate modernity, the critic Theodor
  Adonor being an example of idea that trends of
  music after serialism represent banalization of
  and regression from modernity.
• It is a sign of late capitalism and decline of
  identity creating metanarratives such as nation
  states.
• As with modernity and postmodernism in general,
  modernity may be considered to not yet have
  ended, and thus there is no post modern
  condition.

• DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MODERN AND POSTMODERN MUSIC

• modern music was characterized by focus on
  musical fundamentals and expressions.
• however in post modern music, the commodity
  being sold by record companies and pop stars are
  not the fundamentals of the music, but the
  cultural image surrounding music, which
  reverbates through films, televisions, and other
  media.

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FEATURES OF POSTMODERN-MUSIC
ROCK MUSIC (PINK FLOYD)
POP MUSIC (BEATLES)
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DJING
RAP
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POSTMODERNISM IN DESIGN
Postmodernism in urban design
Postmodernism in graphic design
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Postmodernism in urban design

• Postmodernism in contemporary cities in terms of
  globalization.
• Growing proportion of all economic activity
• Progressively organized at the international
  scale
• This international scope induces economic
  patterns induces multicultural ambience.

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Postmodernism in Graphic design

• Graphic design may be considered as the root of
  postmodernism.
• Postmodernism in graphic design has been mainly a
  visual decorative movement.
• Graphic design saw a massive popular raising at
  the end of the seventies in form of Graffiti and
  Hip Hop culture's rise .

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Postmodernism in architecture

• As with many cultural movements, one of
  postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas
  can be seen in architecture.
• The functional and formalized shapes and spaces
  of the modernist movement are replaced by
  diverse aesthetics.

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• Post-modernism is a rejection of strict rules set
  by the early modernists and seeks exuberance in
  the use of building techniques, angles, and
  stylistic references
• Architects generally considered postmodern
  include Peter Eisenmen, Philip Johnson, John
  Burgee, Robert Venturi, Ricardo Bofill, and Frank
  Gehry.
• A prime example of postmodern architecture lies
  along the Las Vegas strip which was glamorized by
  Robert Venturi in the book Learning from Las
  Vegas.

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Postmodern Philosophy

• Postmodern philosophy is an eclectic and elusive
  movement characterized by the postmodern
  criticism and analysis of Western philosophy.
  Beginning as a critique of Continental
  philosophy, it was heavily influenced by
  phenomenology, structuralism and existentialism,
  and by the philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and
  Martin Heidegger. It was also influenced to some
  degree by Ludwig Wittgenstein's later criticisms
  of analytic philosophy and Søren Kierkegaard's
  attack on any type of systematic philosophy.
• Within postmodern philosophy, there are numerous
  interrelated fields, including deconstruction and
  several fields beginning with the prefix "post-",
  such as post-structuralism, post-Marxism, and
  post-feminism. In particular postmodern
  philosophy has spawned a huge literature of
  critical theory.

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Postmodern Philosophy

• Postmodern philosophy is generally characterized
  by a skepticism toward the simple binary
  oppositions predominant in Western metaphysics
  and humanism, such as the expectation that the
  philosopher may cleanly isolate knowledge from
  ignorance, social progress from reversion,
  dominance from submission, or presence from
  absence. This is anti-foundationalism. To some
  critics, this skepticism appears similar to
  relativism or even nihilism.
• Defenders of post-modernism would argue that
  there is a distinct difference, however while
  relativism and nihilism are generally viewed as
  an abandonment of meaning and authority,
  postmodern philosophy is generally viewed as an
  openness to meaning and authority from unexpected
  places, and that the ultimate source of authority
  is the "play" of the discourse itself. In
  addition, many view postmodern philosophy not as
  a purely abstract or logical argument, but as a
  historical occurrence.

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POSTMODERNISM - EFFECTS

• Art Literary views
• Social view
• Philosophical view

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THANK YOU