What is postmodernism?

• Today we will go through some of the terms

and ideas of Jameson, as well as our initial

thoughts and preconceptions.

Postmodernism

• When you hear the term postmodern, what do you

think it means?

• Where do you see it, or hear it?

• How is it different from modernism (if we indeed

know what modernism is!)?

Postmodernism

• Postmodernism is "post" because it is denies the existence of any ultimate principles, and it lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything for everybody—a characteristic of the so-called "modern" mind.

Postmodern

• Not just another word

for a particular

style…emergence of

new formal features

in culture with new

social and economic

order (1956)

POSTMODERN

• Modernity is fundamentally about order: about rationality and rationalization, creating order out of chaos. The assumption is that creating more rationality is conducive to creating more order, and that the more ordered a society is, the better it will function (the more rationally it will function). Because modernity is about the pursuit of ever-increasing levels of order, modern societies constantly are on guard against anything and everything labeled as "disorder," which might disrupt order.

POSTMODERN

Modern societies rely on continually establishing a binary opposition between "order" and "disorder," so that they can assert the superiority of "order." But to do this, they have to have things that represent "disorder"--modern societies thus continually have to create/construct "disorder." In western culture, this disorder becomes "the other"--defined in relation to other binary oppositions. Thus anything non-white, non-male, non-hygienic, non-rational, (etc.) becomes part of "disorder," and has to be eliminated from the ordered, rational modern society.

•

Metafiction: a key part of

Postmodernism

• Metafiction is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction. It is the literary term describing fictional writing that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in posing questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually, irony and self-reflection.

• Yann Martel’s Life of Pi exhibits metafiction.

• Michael Ondaatje, Running in the Family

Kitsch

• “the erosion of the distinction between high

culture and low culture.” (1956)

• “distressing to academia”

• Lovingly detailed yet in terrible taste

• http://www.museumofbadart.org/ portraits

Plagiarism

• There is no formal boundary between styles,

between past and present.

• To borrow without acknowledgement is in

many ways to pay respect.

• At the same time, we can also think of how

theory is no longer bound by discipline. It is

“all or none of these things at once” (1957).

Here is a photograph of the Spanish Surrealist painter

Salvador Dali (1904-1989), along with two of his many self-

portraits. How do we recognize or see him in each text?

Parody and Pastiche

• Parody mocks

original, but is also

determined by the

ability to have security

in language

• What makes Austin

Powers possible?

Pastiche

• 1958—pastiche also

parody, but it is a

neutral practice of

mimicry, without

satire, that what is

being parodied is

normal. It is parody

that has lost its sense

of humour.

Salvador Dali

Persistence de la memoire 1974

• The Truman Show with Jim Carey is fine example of postmodernism.

• The “walls” of Truman’s world are artificial, and only exist because he believes they exist.

The Death of the Subject

• Reread the section 1958-9

• What are the consequences of the death of

the subject?

Pastiche/Death of Subject

Directed by Jim

Jarmusch,1995.

Accountant William

Blake (Depp)

encounters a drifter

names Nobody in 19th

C, with references to 20

th C America.

Andy Warhol, Brillo Boxes, 1969

Nostalgia

• What is nostalgia?

• What is the difference between history and

nostalgia?

• What is the role of pastiche?

• How is Star Wars postmodern pastiche?

Postmodern City: Bonadventure Hotel

Aesthetic of the Consumer

• What is multinational capitalism?

• How do we live in a perpetual present?

• What has happened to tradition and nation?

POWER

OTHER

• In postmodernism, what happens to race

and gender?

• Go back to Gates

• What are implications for the Other?

• What is Postmodern blackness?

– What is Hooks’ thesis? 2008

Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998)

• Born in France

• PhD in English Literature

• Taught at U of Paris until

1987

• Politically active,

particularly in discussions

about Marxism, and how

it is inadequate for

explaining new social

forms, esp those in former

Soviet Union.

Lyotard and Postmodernism

• Introduced the term in 1979 in The Postmodern Condition.

• With the poststructuralists in mind, Lyotard claims that the

position of judge or legislator is also a position within a

language game, and this raises the question of legitimation.

• Essentially, there is a distrust of meta-narratives.

• Knowledge is no longer essentially narrative.

• Instead, we nimbly move in the ebb and flow of

information.

Postmodernism and Christianity

• In the field of the

subject there is no

referent.

– Roland Barthes

• There is nothing

outside the text.

– Jacques Derrida

Postmodernism and Christianity

• As you work you way

through the various

material, you are going to

encounter various

discussions about

postmodernism and its

positive and negative effects

on Christianity, culture,

community, and so forth.

The Bad • As we use theory, it uses

us.

• God cannot exist in a

postmodern world.

• There is no moral law in

postmodernism.

• The postmodernist claims

that all you can do is try to

impose your preferences

on others before they

impose theirs on you

(Colson).

• Denies grace (Smith 26)

• Postmodernism, in its

arrogance, far from

safeguarding our liberties,

is becoming one of the

most tyrannical controllers

of thoughts and culture

and speech and discourse

that has walked this planet

since the dawning of the

Reformation (Mitchell)

• Bible studies is wrecked.

All we do now if find out

what everybody thinks.

There is no process.

The Good • We need to embrace

current ideas of culture

and learn from them,

rather than react out of

fear.

• God can exist in a

postmodern world.

• There is moral law in

postmodernism.

• Modernism claimed the

theories of dead white

men had universal truth.

This is not true.

(McLaren).

• Postmodernists have been

harsh on issues of

oppression, and so should

we (Adams).

• Postmodern is an easy

target if you don’t bother

to find out more about

what you are criticizing.

• Postmodern theory is yet

another way to think about

God—no more, no less.

• Why can’t uncertainty be

exciting?

Cubist Still Life by Roy Lichtenstein, 1974.

Recurrent Ideas in Theory

(from: Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An

Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. On

reserve in library under ENGL 405)

1. Anti-essentialism—many of the notions

previously regarded as universal and fixed

(gender identity, individual selfhood) are actually

fluid and unstable. These are socially constructed

or contingent categories rather than absolute or

essential ones.

2. All thinking and investigation is affected by prior

ideological commitments. There is no

disinterested enquiry.

3. “Language itself conditions, limits, and

predetermines what we see. Language doesn’t

record reality but constructs it. Meaning in texts

is jointly constructed by the reader and writer.

4. “Theorists distrust all totalizing notions” (great

books, human nature)

Postmodernism at the Movies

• The Matrix, as Smith discusses, is fine example of postmodernism.

• Reality is a shadow, a copy of a copy—nothing is real or “reality.”

• Simulacrum

• We also see the

exploitation of

postmodernism in

reality tv such as

Survivor, The Real

World, or Celebrity

Rehab. They may be

“reality,” but we know

that they are edited and

manipulated behind the

scenes.

• It rejects all boundaries,

political or otherwise.

This rejection also

includes the boundaries

between different forms

and genres of art.

• Mockumentaries such

as The Office, or “faux

tv” such as The Daily

Show or characters

such as Borat and Ali G

could be considered

postmodern.

Stranger Than Fiction

• In the film, the master narrative is a Wildean perspective on art (art trumps mundane reality)

• It contrasts the master narrative of Harold`s painfully boring life working for the IRS.

• Oscar Wilde was not a fan of the working life!

• Postmodern thought sees simultaneous views not as contradictory but as an integral part of the complex patterning of reality.

So, what do we do?

• Smith has a few ideas

• Radical orthodoxy and a return to the ancient,

meaning that tradition can be good and positive,

with a commitment to “justice in the community”

(26).

• “Find the point of contact between Christian and

non-Christian thought” (28)

• For example, in Things Fall Apart, it is when the

missionaries meet the Igbo. What are the effects

on both cultures, and what can we learn from

them?

So, what do we do?

• “Modern Christianity tends to think of the church either as a

place where individuals come to find answers to their

questions or as one more stop where individuals can try to

satisfy their consumer desires. As such, Christianity

becomes intellectualized rather than incarnate, commodified

rather than the site of genuine community” (29)

• We need to see with the paradigm shift of Neo from The

Matrix!

• I’m not sure I entirely agree, but if we are aware, as the

postmodernists are, of the social construction of art (and

sometimes the church), then our analyses become

investigative rather than duplicative.

•

Postmodern and Christianity

• The postmodern focuses on a de-structured, de-centered

humanity. What this really means is that the idea of

disorder and fragmentation, which were previously seen as

negative qualities, are seen as an acceptable representation

of reality by postmodernists.

• As Christians, we could potentially see it as a chaotic,

fallen world. Many Christians don’t like the concept of

postmodernism because it upsets our unified image of God

and the Bible.

• We turn to God for answers, not multiple threads of

potentially meaningless narrative.

Postmodern and Christianity

• Others like postmodernism because it encourages

us to see our faith and Christ in entirely new ways.

• Meaning can still be found in these seemingly

disjointed, fragmented narratives.

• For example, Stranger Than Fiction can be read

as an allegory of the life of Jesus with its motifs of

sacrifice, life and death.

Postmodern and Christianity

• Others like postmodernism because it encourages us to see

our faith and Christ in entirely new ways.

• For example, Stranger Than Fiction can be read as an

allegory of the life of Jesus with its motifs of sacrifice, life

and death.

• Although Harold unwillingly becomes the Saviour figure,

it is only when he faces his imminent death and acts as a

sacrificial atonement for another's life that he is allowed to

live.

• A form of resurrection occurs, and an incredulous Harold

finds himself in a comedy rather than a tragedy.

• It is postmodern irony with a Christian twist.

Canadian Postmodern

• The emergence in Canada over the last twenty years of regionalist identifications and the growth of regional political parties has put enormous pressure on the concept of a centralized polity, and the fact that separatism has gained new strength not only Quebec but the Western provinces is evidence, though of an extreme form, that a unified idea of Canada and ‘Canadianness’ is at best a dream.

•

Canadian Postmodern

• Postmodern writing, according to Linda Hutcheon in The Canadian Postmodern, is suitable to Canadian authors, particularly the short story practioners. This is one of the most important books on Canadian postmodern.

• It is through the postmodern that there is the best (re)reading of all the things Canada was once thought to be, and all of those things that Canada might be in the process of being.

• In other words, if we can’t define Canada, let’s celebrate it fragments and allow wholeness to exist in the imagination

•

Canadian Postmodern

• She argues that “Canada’s own particular

moment of cultural history does seem to

make it ripe for the paradoxes of

postmodernism, by which I mean those

contradictory sets of establishing and then

undercutting prevailing values and

conventions in order to provoke a

questioning, a challenging of ‘what goes

without saying’ in our culture.”

Canadian Postmodern

• Since the periphery or the margin might also

describe Canada’s perceived position in

international terms, “perhaps the post-modern

ex-centric is very much a part of the identity

of the nation” (Hutcheon 3).

• Within postmodernism’s challenges to

borders as limits, borders become “the post-

modern space par excellence, the place

where new possibilities exist” (Hutcheon 4).

• For Canadians, the postmodern is good!