Assignment
Cultural Studies
Postmodernism
Name :- Nirali Makvana
Sem :- 2 ( 2019 - 20 )
Roll no. :- 14
Subject :- Cultural Studies
Topic :- Postmodernism
Submitted to :- Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar university
Enrollment no. :- 2069108420200023
Email Id :- niralimakvana9599@gmail.com
Key Points :-
🔹️Introduction
🔹️Definition
🔹️Why Postmodernism is a important part of Culture Studies
🔹️Difference between modernism and Postmodernism
🔹️Have Postmodernist thinkers deconstructed the truth
🔹️Postmodernism in Pop Culture
🔹️Major postmodernist
🔹️Conclusion
🔹️Work cited
Introduction :-
Postmodernism is a movement that developed in the mid - late 20th century. It is the reaction against modernism and spread across the art, architecture, Criticism and Philosophy. It is generally defined by an attitude of ideology of modernism, Skepticism, Irony, rejection of the grand narratives, search for truth, the impact of ICT on social life, consumerism, Globalization etc. The main themes of postmodernism are morality, truth, human nature, reason, Science, Objective reality, Social progress etc. I will discuss here the definition of Postmodernism, difference between Modernism and Postmodernism, famous Postmodernist and their work which are based on Postmodernism. Their view about Modernism. So, now let us discuss in detail.
Definition :-
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary Postmodernism is,
" Of, relating to, or being any of various movements in reaction to modernism that are typically characterized by a return to traditional materials and forms or by ironic self reference and absurdity. "
" Of, relating to or being a theory that involves a radical reappraisal of modern assumptions about Culture, identity, history or language. "
According to Glossary definition Postmodernism is,
" A general and wide ranging term which is applied to literature, art, philosophy, architecture, fiction, Cultural and literary criticism among others. Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific or objective efforts to explain reality. "
Why Postmodernism is a important part of Cultural Studies :-
Postmodernism questions everything rationalists European philosophy held to be true, arguing that it is all contingent and that most cultural constructions have served the function of empowering members of a dominant social group at the expense of others. Postmodernism, like Poststructuralism and deconstruction, is a critique of the aesthetic of the preceding age, but besides mere critique, Postmodernism celebrates the very act of dismembering tradition.
Frederic Jameson connects Postmodernism and modernism with particular stages of Capitalism and are to some extent construed by it. Realism was the main theme or style at the time period of 18th and 19th century. Frederic Jameson divides Capitalism into four main parts.
🔷️ Market Capitalism :-
With its new technologies such as the stream engine that transformed everyday life.
🔷️ Monopoly Capitalism :-
It is associated with electricity and internal combustion.
🔷️ Consumer Capitalism :-
It is placed on advertising and selling goods.
🔷️ Information age :-
The time period of development of Science and technology. The present is generally called the age of Information.
Now let us see how Modernism and Postmodernism are differentiating to each other.
- Modernist literature rejected the Victorian aesthetic of prescriptive morality and using new techniques drawn from psychology, experimented with point of view, time, space and stream of consciousness writing. The major writers of the Modern age who radically redefined poetry, fiction and other works included Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound, T. S Eliot, James Joyce, William Falkner, Franz Kafka etc. Modernist novels sought to be metafictive or self referential about their status as texts, their production as art and their reception.
- While on the other hand Postmodernism borrows from disillusionment with the givens of society; a penchant for irony; the self conscious " Play " within the work of art; fragmentation and ambiguity and a destructured, dehumanised subject. Postmodernism celebrates the activities of fragmentation rather than does not only the mourn of meaning. Postmodernism explores the provisionality and irrationality of art.
Have postmodernist thinkers deconstructed the truth ?
The best known Cultural theorist Bruno Latour, famous for inaugurating the field of " Science Studies," which sought to examine the truth claim of science by exploring how those truths were established in the term of their Social, Political and Cultural foundation, wrote an article entitled, " Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam ? From Matters of Concern?" In this article Bruno Lutour put his thoughts and shared his idea that the field of Cultural studies, with its " Weapons " of critique, deconstruction and relativism and its rejection of grand narratives, stable definition and eternal truth, had been complicit in creating a world in which all knowledge was seen to be relative, partial site specific and therefore doubtful. Latour notes, " I myself have tried to show the lack of scientific certainty inherent in the construction of fact."
Latour argued that there is no such thing as, " natural unmediated, unbiased access to truth. " And that we are always prisoners of language that we always speak from a particular standpoint. This is all about the views of Latour for the question have postmodernist thinkers deconstructed the truth?
Postmodernism in Pop culture :-
We can say that Postmodernism can come in many different forms as different people have different ideas. The people who take part in the debate of modernism and Postmodernism, share a unanimity that Postmodernism might be many things but certainly it linked with the growth of popular culture in the late twentieth century in the west. Postmodernism generally rejects stereotypes of all kinds. And also it embraces the notion of nostalgia in art like film, television, advertising and uses multiple references to communicate on the variety of symbolic level. In the word of Susan Sontag , a critic of American Culture, Postmodernism came with the emergence of a " new sensibility " and this involves a blurring of the distinction between " high " and " low " culture. Generally culture was that which would be accepted into a museum, it was homologous relationship with the elitism that is inherent in class society. The means is that the drive towards Postmodernism in the late 1950s and 1960s was associated with the elitism of modernism. A good example of Postmodernism is that popular culture can be seen in the American and British pop art movement of the 1950s and 1960s as it rejected the division between high culture and popular culture. This can be said to be " Postmodernism's first cultural flowering. " One of the famous Pop art's first prominent theorists Lawrence Alloway explains that, " the area of contact was mass produced urban culture : movies, advertising, Science fiction, pop music. We felt none of the dislike of commercial culture standard among Intellectual but accepted it as a fact, discussed it in detail and consumed it enthusiastically. " This acceptance allowed people to treat popular culture in the realm of serious art and not a second tier of culture.
Major Postmodernist and their views about Postmodernism:-
Jean Baudrillard:-
Jean Baudrillard was a French Sociologist, philosopher and cultural theorist. He is best known for his analysis of media, contemporary culture and also he is best known for his two major terms," Simulation " and " Hyperreal." For Baudrillard " Postmodernism marks a culture composed of disparate fragmentary experiences and images that constantly bombard the individual in music, video, television, advertising and other forms of electronic media. The speed and ease of reproduction of these images means that they exist only as images, devoid of depth, coherence or originality. Now let us see brief information about hyperreal. Baudrillard has been referred to as " The high priest of Postmodernism. "
In Postmodernism hyperreal is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a Simulation of reality especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies. For example
Disney world and Las Vegas
The photos of a models in magazine which touched up with computers.
Jean Francois Lyotard :-
Jean Francois Lyotard is best known for his articulation of Postmodernism and the analysis of the impact of Postmodernity on the human condition. He was a sociologist, Literary theorist and philosopher. Jean Francois Lyotard argues that, " Stability is maintained through "Grand narratives " or " master narratives," Story a culture tells itself about its practices and beliefs in order to keep going. A grand narrative in American Culture might be the story that democracy is the most enlightened or rational form of government and that democracy will lead to universal human happiness.
The Postmodern Condition:
A Report on Knowledge
" The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge " is a book published in 1979 in which Jean Francois Lyotard analysis the notion of knowledge in postmodern society as the end of " Grand Narrative " or " Metanarratives " which he considers a quintessential feature of modernity.
Conclusion :-
Thus, above all discuss it is clear that, what is Postmodernism. If anyone asks about the simple concept of Postmodernism than we can say that it was started during mid - late 19th century and emerged in art, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communication, fashion and other many fields. Jean Baudrillard gave the term " Hyperreal " in which we can include many examples of modern time, especially advertisements. And also Jean Francois Lyotard, in his book, " The Postmodern Condition " discussed the grand narratives and metanarratives which are related to the Postmodern idea. And also I have put here how we can see Postmodernism in Popular culture especially in American Culture.
Work Citation :-
Guerine, Wilfred L. A Handbook of
Critical Approaches to Literature.
Oxford University Press, 2005.
Latour, Brono. "Have Postmodernist
Thinkers Deconstructed Truth?"
New Humanist, 12 Mar. 2018,
5296/have-postmodernist-thinkers-
deconstructed-truth.
"Postmodernism In Pop Culture" UKEssay.com 11, 2018. All Answer Ltd. 03,2020<https://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/post-modernism-in-pop-culture-and-the-simpsons-media-essay.php?vref=1>.
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