Transcript Introduction to Postmodernism

Introduction to
Postmodernism
Why Reality Isn’t What
It Used to Be
Deconstructing Mrs. Miller
Questions
1.
What is postmodernism?
2.
Why should we care about it?
3.
Have you received a modern or postmodern education?
4.
What does postmodernism have to say about your identity?
5.
What does postmodernism have to say about truth, beauty,
and goodness?
6.
How postmodernism is impacting K-12 education, religion, the
arts, and our daily lives.
Timeline
as
Evolution of Western Thought
Naturalistic
Theocentric
Economic
Humanistic
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Timeline
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
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Timeline
Your Place in History
14th C

1900
Modern

2000
Modernism

Postmodernism
You are here
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Timeline
Your Place in History
as
14th C

1900
Modern

Modernism
2000

Postmodernism
Your teachers were / are here
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Newtonian Order
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)
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
What Is Language?
Language & Truth
as

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 / truths

I, the subject, speak language

I have a discernible self

The self is the center of existence
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Purpose of Literature
Liberal Humanism: View of Literature


Good literature is of timeless significance.
The text will reveal constants, universal truths,
about human nature, because human nature
itself is constant and unchanging.
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Death of the Old Order
Modernism

Early 1900s:

World War I

Worldwide poverty & exploitation
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Death of the Old Order
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
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
The Bending of Time & Space
Relativism
E=mc2

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
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Breaking the Rules
Modernist Art

Cubism

Surrealism

Dadaism

Expressionism
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Breaking the Rules
Modernist Art

Cubism

Surrealism

Dadaism

Expressionism
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Breaking the Rules
Modernist Art

Cubism

Surrealism

Dadaism

Expressionism
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Breaking the Rules
Modernist Art

Cubism

Surrealism

Dadaism

Expressionism
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
A World with No Center
Modernist Literature
“Things fall apart,
The centre cannot hold,
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
--Yeats, “The Second Coming”
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Breaking the Rules
Modernist Literature



Emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity
Movement away from “objective” third-party
narration
Tendency toward reflexivity and selfconsciousness

Obsession with the psychology of self

Rejection of traditional aesthetic theories

Experimentation with language
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
Acceptance of a New Age
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
POSTMODERNISM
Acceptance of a New Age
What is Postmodernism?

The Enlightenment project is dead.
POSTMODERNISM
Culture & Capital
Frederick Jameson

Modernism and postmodernism are cultural formations that
accompany specific stages of capitalism
1.
Market capitalism: 18th-19th C.
Steam locomotive
Realism
2.
Monopoly capitalism: Late 19th C to WWII
Electricity and automobile
Modernism
3.
Multinational/consumer capitalism
Nuclear and electronics
POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism
The End of Master Narratives
Postmodernism: Basic Concepts

Life just is

Rejection of all master 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
POSTMODERNISM
The End of Master Narratives
Postmodernism: Basic Concepts

All versions of reality are SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTS

Concepts of good and evil

Metaphors for God

Language

The self

Gender

EVERYTHING!
POSTMODERNISM
Language As Social Construct
Postmodernism: Basic Concepts





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
POSTMODERNISM
Relativism & Pluralism
Richard Rorty (1931-)

A “pragmatic philosopher”

Anti-foundationalist

No reality independent of our minds



Truth is the result of inter-subjective agreement
between members of a community
We must choose between self-defeating
relativism or solidarity of thought within our
group
The goal of the “search for truth” is to help us
carry out practical tasks and create a fairer and
more democratic society
POSTMODERNISM
The Observer is King
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
POSTMODERNISM
Play and Parody
PostModern Literature

Extreme freedom of form and expression

Repudiation of boundaries of narration & genre

Intrusive, self-reflexive author

Parodies of meta-narratives


Deliberate violation of standards of sense and
decency (which are viewed as methods of social
control)
Integration of everyday experience, pop culture
POSTMODERNISM
Fragmented Identities
PostModern Literature

Parody, play, black humor, pastiche

Nonlinear, fragmented narratives

Ambiguities and uncertainties

Conspiracy and paranoia

Ironic detachment

Linguistic innovations

Postcolonial, global-English literature
POSTMODERNISM
Binary Oppositions
Modernity
PostModern

History as fact

Written by the victors

Faith in social order

Cultural pluralism

Family as central unit

Alternate families

Authenticity of originals

Hyper-reality (MTV)

Mass consumption

Niches; small group identity
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
A gay Southern Baptist who practices
Buddhist meditation and believes in
the Big Bang theory.
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
Modern or Postmodern?
POSTMODERNISM
An Epochal Shift in Thinking
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
POSTMODERNISM
Battle of World Views
PostModernism
A Global Battle:
THE OBJECTIVISTS
vs.
THE CONSTRUCTIVISTS
POSTMODERNISM
My Way
PostModernism
OBJECTIVISTS
“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 JudeoChristian 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
Metaphors Kill
PostModernism
People were burned at the
stake for believing there was
more than one version of
reality.
POSTMODERNISM
God is Not Dead
PostModernism
Our public schools have become
a postmodern battleground.
POSTMODERNISM
God is Not Dead
PostModernism
You can be a Christian
(or Buddhist, or Hindu, etc.)
in the postmodern world.
POSTMODERNISM
We Live in the Middle
PostModernism
We all slip and slide between the
objective and constructive views:
1. We live in a world of naïve realism.
2. But when we think about things, or
have to explain our views, we become
constructivists.
POSTMODERNISM
How Popular Culture Changes
as
RAYMOND WILLIAMS



Dominant ideology controls
Human agency: people work
together to bring about change
Takes into account pluralism
of a culture
POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Acceptance of Pluralism
How Popular Culture Changes
Playboy
Bunnies
Carrie in
“Sex & The
City”
&
June
Cleaver
Monica in
“Friends”
Courtney
Love
Samantha
in “Sex &
The City”
Celebrating Diversity
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.
POSTMODERNISM
Celebrating Diversity
Literary & FilmTheory

Different constructs of reality

“Lenses” through which we see the world
POSTMODERNISM
?