Postmodernism

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This article is about the philosophy. For the condition or state of being,
see Postmodernity.

Postmodernism

preceded by Modernism

Postmodernity

Hypermodernity

Hypermodernism (art)

Post-anarchism

Posthumanism

Postmodernist anthropology

Post-processual archaeology

Postmodern architecture

Postmodern art

Postmodern Christianity

Postmodern dance

Postmodern feminism

Postmodernist film

Postmodern literature

Post-Marxism

Post-materialism

Postmodern music

Postmodern picture book

Postmodern philosophy

Postmodernism in political science

Postpositivism

Post-postmodernism

Postmodernist school

Postmodern social construction of nature

Postmodern theatre

Post-structuralism

v·d·e
Postmodernism is a movement away from the viewpoint of modernism. More
specifically it is a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the problem
ofobjective truth and inherent suspicion towards global cultural narrative or meta-
narrative. It involves the belief that many, if not all, apparent realities are only social
constructs, as they are subject to change inherent to time and place. It emphasizes the
role of language, power relations, and motivations; in particular it attacks the use of
sharp classifications such as male versus female, straight versus gay, white versus
black, and imperial versus colonial. Rather, it holds realities to be plural and relative, and
dependent on who the interested parties are and what their interests consist in. It
attempts to problematise modernist overconfidence, by drawing into sharp contrast the
difference between how confident speakers are of their positions versus how confident
they need to be to serve their supposed purposes. Postmodernism has influenced many
cultural fields, including literary criticism, sociology, linguistics, architecture, visual arts,
and music.

Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from modernist approaches that had

previously been dominant. The term "postmodernism" comes from its critique of the
"modernist" scientific mentality of objectivity and progress associated with
the Enlightenment.

These movements, modernism and postmodernism, are understood as cultural projects

or as a set of perspectives. "Postmodernism" is used in critical theory to refer to a point
of departure for works of literature, drama, architecture, cinema, journalism, and design,
as well as in marketing and business and in the interpretation of law, culture, and religion
in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.[1] Indeed, postmodernism, particularly as an
academic movement, can be understood as a reaction to modernism in the Humanities.
Whereas modernism was primarily concerned with principles such as identity, unity,
authority, and certainty, postmodernism is often associated with difference, plurality,
textuality, and skepticism.

Literary critic Fredric Jameson describes postmodernism as the "dominant cultural logic
of late capitalism." "Late capitalism" refers to the phase of capitalism after World War II,
as described by economist Ernest Mandel; the term refers to the same period
sometimes described by "globalization", "multinational capitalism", or "consumer
capitalism". Jameson's work studies the postmodern in contexts of aesthetics, politics,
philosophy, and economics.[2]
Contents
[hide]

• 1 History and emergence

 o 1.1 Overview of ideas (see also Postmodern philosophy)

• 2 Contested definitions

• 3 Influence on art and aesthetics

o 3.1 Architecture

o 3.2 Literature

o 3.3 Music

• 4 Theories and derivatives

o 4.1 Deconstruction

o 4.2 Structuralism and post-structuralism

o 4.3 Post-postmodernism

• 5 Criticism

• 6 See also

• 7 References

• 8 Further reading

• 9 External links

[edit]History and emergence

One of Banksy's paintings in the Israeli wall in the West Bank (2005).

The term was first used around the 1870s in various areas. For example, John Watkins
Chapman avowed "a Postmodern style of painting" to get beyond French Impressionism.
[3]
Then, J. M. Thompson, in his 1914 article in The Hibbert Journal (a quarterly
philosophical review), used it to describe changes in attitudes and beliefs in the critique
of religion: "The raison d'etre of Post-Modernism is to escape from the double-
mindedness of Modernism by being thorough in its criticism by extending it to religion as
well as theology, to Catholic feeling as well as to Catholic tradition."[4]
In 1917 Rudolf Pannwitz used the term to describe a philosophically oriented culture. His
idea of post-modernism came from Friedrich Nietzsche's analysis of modernity and its
end results of decadence and nihilism. Overcoming the modern human would be the
post-human. Contrary to Nietzsche, Pannwitz also includes nationalist and mythical
elements.[5]

The term was used later in 1926 by B. I. Bell in his "Postmodernism & other Essays". In
1921 and 1925 it had been used to describe new forms of art and music. In 1942 H. R.
Hays used it for a new literary form, but as a general theory of an historical movement it
was first used in 1939 by the historian Arnold J. Toynbee: "Our own Post-Modern Age
has been inaugurated by the general war of 1914-1918."[6]

In 1949 the term was used to describe a dissatisfaction with modern architecture,
leading to the postmodern architecture movement.[7]Postmodernism in architecture is
marked by the re-emergence of surface ornament, reference to surrounding buildings in
urban architecture, historical reference in decorative forms, and non-orthogonal angles.
It may be a response to the modernist architectural movement known as theInternational
Style.

The term was then applied to a whole host of movements, many in art, music, and
literature, that reacted against a range of tendencies in the imperialist phase of
capitalism called "modernism," and are typically marked by revival of historical elements
and techniques.[8] Walter Truett Anderson identifies Postmodernism as one of four
typological world views. These four worldviews are the Postmodern-ironist, which sees
truth as socially constructed; the scientific-rational, in which truth is found through
methodical, disciplined inquiry; the social-traditional, in which truth is found in the
heritage of American and Western civilization; and the neo-romantic, in which truth is
found through attaining harmony with nature and/or spiritual exploration of the inner self.
[9]

Postmodernist ideas in philosophy and the analysis of culture and society expanded the
importance of critical theory and has been the point of departure for works
of literature, architecture, and design, as well as being visible in marketing/business and
the interpretation of history, law and culture, starting in the late 20th century. These
developments — re-evaluation of the entire Western value system
(love, marriage, popular culture, shift from industrial to service economy) that took place
since the 1950s and 1960s, with a peak in the Social Revolution of 1968 — are
described with the termPostmodernity,[10] as opposed to Postmodernism, a term referring
to an opinion or movement. Whereas something being "Postmodernist" would make it
part of the movement, its being "Postmodern" would place it in the period of time since
the 1950s, making it a part of contemporary history.
[edit]Overview of ideas (see also Postmodern philosophy)
Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)
rejected the philosophical basis of the concepts of "subjectivity" and "objectivity"
and asserted that similar grounding oppositions in logic ultimately refer to one
another. Instead of resisting the admission of this paradox in the search for
understanding, Heidegger requires that we embrace it through an active process
of elucidation he called the "Hermeneutic Circle". He stressed the historicity and
cultural construction of concepts while simultaneously advocating the necessity of
an atemporal and immanent apprehension of them. In this vein, he asserted that
it was the task of contemporary philosophy to recover the original question of (or
"openness to") Dasein (translated as Being or Being-in-the-World) present in
the Presocratic philosophers but normalized, neutered and standardized
since Plato. This was to be done, in part, by tracing the record
of Dasein's sublimation or forgetfulness through the history of philosophy which
meant that we were to ask again what constituted the grounding conditions in
ourselves and in the World for the affinity between beings and between the many
usages of the term "being" in philosophy. To do this, however, a non-historical
and, to a degree, self-referential engagement with whatever set of ideas, feelings
or practices would permit (both the non-fixed concept and reality of) such a
continuity was required - a continuity permitting the possible experience, possible
existence indeed not only of beings but of all differences as they appeared and
tended to develop. Such a conclusion led Heidegger to depart from
the Phenomenology of his teacher Husserl and prompt instead an (ironically
anachronistic) return to the yet-unasked questions of Ontology, a return that in
general did not acknowledge an intrinsic distinction
between phenomena and noumena or between things in themselves (de re) and
things as they appear (see qualia): Being-in-the-world, or rather, the openness to
the process ofDasein's/Being's becoming was to bridge the age-old gap between
these two. In this latter premise, Heidegger shares an affinity with the late
Romantic philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, another principal forerunner of Post-
structuralist and Postmodernist thought. Influential to thinkers associated with
Postmodernism are Heidegger's critique of the subject-object or sense-
knowledge division implicit in Rationalism, Empiricism and Methodological
Naturalism, his repudiation of the idea that facts exist outside or separately from
the process of thinking and speaking them (however, Heidegger is not specifically
a Nominalist), his related admission that the possibilities of philosophical and
scientific discourse are wrapped up in the practices and expectations of a society
and that concepts and fundamental constructs are the expression of a lived,
 historical exercise rather than simple derivations of external, apriori conditions
independent from historical mind and changing experience (see Johann Gottlieb
Fichte, Heinrich von Kleist, Weltanschauung and Social Constructionism), and
his Instrumentalist and Negativist notion that Being (and, by extension, reality) is
an action, method, tendency, possibility and question rather than a discreet,
positive, identifiable state, answer or entity (see also Process
Philosophy, Dynamism, Instrumentalism,Pragmatism and Vitalism).
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (1922–1996)
located the rapid change of the basis of scientific knowledge to a provisional
consensus among scientists; coined the term "paradigm shift" in The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions and in general contributed to the debate over the presumed
neutrality and objectivity of empirical methodology in the Natural Sciences from
disciplinarian or cultural bias.
Jacques Derrida (1930–2004)
re-examined the fundamentals of writing and its consequences on philosophy in
general; sought to undermine the language of 'presence' or metaphysics in an
analytical technique which, beginning as a point of departure from Heidegger's
notion of Destruktion, came to be known as Deconstruction. Derrida utilized, like
Heidegger, references to Greek philosophical notions associated with
theSkeptics and the Presocratics, such as Epoché and Aporia to articulate his
notion of implicit circularity between premises and conclusions, origins and
manifestations, but - in a manner analogous in certain respects to Gilles Deleuze
- presented a radical re-reading of canonical philosophical figures such
as Plato, Aristotle and Descartes as themselves being informed by such
"destabilizing" notions.
Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
introduced concepts such as 'discursive regime', or re-invoked those of older
philosophers like 'episteme' and 'genealogy' in order to explain the relationship
among meaning, power, and social behavior within social orders (see The Order
of Things, The Archaeology of Knowledge, Discipline and Punish and The
History of Sexuality). In direct contradiction to what have been typified as
Modernist perspectives on epistemology, Foucault asserted that rational
judgment, social practice and what he called 'biopower' are not only inseparable
but co-determinant. While Foucault himself was deeply involved in a number of
progressive political causes and maintained close personal ties with members of
the far-Left, he was also controversial with Leftist thinkers of his day, including
those associated with various strains of Marxism, proponents of Left
libertarianism (e.g. Noam Chomsky) and Humanism (e.g. Jürgen Habermas), for
his rejection of what he deemed to beEnlightenment-derived concepts of
freedom, liberation, self-determination and human nature. Instead, Foucault
focused on the ways in which such constructs can foster cultural hegemony,
violence and exclusion. In line with his rejection of such 'positive' tenets of
Enlightenment-era Humanism, he was active, with Gilles Deleuze and Félix
Guattari, in the Anti-Psychiatry Movement, considering much of institutionalized
psychiatry and, in particular, Freud's concept of repression central
to Psychoanalysis (which was still very influential in France during the 1960s and
70s), to be both harmful and misplaced. Foucault was known for his controversial
aphorisms, such as "language is oppression", meaning that language functions in
such a way as to render nonsensical, false or silent tendencies that might
otherwise threaten or undermine the distributions of power backing a society's
conventions - even when such distributions purport to celebrate liberation and
expression or value minority groups and perspectives. His writings have had a
major influence on the larger body of Postmodern academic literature.
Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998)
identified in The Postmodern Condition a crisis in the 'discourses of the Human
Sciences' latent in Modernism but catapulted to the fore by the advent of the
"computerized" or "telematic" era (seeInformation Revolution). This crisis, insofar
as it pertains to academia, concerns both the motivations and justification
procedures for making research claims: unstated givens or values that have
validated the basic efforts of academic research since the late 18th Century might
no longer be valid (particularly, in Social Science & Humanities research, though
examples from Mathematics are given by Lyotard as well). As formal conjecture
about real-world issues becomes inextricably linked to automated calculation,
information storage and retrieval, such knowledge becomes increasingly
"exteriorised" from its knowers in the form of information. Knowledge is
materialized and made into a commodity exchanged between producers and
consumers; it ceases to be either an idealistic end-in-itself or a tool capable of
bringing about liberty or social benefit; it is stripped of its humanistic and spiritual
associations, its connection with education, teaching and human development,
being simply rendered as "data" - omnipresent, material, unending and without
any contexts or pre-requisites.[11] Furthermore, the 'diversity' of claims made by
various disciplines begins to lack any unifying principle or intuition as objects of
study become more and more specialized due to the emphasis on specificity,
precision and uniformity of reference that competitive, database-oriented
research implies. The value-premises upholding academic research have been
maintained by what Lyotard considers to be quasi-mythological beliefs about
human purpose, human reason and human progress - large, background
constructs he calls "Metanarratives". These Metanarratives still remain in
Western society but are now being undermined by rapidInformatization and the
commercialization of the University and its functions. The shift of authority from
the presence and intuition of knowers - from the good-faith of Reason to seek
diverse knowledge integrated for human benefit or truth fidelity - to the automated
database and the market had, in Lyotard's view, the power to unravel the very
idea of 'justification' or 'legitimation' and, with it, the rationale for research
altogether - esp. in disciplines pertaining to human life, society and meaning. We
are now controlled not by binding extra-linguistic value paradigms defining
notions of collective identity and ultimate purpose, but rather by our automatic
responses to different species of "language games" (a concept Lyotard imports
from JL Austin's theory of Speech Acts). In his vision of a solution to this
"vertigo," Lyotard opposes the assumptions of universality, consensus, and
generality that he identified within the thought of Humanistic, Neo-
Kantian philosophers likeJürgen Habermas and proposes a continuation of
experimentation and diversity to be assessed pragmatically in the context of
language games rather than via appeal to a resurrected series of transcendentals
and metaphysical unities.
Richard Rorty (1931–2007)
argues in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature that contemporary Analytic
philosophy mistakenly imitates scientific methods. In addition, he denounces the
traditional epistemological perspectives
of Representationalism and Correspondence theory that rely upon the
independence of knowers and observers from phenomena and the passivity of
natural phenomena in relation to consciousness. As a proponent of anti-
foundationalism and anti-essentialism within a Pragmatist framework, he echoes
Postmodern strains of Conventionalism and Philosophical Relativism, but
opposes much Postmodern thinking with his commitment to Social Liberalism.
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007),
in Simulacra and Simulation, introduced the concept that reality or the principle of
the "real" is short-circuited by the interchangeability of signs in an era whose
communicative and semantic acts are dominated by electronic media and digital
technologies. Baudrillard proposes the notion that, in such a state, where
subjects are detached from the outcomes of events (political, literary, artistic,
personal or otherwise), events no longer hold any particular sway on the subject
nor have any identifiable context; they therefore have the effect of producing
widespread indifference, detachment and passivity in industrialized populations.
He claimed that a constant stream of appearances and references without any
direct consequences to viewers or readers could eventually render the division
between appearance and object indiscernible, resulting, ironically, in the
"disappearance" of mankind in what is, in effect, a virtual or holographic state,
composed only of appearances.
Fredric Jameson (born 1934)
set forth one of the first expansive theoretical treatments of Postmodernism as a
historical period, intellectual trend and social phenomenon in a series of lectures
at the Whitney Museum, later expanded as Postmodernism, or The Cultural
Logic of Late Capitalism (1991). Eclectic in his methodology, Jameson has
continued a sustained examination of the role that Periodization continues to play
as a grounding assumption of critical methodologies in Humanities disciplines. He
has contributed extensive effort to explicating the importance of concepts
of Utopianism and Utopia as driving forces in the cultural and intellectual
movements of Modernity, and outlining the political and existential uncertainties
that may result from the decline or suspension of this trend in the theorized state
of Postmodernity. Like Susan Sontag, Jameson served to introduce a wide
audience of American readers to key figures of the 20th Century Continental
European intellectual Left, particularly those associated with the Frankfurt
School, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism. Thus, his importance as a
'translator' of their ideas to the common vocabularies of a variety of disciplines in
the Anglo-American academic complex is equally as important as his own critical
engagement with them.
[edit]Contested definitions
The term "Postmodernism" is often used to refer to
different, sometimes contradictory concepts.
Conventional definitions include:

 Compact Oxford English Dictionary: "a style

and concept in the arts characterized by
distrust of theories and ideologies and by the
drawing of attention to conventions."[12]
 Merriam-Webster: Either "of, relating to, or
being an era after a modern one", or "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 (as in architecture) or by
 ironic self-reference and absurdity (as in
literature)", or, finally "of, relating to, or being a
theory that involves a radical reappraisal of
modern assumptions about culture, identity,
history, or language".[13]
 American Heritage Dictionary: "Of or relating
to art, architecture, or literature that reacts
against earlier modernist principles, as by
reintroducing traditional or classical elements
of style or by carrying modernist styles or
practices to extremes: 'It [a roadhouse] is so
architecturally interesting ... with its
postmodern wooden booths and sculptural
clock.'"[14]

While the term "Postmodern" and its derivatives

are freely used, with some uses apparently
contradicting others, those outside the academic
milieu have described it as merely a buzzword that
means nothing. Dick Hebdige, in his text ‘Hiding in
the Light’, writes:

When it becomes possible for a people to

describe as ‘postmodern’ the décor of a
room, the design of a building, the diegesis
of a film, the construction of a record, or a
‘scratch’ video, a television commercial, or
an arts documentary, or the ‘intertextual’
relations between them, the layout of a
page in a fashion magazine or critical
journal, an anti-teleological tendency within
epistemology, the attack on the
‘metaphysics of presence’, a general
attenuation of feeling, the collective chagrin
and morbid projections of a post-War
generation of baby boomers confronting
disillusioned middle-age, the ‘predicament’
of reflexivity, a group of rhetorical tropes, a
proliferation of surfaces, a new phase in
 commodity fetishism, a fascination for
images, codes and styles, a process of
cultural, political or existential fragmentation
and/or crisis, the ‘de-centring’ of the
subject, an ‘incredulity towards
metanarratives’, the replacement of unitary
power axes by a plurality of
power/discourse formations, the ‘implosion
of meaning’, the collapse of cultural
hierarchies, the dread engendered by the
threat of nuclear self-destruction, the
decline of the university, the functioning
and effects of the new miniaturised
technologies, broad societal and economic
shifts into a ‘media’, ‘consumer’ or
‘multinational’ phase, a sense (depending
on who you read) of ‘placelessness’ or the
abandonment of placelessness (‘critical
regionalism’) or (even) a generalised
substitution of spatial for temporal
coordinates - when it becomes possible to
describe all these things as ‘Postmodern’
(or more simply using a current
abbreviation as ‘post’ or ‘very post’) then it’s
clear we are in the presence of a buzzword.
[15]

British historian Perry Anderson's history of the

term and its understanding, 'The Origins of
Postmodernity', explains these apparent
contradictions, and demonstrates the importance
of "Postmodernism" as a category and a
phenomenon in the analysis of contemporary
culture.[16]

[edit]Influence on art and aesthetics

[edit]Architecture

Main article: Postmodern architecture

 Detail of the postmodernAbteiberg Museum inGermany.

The movement of Postmodernism began

with architecture, as a response to the perceived
blandness, hostility, and Utopianism of the Modern
movement. Modern Architecture, as established
and developed by people such as Walter
Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Philip Johnson, was
focused on the pursuit of a perceived ideal
perfection, and attempted harmony of form and
function,[17] and dismissal of "frivolous
ornament."[18][19] Critics of modernism argued that
the attributes of perfection and minimalism
themselves were subjective, and pointed
out anachronisms in modern thought and
questioned the benefits of its philosophy.
[20]
Definitive postmodern architecture such as the
work of Michael Graves rejects the notion of a
'pure' form or 'perfect' architectonic detail, instead
conspicuously drawing from all methods,
materials, forms and colors available to architects.
Postmodernist architecture was one of the first
aesthetic movements to openly challenge
Modernism as antiquated and "totalitarian",
favoring personal preferences and variety over
objective, ultimate truths or principles. It is this
atmosphere of criticism, skepticism, and emphasis
on difference over and against unity that
distinguishes many postmodernisms.

[edit]Literature
 Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Main article: Postmodern literature

Literary postmodernism was officially inaugurated

in the United States with the first issue
of boundary 2, subtitled "Journal of Postmodern
Literature and Culture", which appeared in
1972. David Antin, Charles Olson, John Cage, and
the Black Mountain College school of poetry and
the arts were integral figures in the intellectual and
artistic exposition of postmodernism at the time.
[21]
boundary 2 remains an influential journal in
postmodernist circles today.[22]

Although Jorge Luis Borges and Samuel

Beckett are sometimes seen as important
influences, novelists who are commonly counted
to postmodern literature includeWilliam
Gaddis, John Hawkes, William
Burroughs, Giannina Braschi, Kurt Vonnegut, John
Barth, Donald Barthelme, E.L. Doctorow, Jerzy
Kosinski, Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael
Reed, Kathy Acker, Ana Lydia Vega, and Paul
Auster.

In 1971, the Arab-American scholar Ihab

Hassan published The Dismemberment of
Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern Literature, an
early work of literary criticism from a postmodern
perspective, in which the author traces the
development of what he calls "literature of silence"
through Marquis de Sade, Franz Kafka, Ernest
Hemingway, Beckett, and many others, including
developments such as the Theatre of the
Absurd and the nouveau roman. In 'Postmodernist
Fiction' (1987) Brian McHale detail the shift from
modernism to postmodernism, showing that the
former is characterized by an epistemological
dominant, and that postmodern works have
developed out of modernism and are primarily
concerned with questions of ontology.
In Constructing Postmodernism (1992) McHale's
second book he provides readings of postmodern
fiction and of some of the contemporary writers
who go under the label of cyberpunk. McHale's
"What Was Postmodernism?" (2007)[1], follows
the way Raymond Federman has put it - to change
tenses from "What Is Postmodernism?" to "What
Was Postmodernism?"

[edit]Music

Composer Henryk Górecki.

Main articles: Postmodern music and Postmodern

classical music

Postmodern music is either music of the

postmodern era, or music that follows aesthetic
and philosophical trends of postmodernism. As the
name suggests, the postmodernist movement
formed partly in reaction to the ideals modernist.
Because of this, Postmodern music is mostly
defined in opposition to modernist music, and a
work can either be modernist, or postmodern, but
not both. Jonathan Kramer posits the idea
(following Umberto Eco and Jean-François
Lyotard) that postmodernism
(including musical postmodernism) is less a
surface style or historical period (i.e., condition)
than an attitude.

The postmodern impulse in classical music arose

in the 1970s with the advent of
musical minimalism. Composers such as Terry
Riley, Henryk Górecki, Bradley Joseph,John
Adams, Steve Reich, Phillip Glass, Michael
Nyman, and Lou Harrison reacted to the perceived
elitism and dissonant sound of atonal academic
modernism by producing music with simple
textures and relatively consonant harmonies.
Some composers have been openly influenced by
popular music and world ethnic musical traditions.

Postmodern Classical music as well is not a

musical style, but rather refers to music of the
postmodern era. It bears the same relationship to
postmodernist music that postmodernity bears to
postmodernism. Postmodern music, on the other
hand, shares characteristics with postmodernist art
—that is, art that comes after and
reactsagainst modernism (see Modernism in
Music).

Though representing a general return to certain

notions of music-making that are often considered
to be classical or romantic[citation needed], not all
postmodern composers have eschewed the
experimentalist or academic tenets of modernism.
The works of Dutch composer Louis Andriessen,
for example, exhibit experimentalist preoccupation
that is decidedly anti-romantic. Eclecticism and
freedom of expression, in reaction to the rigidity
and aesthetic limitations of modernism, are the
hallmarks of the postmodern influence in musical
composition.

[edit]Theories and derivatives

[edit]Deconstruction

Main article: Deconstruction

One of the most popular postmodernist tendencies

within aesthetics is deconstruction. As it is
currently used, "deconstruction" is
a Derridean approach to textual analysis (typically
literary critique, but variously applied).
Deconstructions work entirely within the studied
text to expose and undermine the frame of
reference, assumptions, and ideological
underpinnings of the text. Although
deconstructions can be developed using different
methods and techniques, the process typically
involves demonstrating the multiple possible
readings of a text and their resulting internal
conflicts, and undermining binary oppositions (e.g.
masculine/feminine, old/new). Deconstruction is
fundamental to many different fields of
postmodernist thought, including postcolonialism,
as demonstrated through the writings of Gayatri
Spivak.

[edit]Structuralism and post-structuralism

Further information: Manifestations of
Postmodernism

Structuralism was a broad philosophical

movement that developed particularly in France in
the 1950s, partly in response to
French Existentialism, but is considered by many
to be an exponent of High-Modernism,[by
whom?]
though its categorization as either
a Modernist or Postmodernist trend is contested.
Many Structuralists later moved away from the
most strict interpretations and applications of
"structure", and are thus called "Post-
structuralists" in the United States (the term is
uncommon in Europe). Though many Post-
structuralists were referred to as Postmodern in
their lifetimes, many explicitly rejected the term.
Notwithstanding, Post-structuralism in much
American academic literature in the Humanities is
very strongly associated with the broader and
more nebulous movement of Postmodernism.
Thinkers most typically linked with Structuralism
include anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss,
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure,
psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, Marxist
philosopher Louis Althusser and literary
theorist Roland Barthes. Philosophers commonly
referred to as Post-structuralists include Michel
Foucault, Roland Barthes and Jean
Baudrillard (who also began their careers with a
Structuralist background), Jacques Derrida, Gilles
Deleuze, Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-François
Lyotard, Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, Luce
Irigaray and, sometimes, the American cultural
theorists, critics and intellectuals they influenced
(e.g. Judith Butler, Jonathan Crary, John
Fiske, Rosalind Krauss).

Though by no means a unified movement with a

set of shared axioms or methodologies, Post-
structuralism emphasizes the ways in which
different aspects of a cultural order, from its most
banal material details to its most abstract
theoretical exponents, determine one another
(rather than espousing a series of strict, uni-
directional, cause and effect relationships –
see Reductionism – or resorting
to Epiphenomenalism). Like Structuralism, it
places particular focus on the determination of
identities, values and economies in relation to one
another, rather than assuming intrinsicproperties
or essences of signs or components as starting
points.[23] In this limited sense, there is a
nascent Relativism and Constructionism within the
French Structuralists that was consciously
addressed by them but never examined to the
point of dismantling their reductionist tendencies.
Unlike Structuralists, however, the Post-
structuralists questioned the division between
relation and component and, correspondingly, did
not attempt to reduce the subjects of their study to
an essential set of relations that could be
portrayed with abstract, functional schemes or
mathematical symbols (as in Claude Lévi-
Strauss's algebraic formulation of mythological
transformation in "The Structural Study of
Myth"[24]).

Post-Structuralists tended to reject such

formulations of “essential relations” in primitive
cultures, languages or descriptions of
psychological phenomena as a subtle forms
of Aristotelianism, Rationalism or Idealism or as
more reflective of a mechanistic bias[25] inspired by
bureaucratization and industrialization than of the
inner-workings of primitive cultures, languages or
the psyche. Generally, Post-structuralists
emphasized the inter-determination and
contingency of social and historical phenomena
with each other and with the cultural values and
biases of perspective. Such realities were not to
be dissected, in the manner of some Structuralists,
as a system of facts that could
exist independently from values and paradigms
(either those of the analysts or the subjects
themselves), but to be understood as both causes
and effects of the each other.[26] For this reason,
most Post-structuralists held a more open-ended
view of function within systems than did
Structuralists and were sometimes accused of
circularity and ambiguity. Post-structuralists
countered that, when closely examined, all
formalized claims describing phenomena, reality or
truth, rely on some form or circular reasoning and
self-referential logic that is often paradoxical in
nature. Thus, it was important to uncover the
hidden patterns of circularity, self-reference and
paradox within a given set of statements rather
that feign objectivity, as such an investigation
might allow new perspectives to have influence
and new practices to be sanctioned or adopted.

As would be expected, Post-structuralist writing

tends to connect observations and references from
many, widely varying disciplines into a synthetic
view of knowledge and its relationship to
experience, the body, society and economy - a
synthesis in which it sees itself as participating.
Stucturalists, while also somewhat inter-
disciplinary, were more comfortable within
departmental boundaries and often maintained the
autonomy of their analytical methods over the
objects they analyzed. Post-structuralists, unlike
Structuralists, did not privilege a system of
(abstract) "relations" over the specifics to which
such relations were applied, but tended to see the
notion of “the relation” or of systemization itself as
part-and-parcel of any stated conclusion rather
than a reflection of reality as an independent, self-
contained state or object. If anything, if a part of
objective reality, theorization and systemization to
Post-structuralists was an exponent of larger,
more nebulous patterns of control in social orders
– patterns that could not be encapsulated in theory
without simultaneously conditioning it. For this
reason, certain Post-structural thinkers were also
criticized by more Realist, Naturalist or Essentialist
thinkers of anti-intellectualism or anti-Philosophy.
In short, Post-structuralists, unlike Structuralists,
tended to place a great deal of skepticism on the
independence of theoretical premises from
collective bias and the influence of power, and
rejected the notion of a "pure" or "scientific"
methodology in social analysis, semiotics or
philosophical speculation. No theory, they said –
especially when concerning human society or
psychology – was capable of reducing phenomena
to elemental systems or abstract patterns, nor
could abstract systems be dismissed as secondary
derivatives of a fundamental nature: systemization,
phenomena and values were part of each other.

While many of the so-called Post-structuralists

vehemently disagreed on the specifics of such
fundamental categories as "the real", "society",
"totality", "desire" and "history", many also shared,
in contrast to their so-called Structuralist
predecessors, the traits mentioned. Furthermore, a
good number of them engaged in a re-assessment
(positive or negative) of the philosophical traditions
associated with Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and
Freud. Because of its general skepticism of
analytical objectivity and mutually exclusive
oppositions in logic, its emphasis on the social
production of knowledge and of knowledge
paradigms, and its portrayal of the sometimes
ambiguous inter-determination of material culture,
values, physical practices and socio-economic life,
Post-structuralism is often linked to
Postmodernism.

[edit]Post-postmodernism

Main article: Post-postmodernism

Recently the notion of the "death of

postmodernism" has been increasingly widely
debated: in 2007 Andrew Hoborek noted in his
introduction to a special issue of the
journal Twentieth Century Literature titled "After
Postmodernism" that "declarations of
postmodernism's demise have become a critical
commonplace". A small group of critics has put
forth a range of theories that aim to describe
culture and/or society in the alleged aftermath of
postmodernism, most notably Raoul Eshelman
(performatism), Gilles
Lipovetsky (hypermodernity), Nicolas
Bourriaud (Altermodern), and Alan
Kirby (digimodernism, formerly called pseudo-
modernism). None of these new theories and
labels has so far gained widespread acceptance.

[edit]Criticism

Main article: Criticism of postmodernism

Formal, academic critiques of postmodernism can

be found in works such as Beyond the
Hoax and Fashionable Nonsense.

The term postmodernism, when used pejoratively,

describes tendencies perceived
as relativist, counter-enlightenment or antimodern,
particularly in relation to critiques
of rationalism, universalism orscience. It is also
sometimes used to describe tendencies in a
society that are held to be antithetical to traditional
systems of morality.

[edit]See also
Theory

 Critical race theory

 Dystopia
 Hypermodernity
 Media studies
 Recursionism
 Science fiction

Culture and politics

  Decentralization
 Defamiliarization
 Remodernism
 Syncretism
 Sokal Affair

Law

 Critical legal studies

Philosophy

 Ontological pluralism
 Physical ontology
 Postmaterialism

Politics

 Post-realism

Psychology

 Postmodern psychology

Religion

 Postmodern Religion

Opposed by

 Altermodern
 Remodernism
 Remodernist film
 Stuckism

[edit]References

1. ^ Historians have generally not used

postmodernist approaches in their work, as shown by

Sigurdur Gylfi Magnusson, "The Singularization of

History: Social History and Microhistory within the

Postmodern State of Knowledge," Journal of Social

History 2003 36(3): 701-735; Georg G.

Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth-Century: From

Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern

Challenge (1997). Many historians engage with

postmodernism (e.g. Perry Anderson), and several

philosophers often associated with the postmodern

movement have made important contributions to

history and historiography (most prominently, Michel

Foucault).

2. ^ Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, the

cultural logic of late capitalism, Durham, NC: Duke

University Press, 1991.

3. ^ The Postmodern Turn, Essays in Postmodern

Theory and Culture, Ohio University Press, 1987. p12ff

4. ^ Thompson, J. M. "Post-Modernism," The

Hibbert Journal. Vol XII No. 4, July 1914. p. 733

5. ^ Pannwitz, Rudolf. Die Krisis der europäischen

Kultur, Nürnberg 1917

6. ^ OED long edition

7. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004

8. ^ Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 2004

9. ^ Walter Truett Anderson (1996). The Fontana

Postmodernism Reader.

10. ^ Influences on postmodern thought, Paul

Lützeler (St. Louis)

11. ^ Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern

Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Les Éditions de

Minuit, 1979. English Translation by Geoffrey

Bennington and Brian Massumi. Manchester University

Press, 1984. See Chapter 1, The Field: Knowledge in

Computerised Societies.//

12. ^ Askoxford.com
13. ^ Merriam-Webster's definition of postmodernism
14. ^ Ruth Reichl, Cook's November 1989; American
Heritage Dictionary's definition of "postmodern"
15. ^ ’Postmodernism and “the other side”’, in
Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A reader, edited

by John Storey, London, : Pearson Education .2006

16. ^ Perry Anderson, 'The Origins of Postmodernity',

London: Verso, 1998.

17. ^ Sullivan, Louis. "The Tall Office Building

Artistically Considered,” published Lippincott's

Magazine (March 1896).

18. ^ Loos, Adolf. "Ornament and Crime,” published

1908.

19. ^ Manfredo Tafuri, 'Architecture and utopia:

design and capitalist development', Cambridge: MIT

Press, 1976.

20. ^ Venturi, et al.

21. ^ Anderson, The origins of postmodernity,
London: Verso, 1998, Ch.2: "Crystallization".

22. ^ boundary 2, Duke University

Press, Boundary2.dukejournals.org

23. ^ Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology.

Trans. Claire Jacobson and Brooke Grundfest Schoepf

(First published New York: Basic Books, 1963; New

York: Anchor Books Ed., 1967), 324.

Lévi-Strauss, quoting D'Arcy Westworth Thompson

states - "To those who question the possibility of

defining the interrelations between entities whose

nature is not completely understood, I shall reply with

the following comment by a great naturalist -

In a very large part of morphology, our essential task

lies in the comparison of related forms rather than in

the precise definition of each; and the deformation of a

complicated figure may be a phenomenon easy of

comprehension, though the figure itself has to be left

unanalyzed and undefined.

24. ^ Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Anthropologie

Structurale. Paris: Éditions Plon, 1958.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Trans.

Claire Jacobson and Brooke Grundfest Schoepf (New

York: Basic Books, 1963), 228.

 25. ^ See the following web reference for a common
critique of from an "Anti-positivist" perspective.

26. ^ Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. Capitalism

and Schizophrenia, vol. II: A Thousand Plateaus.

Trans. Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota

Press, 1987), p. 101. Orig. published asMille

Plateaux, in 1980 by Les Editions de Minuit, Paris.

Deleuze, here echoing the sentiments of Derrida's

reflection on Foucault's "The History of Madness"

(1961) in his essay "Cogito and the History of

Madness" (1963), makes a very thinly veiled reference

to semiological certainty of both Saussure and Lacan

(who speaks of "The Unity of the Father" in his theory

of semantic coherence), critiquing the premise of

objectivity in their methodology -

"The scientific model taking language as an object of

study is one with the political model by which language

is homogenized, centralized, standardized, becoming a

language of power, a major or dominant language.

Linguistics can claim all it wants to be science, nothing

but pure science -- it wouldn't be the first time that the

order of pure science was used to secure the

requirements of another order...The unity of language

is fundamentally political. There is no mother tongue,

only a power takeover by a dominant language that at

times advances along a broad front, and at times

swoops down on diverse centers simultaneously...The

scientific enterprise of extracting constants and

constant relations is always coupled with the political

enterprise of imposing them on speakers and

transmitting order-worlds."

[edit]Further reading

 Powell, Jim (1998). "Postmodernism For Beginners" (ISBN

978-1-934389-09-6)

 Alexie, Sherman (2000). "The Toughest Indian in the

World" (ISBN 0-8021-3800-4)
 Anderson, Walter Truett. The Truth about the Truth (New
Consciousness Reader). New York: Tarcher. (1995) (ISBN

0-87477-801-8)

 Anderson, Perry. The origins of postmodernity. London:

Verso, 1998.

 Ashley, Richard and Walker, R. B. J. (1990) “Speaking the

Language of Exile.” International Studies Quarterly v 34, no

3 259-68.

 Bauman, Zygmunt (2000) Liquid Modernity. Cambridge:

Polity Press.

 Beck, Ulrich (1986) Risk Society: Towards a New

Modernity.

 Benhabib, Seyla (1995) 'Feminism and Postmodernism' in

(ed. Nicholson) Feminism Contentions: A Philosophical

Exchange. New York: Routledge.

 Berman, Marshall (1982) All That Is Solid Melts Into Air:

The Experience of Modernity (ISBN 0-14-010962-5).

 Bertens, Hans (1995) The Idea of the Postmodern: A

History. London: Routledge. (ISBN 0-145-06012-5).

 Best, Steven Best and Douglas Kellner. Postmodern

Theory(1991) excerpt and text search

 Best, Steven Best and Douglas Kellner. The Postmodern

Turn(1997) excerpt and text search

 Bielskis, Andrius (2005) Towards a Postmodern

Understanding of the Political: From Genealogy to

Hermeneutics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

 Braschi, Giannina (1994), Empire of Dreams, introduction

by Alicia Ostriker, Yale University Press, New Haven,

London.

 Brass, Tom, Peasants, Populism and

Postmodernism (London: Cass, 2000).

 Butler, Judith (1995) 'Contingent Foundations' in (ed.

Nicholson)Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange.

New Yotk: Routledge.

 Callinicos, Alex, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist

Critique(Cambridge: Polity, 1999).
 Drabble, M. The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6
ed., article "Postmodernism".

 Farrell, John. "Paranoia and Postmodernism," the epilogue

toParanoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau (Cornell

UP, 2006), 309-327.

 Featherstone, M. (1991) Consumer culture and

postmodernism, London; Newbury Park, Calif., Sage

Publications.

 Goulimari, Pelagia (ed.) (2007) Postmodernism. What

Moment? Manchester: Manchester University Press (ISBN

978-0-7190-7308-3)

 Giddens, Anthony (1991) Modernity and Self Identity,

Cambridge: Polity Press.

 Grebowicz, Margaret (ed.), Gender After Lyotard. NY:

Suny Press, 2007. (ISBN 978-0-7914-6956-9)

 Greer, Robert C. Mapping Postmodernism. IL: Intervarsity

Press, 2003. (ISBN 0-8308-2733-1)

 Groothuis, Douglas. Truth Decay. Downers Grove, Illinois:

InterVarsity Press, 2000.

 Harvey, David (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity: An

Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (ISBN 0-631-

16294-1)

 Hicks, Stephen R. C. (2004) Explaining Postmodernism:

Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (ISBN

1-59247-646-5)

 Honderich, T., The Oxford Companion to Philosophy,

article "Postmodernism".

 Hutcheon, Linda. The Politics of

Postmodernism. (2002) online edition]

 Jameson, Fredric (1991) Postmodernism, or, the Cultural

Logic of Late Capitalism (ISBN 0-8223-1090-2)

 Kirby, Alan (2009) Digimodernism. New York: Continuum.

 Lash, S. (1990) The sociology of postmodernism London,
Routledge.

 Lyotard, Jean-François (1984) The Postmodern Condition:

A Report on Knowledge (ISBN 0-8166-1173-4)
 --- (1988). The Postmodern Explained: Correspondence
1982-1985. Ed. Julian Pefanis and Morgan Thomas. (ISBN

0-8166-2211-6)

 --- (1993), "Scriptures: Diffracted Traces." In: Theory,

Culture and Society, Vol. 21(1), 2004.

 --- (1995), "Anamnesis: Of the Visible." In: Theory, Culture

and Society, Vol. 21(1), 2004.

 McHale,Brian, (1987) 'Postmodernist Fiction. London:

Routledge.

 --- (1992), 'Constructing Postmodernism. NY & London:

Routledge.

 --- (2008), "1966 Nervous Breakdown, or, When Did

Postmodernism Begin?" Modern Language Quarterly 69,

3:391-413.

 --- (2007), "What Was Postmodernism?" electronic book

review,[2]

 MacIntyre, Alasdair, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory

(University of Notre Dame Press, 1984, 2nd edn.).

 Magliola, Robert, Derrida on the Mend (Lafayette: Purdue

University Press, 1984; 1986; pbk. 2000, ISBN I-55753-205-

2).

 ---, On Deconstructing Life-Worlds: Buddhism, Christianity,

Culture(Atlanta: Scholars Press of American Academy of

Religion, 1997; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000; ISBN

0-7885-0295-6, cloth,ISBN 0-7885-0296-4, pbk).

 Manuel, Peter. "Music as Symbol, Music as Simulacrum:

Pre-Modern, Modern, and Postmodern Aesthetics in

Subcultural Musics," Popular Music 1/2, 1995, pp. 227–239.

 Murphy, Nancey, Anglo-American Postmodernity:

Philosophical Perspectives on Science, Religion, and

Ethics (Westview Press, 1997).

 Natoli, Joseph (1997) A Primer to Postmodernity (ISBN 1-

57718-061-5)

 Norris, Christopher (1990) What's Wrong with

Postmodernism: Critical Theory and the Ends of

Philosophy (ISBN 0-8018-4137-2)

  Pangle, Thomas L., The Ennobling of Democracy: The
Challenge of the Postmodern Age, Baltimore, The Johns

Hopkins University Press, 1991 ISBN 0-8018-4635-8

 Park, Jin Y., ed., Buddhisms and

Deconstructions (Lanham: Rowland & Littlefield, 2006, ISBN

978-0-7425-3418-6; ISBN 0-7425-3418-9.

 Sim, Stuart. (1999). "The Routledge critical dictionary of

postmodern thought" (ISBN 0415923530)

 Sokal, Alan and Jean Bricmont (1998) Fashionable

Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of

Science (ISBN 0-312-20407-8)

 Vattimo, Gianni (1989). The Transparent Society (ISBN 0-

8018-4528-9)

 Veith Jr., Gene Edward (1994) Postmodern Times: A

Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and

Culture (ISBN 0-89107-768-5)

 Windshuttle, Keith (1996) The Killing of History: How

Literary Critics and Social Theorists are Murdering our

Past. New York: The Free Press.

 Woods, Tim, Beginning Postmodernism, Manchester:

Manchester University Press, 1999,(Reprinted 2002)(ISBN

0-7190-5210-6Hardback,ISBN 0-7190-5211-4 Paperback) .

[edit]
You are here: Philosophy >> Postmodernism

Postmodernism – A Description
Postmodernism is difficult to define, because to define it would violate the postmodernist's premise
that no definite terms, boundaries, or absolute truths exist. In this article, the term “postmodernism”
will remain vague, since those who claim to be postmodernists have varying beliefs and opinions on
issues.

Are nationalism, politics, religion, and war the result of a primitive human mentality? Is truth an
illusion? How can Christianity claim primacy or dictate morals? The list of concerns goes on and on
especially for those affected by a postmodern philosophy and lifestyle. For some, the questions stem
from lost confidence in a corrupt Western world. For others, freedom from traditional authority is the
issue. Their concern centers around the West’s continued reliance on ancient and traditional religious
morals, nationalism, capitalism, inept political systems, and unwise use and adverse impact of
promoting “trade offs” between energy resources and environment, for economic gain.

According to the Postmodern Worldview, the Western world society is an outdated lifestyle disguised
under impersonal and faceless bureaucracies. The postmodernist endlessly debates the modernist
about the Western society needing to move beyond their primitiveness of ancient traditional thought
and practices.

Their concerns, for example, often include building and using weapons of mass destruction,
encouraging an unlimited amount of consumerism thus fostering a wasteful throwaway society at the
sacrifice of the earth’s resources and environment, while at the same time not serving the fair and
equitable socioeconomic needs of the populace.

Postmodernists believe that the West’s claims of freedom and prosperity continue to be nothing more
than empty promises and have not met the needs of humanity. They believe that truth is relative and
truth is up to each individual to determine for himself. Most believe nationalism builds walls, makes
enemies, and destroys “Mother Earth," while capitalism creates a “have and have not” society, and
religion causes moral friction and division among people.

Postmodernism claims to be the successor to the 17th century Enlightenment. For over four centuries,
“postmodern thinkers” have promoted and defended a New Age way of conceptualizing and
rationalizing human life and progress. Postmodernists are typically atheistic or agnostic while some
prefer to follow eastern religion thoughts and practices. Many are naturalist including humanitarians,
environmentalists, and philosophers.

They challenge the core religious and capitalistic values of the Western world and seek change for a
new age of liberty within a global community. Many prefer to live under a global, non-political
government without tribal or national boundaries and one that is sensitive to the socioeconomic
equality for all people.

Postmodernism – Right and Wrong?

Postmodernists do not attempt to refine their thoughts about what is right or wrong, true or false, good
or evil. They believe that there isn’t such a thing as absolute truth. A postmodernist views the world
outside of themselves as being in error, that is, other people’s truth becomes indistinguishable from
error. Therefore, no one has the authority to define truth or impose upon others his idea of moral right
and wrong.

Their self-rationalization of the universe and world around them pits themselves against divine
revelation versus moral relativism. Many choose to believe in naturalism and evolution rather than
God and creationism.

Postmodernism – Politics
Postmodernists protest Western society’s suppression of equal rights. They believe that the
capitalistic economic system lacks equal distribution of goods and salary. While the few rich prosper,
the mass populace becomes impoverished. Postmodernists view democratic constitutions as flawed
in substance, impossible to uphold, and unfair in principle.