introduction to postmodernism. why reality isn’t what it used to be

Introduction toPostmodernism

Why Reality Isn’t What It Used to Be

Modernity

RENAISSANCE TO ABOUT 1900 (+/- 30 years)

Baudrillard:

Early modernity: Renaissance to Industrial Revolution

Modernity: Industrial Revolution

Postmodernity: Period of mass media

The world according to white Anglo-Saxon males from Europe

Timeline

TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING

Your Place in History

Modern

Timeline


Modernism Postmodernism

14th C 1900 2000

You are here

Modernity

God, reason and progress

There was a center to the universe.

Progress is based upon knowledge, and man is capable of discerning objective absolute truths in science and the arts.

Modernism is linked to capitalism—progressive economic administration of world

Modernization of 3rd world countries (imposition of modern Western values)

Newtonian Order


Language & Truth: The “Modern” View

People are the same everywhere

There are universal laws and truths

Knowledge is objective, independent of culture, gender, etc.

Language is a man-made tool that refers to real things / absolute truths

I, the subject, speak language

I have a discernible self

The self is the center of existence

What Is Language?

as


Liberal Humanism: View of Literature & Film

Good literature is of timeless significance.

The text will reveal constants, universal truths, about human nature, because human nature itself is constant and unchanging.

Good literature is honest and sincere.

Art is to be respected, and belongs on a pedestal.

There are accepted traditional standards for different art forms & genres that should be obeyed and respected.

Purpose of Literature


Modernism

Early 1900s:

World War I

Worldwide poverty & exploitation

Death of the Old Order

PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM

Modernism

Early 1900s:

World War I

Worldwide poverty & exploitation

Intellectual upheaval:

Freud: psychoanalysis

Marx: class struggle

Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Neitzsche

Picasso, Stravinsky, Kafka, Proust, Brecht, Joyce, Eliot

Death of the Old Order


Relativism

Einstein: relativity, quantum mechanics

Refutation of Newtonian science

Time is relative

Matter and energy are one

Light as both particle and wave

Universe is strange

The Bending of Time & Space


E=mc2

Modernist Art

Cubism

Surrealism

Dadaism

Expressionism

Breaking the Rules


Modernist Literature

“Things fall apart,The centre cannot hold,Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”

--Yeats, “The Second Coming”

A World with No Center


Modernist Literature Emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity

Movement away from “objective” third-party narration

Tendency toward reflexivity and self-consciousness

Obsession with the psychology of self

Rejection of traditional aesthetic theories

Experimentation with language

Breaking the Rules


What is Postmodernism?

Continuation of modernist view

Does not mourn loss of history, self, religion, center

A term applied to all human sciences —anthropology, psychology, architecture, history, etc.

Reaction to modernism; systematic skepticism

Anti-foundational

Acceptance of a New Age

POSTMODERNISM

What is Modernism?

The world according to White Anglo-Saxon males, based upon the mythology of Western Europe, rooted in the Judeo-Christian religion and Greek-Roman philosophy.

Western man is superior.

Progress, reason and science are the highest manifestations of humanity.

Western man was put one earth to modernize the world (e.g., Manifest Density, Columbus).

The rest of the world consists of barbarians, and “orientals.”


POSTMODERNISM

What is Postmodernism?

The Enlightenment project is dead.


POSTMODERNISM

Postmodernism: Basic Concepts

Life just is

Rejection of all “grand narratives.”

All “truths” are contingent cultural constructs

Skepticism of progress; anti-technology bias

Sense of fragmentation and decentered self

Multiple conflicting identities

Mass-mediated reality

The End of Master Narratives

POSTMODERNISM


All versions of reality are SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS

Concepts of good and evil

Metaphors for God

Language

The self

Gender

Taste (aesthetics)

EVERYTHING!

The End of Master Narratives

POSTMODERNISM


Language is a social construct that “speaks” & identifies the subject

Knowledge is contingent, contextual and linked to POWER

Truth is pluralistic, dependent upon the frame of reference of the observer

Values are derived from ordinary social practices, which differ from culture to culture and change with time.

Values are determined by manipulation and domination

Language As Social Construct

POSTMODERNISM

Postmodern View of Language

Observer is a participant/part of what is observed

Receiver of message is a component of the message

Information becomes information only when contextualized

The individual (the subject) is a cultural construct

Consider role of own culture when examining others

All interpretation is conditioned by cultural perspective and mediated by symbols and practice

The Observer is King

POSTMODERNISM

PostModern Literature & Film

No guiding traditional grand narratives

Extreme freedom of form and expression

Rejects traditional linear narratives

Plays with time and space

Repudiation of boundaries of narration & genre

Intrusive, self-reflexive author

Deliberate violation of standards of sense and decency (which are viewed as methods of social control)

Play and Parody

POSTMODERNISM

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PostModern Literature & Film

Characters on the margins of society

Mix of high and low brow art forms

Integration of everyday experience, pop and consumer culture

Playful treatment of serious subjects (no gnashing of teeth)

Doesn’t take itself seriously (no pretentious universal truths)

Has fun with language and imagery (MTV like)

Play and Parody

POSTMODERNISM

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PostModern Literature Parody, play, black humor, pastiche

Ambiguities and uncertainties

Ironic detachment

Postcolonial, global-English literature

Global

Celebrate diversity of views and lifestyles

Fragmented Identities

POSTMODERNISM

Modernity PostModern

History as fact

Faith in social order

Family as central unit

Authenticity of originals

Mass consumption

Binary Oppositions

POSTMODERNISM

Written by the victors

Cultural pluralism

Alternate families

Hyper-reality (MTV)

Niches; small group identity

Modern or Postmodern?

POSTMODERNISM


POSTMODERNISM

A gay Southern Baptist who practices Buddhist meditation and believes in the Big Bang theory.


POSTMODERNISM

PostModernism

“The narrative is unravelled, the author is dead, the Enlightenment project is toast, and history is history.”

“An epochal shift in the basic condition in being.”

--Geoffrey Nunberg

An Epochal Shift in Thinking

POSTMODERNISM

PostModernism

A Global Battle:

THE OBJECTIVISTS vs. THE CONSTRUCTIVISTSModern Postmodern

Battle of World Views

POSTMODERNISM

Battle of World Views

HOLLYWOOD FUNDAMENTIALISM

POSTMODERNISM vs. FOUNDATIONALISM

VS

PostModernism

OBJECTIVISTS

My Way

POSTMODERNISM

“When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?' My simple answer is, `Yes, they are.'”

-from Pat Robertson's "The New World Order"

PostModernism

People were burned at the stake for believing there was more than one version of reality.

Metaphors Kill

POSTMODERNISM

PostModernism

Our public schools have become a postmodern battleground.

God is Not Dead

POSTMODERNISM

PostModernism

You can be a Christian (or Buddhist, or Hindu, etc.) in the postmodern world.

God is Not Dead

POSTMODERNISM

PostModernism

We all slip and slide between the objective and constructive views:

1. We live in a world of naïve realism. (We accept grand narratives as true.)

2. But when we think about things, or have to explain our views, we become constructivists.

We Live in the Middle

POSTMODERNISM

PostModernism

THE HOPE OF POSTMODERNISTS:

The deconstruction of foundational views will lead to a recognition and acceptance of a pluralistic worldview.

Create a truly global civilization.

Celebrating Diversity

POSTMODERNISM

Literary & FilmTheory

Celebrating Diversity

POSTMODERNISM

Different constructs of reality

“Lenses” through which we see the world ?

introduction to postmodernism. why reality isn’t what it used to be

Documents

modern viewpeople

early modernity

different art forms

universal truths

human nature

industrial revolutionmodernity

modernity god

real things absolute