A term used in architecture to describe a style or concept that supersedes 20th-c Modernism and the International Style in particular. Often used in a polemical and self-consciously intellectual way, it is generally applied to buildings which draw upon an eclectic range of stylistic precedents, especially classical, such as the A T & T building, New York (197883), architects Johnson & Burgee. In recent years the term has been increasingly used to identify a basic rejection of previously widely-held architectural beliefs, and has also emerged in relation to such fields as literature and cinema.
Postmodernism is an idea that has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and historians, as it connotes to many the hotly debated idea that the modern historical period has passed. Nevertheless, most agree that postmodern ideas have taken place in philosophy, art, critical theory, literature, architecture, design, interpretation of history, and culture since the late 20th century.
Postmodernity, a separate term, describes social and cultural conditions connected to the era in which postmodernism arose.
Overview
Scholars and historians most commonly hold postmodernism to be a movement of ideas that has both replaced and extended modernism by countering and borrowing from a number of modernism's fundamental assumptions. For example, modernism places a great deal of importance on ideals such as rationality, objectivity, and progress -- as well as other ideas rooted in The Enlightenment, and as positivist and realist movements from the late 19th century -- while postmodernism questions whether these ideals can actually exist at all.
Postmodernism adherents often argue that their ideals have arisen as a result of particular economic and social conditions, including wconomic]] and technological conditions of our age have given rise to a decentralized, media-dominated society in which ideas are simulacra and only inter-referential representations and copies of each other, with no real original, stable or objective source for communication and meaning.
Postmodern scholars argue that such a decentralized society inevitably creates responses/perceptions that are described as post-modern, such as the rejection of what are seen as the false, imposed unities of meta-narrative and hegemony;
Scholars who accept the division of post-modernity as a distinct period believe that society has collectively eschewed modern ideals and instead adopted ideas which are rooted in the reaction to the restrictions and limitations of those ideas, and the present is therefore a new historical period. While the characteristics of postmodern life are sometimes difficult to grasp, most postmodern scholars point to very concrete and visible technological and economic changes that have brought about the new types of thinking.
Critics of the idea reject that it represents liberation, but instead a failure of creativity, and the supplanting of organization with syncreticism and bricolage.
There are often strong political overtones to this debate, with conservative commentators often being the harshest critics of post-modernism.
The opportunity to generate polemic in any discussion of the postmodern is prodigious. This question can be seen at work in both Haraway's comments (see below) about what she sees as Jameson's
main thesis on postmodernism, and in Laclau's mapping of an "analytic terrain" where the "given" is no longer a viable myth. Giroux).
2) The terms postmodern, postmodernity and postmodernism can be seen to associate or conjure different meanings: the term postmodern is inclusively ambiguous of what people mean when they talk
about issues that come up in discussions of postmodernity and postmodernism. Postmodernism then can be, as Eco says, a "spiritual" category rather than a discrete period in history;
-Van Piercy, alt.postmodern FAQ file, Version 1.05
Descriptions of postmodernism
"Postmodernism is incredulity towards metanarratives." - Moe Szyslak, of The Simpsons "It’s the combination of narcissism and nihilism that really defines postmodernism," Al Gore "Post-modernism swims, even wallows, in the fragmentary and the chaotic currents of change as if that is all there is." , , "We could say that every age has its own post-modern, just as every age has its own form of mannerism (in fact, I wonder if postmodern is not simply the modern name for *Manierismus*...). 242-3 ,Connotations
Postmodernism connotes the idea that knowledge has become commodified.
The role, proper usage, and meaning of postmodernism remain matters of intense debate and vary widely with context.
Term
As with many other divisions, the use of the term is subject to the lumpers and splitters problem. There are those who use very small and exact definitions of postmodernism, often for theories
perceived as relativist, nihilist, counter-Enlightenment or antimodern. Others believe the world has changed so profoundly that the term applies to nearly everything, and use postmodernism in a
broad cultural sense. People who believe postmodernism is really just an aspect of the modern period may instead use terms such as "late modernism".
The term does not apply to post-anything aside from following modern thought.
Development of postmodernism
From modernism
Modernity is defined as a period or condition loosely identified with the Industrial Revolution, or the Enlightenment.
Although useful distinctions can be drawn between the modernist and postmodernist eras, this does not erase the many continuities present between them. (These continuities are why some refer to post-modernism as both the cessation and continuation of modernism.) One of the most significant differences between modernism and postmodernism is the concern for universality or totality.
This usage is ascribed to the philosophers Jean-François Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard. Lyotard understood modernity as a cultural condition characterized by constant change in the pursuit of progress, and postmodernity to represent the culmination of this process, where constant change has become a status quo and the notion of progress, obsolete.
Writers such as John Ralston Saul among others have argued that postmodernism represents an accumulated disillusionment with the promises of the Enlightenment project and its progress of science, so central to modern thinking.
Notable philosophical contributors
Thinkers in the mid and late 19th century and early 20th century, like Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, through their arguments against objectivity, and emphasis on skepticism (especially concerning social morals and norms), laid the groundwork for the intellectual movement in the 20th century called existentialism.
Features of postmodern culture begin to arise in the 1920s with the emergence of the Dada art movement. Both World Wars (perhaps even the concept of a World War), contributed to postmodernism; Some identify the burgeoning anti-establishment movements of the 1960s as an early trend toward postmodernism.
Marxist critics argue that postmodernism is symptomatic of "late capitalism" and the decline of institutions, particularly the nation-state.
The movement has had diverse political ramifications: its anti-ideological ideas appear conducive to, and strongly associated with, the feminist movement, racial equality movements, gay rights movements, most forms of late 20th century anarchism, even the peace movement and various hybrids of these in the current anti-globalization movement. Unsurprisingly, none of these institutions entirely embraces all aspects of the postmodern movement in its most concentrated definition, but reflect, or in true postmodern style, borrow from some of its core ideas.
| Influencer | Year | Influence | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Søren Kierkegaard | c.1843 | "Truth is Subjectivity", stressing the importance of experience and relativity over absolute, concrete thoughts | |
| Friedrich Nietzsche | c.1880 | no fixed values, God is dead, all perception is interpretation | |
| Dada movement | c.1920 | a focus on the framing of objects and discourse as being as important, or more important, than the work itself | |
| Karl Barth | c.1930 | fideist approach to theology brought a rise in subjectivity | |
| Martin Heidegger | c.1930 | rejected the philosophical grounding of the concepts of "subjectivity" and "objectivity" | |
| Ludwig Wittgenstein | c.1950 | anti-foundationalism, no certainty, a philosophy of language | |
| Thomas Samuel Kuhn | c.1962 | posited the rapid change of the basis of scientific knowledge to a provisional consensus of scientists, coined the term "paradigm shift" | |
| W.V.O. 1962 | developed the thesis of indeterminacy of translation, ontological relativity, and refuted a priori knowledge | ||
| Jacques Derrida | c.1970 | re-examined the fundamentals of writing and its consequences on philosophy in general; sought to undermine the language of western metaphysics (deconstruction) | |
| Michel Foucault | c.1975 | examined discursive power in Discipline and Punish, with Bentham's panopticon as his model, and also known for saying "language is oppression" | |
| Jean-François Lyotard | c.1979 | opposed universality, meta-narratives, and generality | |
| Richard Rorty | c.1979 | philosophy mistakenly imitates scientific methods; anti-foundationalism and anti-essentialism | |
| Jean Baudrillard | c.1981 | Simulacra and Simulation - reality created by media | |
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term which is used to denote the application of post-modern ideas of criticism, or theory, to a "text" or "artifact".
In its original use, a "deconstruction" is an important textual "occurrence" described and analyzed by many postmodern authors and philosophers.
Popularly, close textual analyses describing deconstruction within a text are often themselves called deconstructions.
Deconstruction is far more important to postmodernism than its seemingly narrow focus on text might imply.
The more common use of the term is the more general process of pointing to contradictions between the intent and surface of a work, and the assumptions about it.
Social construction, structuralism, post-structuralism
Often opposed to deconstruction are social constructionists, both labelled as such within the analytic tradition, or not, as is usually the case in the continental tradition. Structuralism historically gave way to post-structuralism, Often the role of postmodernism within the analytic tradition is minimized, although the major figures of analytic tradition in the 20th century, including Thomas Kuhn and his epistemology, as well as Quine's conceptualization of ontological relativity, show a heavy similarity with works in the continental tradition for their lack of belief in absolute [truth] as well as in the pliability of language. One of the large differences between analytic postmodern sources and continental postmodern sources is that the analytic tradition by and large guards at least some of the tenets of liberalism, while many continental sources flirt with, or completely immerse in, Marxism.
See article Postmodernism Manifestations
Criticism
The term post-modernism is often used pejoratively to describe tendencies perceived as Relativist, Counter-enlightenment or antimodern, particularly in relation to critiques of Rationalism, Universalism or Science. The criticisms of postmodernism are often complicated by the still fluid nature of the term, and in many cases the criticisms are clearly directed at poststructuralism and the philosophical and academic movements that it has spawned rather than the broader term postmodernism.
As political
Michel Foucault rejected the label of postmodernism explicitly in interviews but is seen by many to advocate a form of critique that is "postmodern" as it breaks with the utopian and transcendental nature of "modern" critique by calling universal norms of the Enlightenment into question. The recuring themes of these debates are between essentialism and anti-foundationalism, universalism and relativism, where modernism is seen to represent the former and postmodernism the latter.
A sophisticated rendition of this debate can be found between Seyla Benhabib (1995) and Judith Butler (1995) in relation to feminist politics. Benhabib argues that postmodern critique comprises three main elements: an anti-foundationalist conception of the subject and identity, the death of History (and notions of teleology and progress), and the death of metaphysicae defined as the search for objective Truth - which can all have strong and weak variations. Benhabib argues against these positions as she holds that they undermine the bases from which feminist politics can be founded as strong versions of postmodernism remove the possibility for agency, sense of self-hood, and the appropriation of women’s history in the name of an emancipated future.
Butler responds to Benhabib by arguing that her use of "postmodernism" is an expression of a wider paranoia over anti-foundationalist philosophy, in particular, poststructuralism.
“A number of positions are ascribed to postmodernism - Discourse is all there is, as if discourse were some kind of monistic stuff out of which all things are composed; These characterizations are variously imputed to postmodernism or poststructuralism, which are conflated with each other and sometimes conflated with deconstruction, and understood as an indiscriminate assemblage of French feminism, deconstruction, Lacanian psychoanalysis, Foucauldian analysis, Rorty’s conversationalism, and cultural studies ... Lyotard’s work is, for instance, seriously at odds with that of Derrida”Butler uses this debate over the definition of "postmodernism" to demonstrate how philosophy is implicated in power relationships.
The debates continue.
As intellectually and artistically disingenuous
Charles Murray, a critic of postmodernism, defines the term:
By contemporary intellectual fashion, I am referring to the constellation of views that come to mind when one hears the words multicultural, gender, deconstruct, politically correct, and Dead White Males. Postmodernism is the overarching label that is attached to this perspective.
—Charles Murray, [1]
Central to the debate is the concept of "objectivity" and what it means. Denial of the practical possibility of objectivity is held to be the postmodern position, and a hostility towards claims advanced on the basis of objectivity its defining feature. It is this underlying hostility toward the concept of objectivity, evident in many contemporary critical theorists, that is the common point of attack for critics of postmodernism. Many critics characterise postmodernism as an ephemeral phenomenon that cannot be adequately defined simply because, as a philosophy at least, it represents nothing more substantial than a series of disparate conjectures allied only in their distrust of modernism.
The most prominent recent criticism of postmodern art is that of John Gardner.
The Stuckist art movement have issued a series of manifestos denouncing postmodernism for what they see as its "scientific materialism, nihilism and spiritual bankruptcy".[5]
As a false distinction
This antipathy of postmodernists towards modernism, and their consequent tendency to define themselves against it, has also attracted criticism. the evolution, therefore, between "modern" and "postmodern" should be seen as one of degree, rather than of kind - a continuation rather than a "break."
As noted above, some theorists such as Habermas argue that the supposed distinction between the "modern" and the "postmodern" does not exist, but that the latter is no more than a development within a larger, still-current, "modern" framework. Many who make this argument are academics with Marxist leanings, such as Seyla Benhabib, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, and David Harvey (social geographer), who are concerned that postmodernism's undermining of Enlightenment values makes a progressive cultural politics difficult, if not impossible, e.g., "How can 'we' effect any change in people's poor living conditions, in inequality and injustice, if 'we' don't accept the validity of underlying universals such as the 'real world' and 'justice' in the first place?" This reasoning leads Habermas to compare postmodernism with conservatism and the preservation of the status quo.
Such critics often argue that, in actual fact, such postmodern premises are rarely, if ever, actually embraced — that if they were, we would be left with nothing more than a crippling radical subjectivism.
To some critics, there seems, indeed, to be a glaring contradiction in maintaining the death of objectivity and privileged position on one hand, while the scientific community continues a project of unprecedented scope to unify various scientific disciplines into a theory of everything, on the other. Hostility toward hierarchies of value and objectivity becomes problematic to them when postmodernity itself attempts to analyse such hierarchies with, apparently, some measure of objectivity and make categorical statements concerning them.
As empty rhetoric
The criticism of Postmodernism as ultimately meaningless rhetorical gymnastics was demonstrated in the Sokal Affair, where Alan Sokal, a physicist, wrote a deliberately nonsensical article purportedly about interpreting physics and mathematics in terms of postmodern theory, which was nevertheless published by the Social Text, a journal which he and most of the scientific community considered as postmodernist. (see the online Postmodernism Generator)
User Comments Add a comment…