Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...
-- William Butler Yeats "The Second Coming "

Modernism describes the collection oI cultural movements oI late 19
th
and early 20
th
century. It is a
movement in visual art, music, literature and drama which rejected the old Victorian standards oI how
art should be made consumed and what it should mean. There view was that human intellect sought to
improve the environment, they introduced the trend oI improvement in every aspect oI liIe by
involving science and technology.
Postmodernism started aIter World War II in 1968. It evolved Irom modernism attempting to reIine
ideals oI modernism by blending their ideals with traditions, values, ethics, and religion. They brought
sophistication to whatever was taught by modernists in crude Iorm.
COMPARISON:-
O oth these movements didn`t believe in sense oI totality as modernist presented their text as non
Iinal and post modernist used to give multiple endings or end at any arbitrary point.
O oth these movements are cultural Iormations which accompany particular stages oI various
cultural movements oI that time e.g., capitalism.
O ragmentation is seen in both types oI literature.
O oth these movements rejected rigid genre distinction, blurring boundaries between low and
high Iorms oI art.
CONTRAST:-
very age or movement is antithesis oI its previous age, so was the case with modernism and
postmodernism. Where modernism is characterized by rationality, continuity and depth,
postmodernism is characterized by irrationality, discontinuity and surface.
MODERNISM POSTMODERNISM
Modernism is based on hierarchical, organized
and determinate nature oI knowledge
Postmodernism is based on archival, Iragmented
nature oI knowledge leading to absurdity.
Their approach is objective, theoretical and
analytical.
Their approach is subjective and rhetoric.
They believe that liIe is purposeIul. They believe that liIe is meaningless.
They believe that knowledge is buildup with
reIerence to the Iacts, where these Iacts are
objective representation oI reality and are used to
identiIy universal laws.
UnscientiIic, irrational means oI gaining
knowledge are there. Acquisition oI knowledge is
too Iragmented to identiIy any methodology; they
believe that there is no universal truth.
Words used to represent Iacts have singular, Iixed
meanings.
Meaning is taken Irom context and conveyed
through language i.e., in place oI language as
truth bearing, they assert that meaning in
language is inherently unstable and that truth is
open to multiple interpretations
Metanarratives: they lament at their loss Mininarratives: multiperspectives, every
individual is right. They celebrate chaos,
absurdity and Iragmentation
They believe that reality has an objective
existence and its nature is that there are uniIying
Iorces in nature and iI they were not present, there
would be chaos.
They believe that reality is Iragmented, uncertain
and ambiguous so, there is chaos everywhere.
They argue that all experienced reality, the world
as we know it, including ourselves, is the product
oI error, misrecognition, a necessary misreading.
or universal laws to be justiIied reality must be
understood as closed system, precluding the
emergence oI new Iorces over time
Reality is understood as open system whereby
Iragmentation and lack oI determinism hold the
potential to disturb any regularity
They entail permanence, so, Iorm universal laws
Irom objective Iacts
They entail transience and more generally the
rejection oI the notion oI universal truths. Truth is
relative and socially constructed
Modernists work to know how to structure the
world so that it will make sense. They are
concerned with how things take place.
They assimilate or absorb the world that they
perceive. They are concerned with what is
perceived.
They consider individual to be an active man and
believe in autonomy oI individual mind i.e., his
capacity Ior reIlexive thought and selI
determining actions.
They consider an individual to be passive i.e.,
person or subject is not only shaped but is
embedded in his social and cultural context so,
they reject unity oI individual mind.
The psychological considerations oI narrator and
characters were typical to modernist`s semantic
universe, they emphasize relation between author
and his text.
They believe that author is not concerned with the
status oI his text, where and how it begins, how it
connects or ends etc.
modernists kept a standard oI well connected
sentences, paragraphs and chapters
They aim at destroying idea oI connectivity by
inserting texts that emphasize discontinuity such
as questionnaires or collection oI unrelated
Iragments. They don`t diIIerentiate between
relevant and non relevant texts.
They proposed that ~Divine revelation is
imperfect and therefore subject to continual
and indefinite progress, corresponding with
progress of human reason. They attempted to
reform and modernize the church, finding
ways to reconcile church authority and liberty
of behaviors so, they were leading to atheism
and secularism
They reject this view of modernism including
ideas of truth, self, meaning and purpose.
Modernism was concerned with reasoned
progress and logical conclusions
They prefer openness, transparency and the
unbounded.
They believe that it is possible through
application of reason and truth to create a
better society.
Postmodernist is self aware and consciously
involved in a process of thinking about his or
her cultural self in history, demarking his or
her own pretensions
They reflect the values of European or western
thought
They believe in multiculturalism
They believe that one can define morality They believe morality is relative
Modern art characterized is by simplicity,
elegance and streamlined design
Postmodern art is decorative and elaborate
Modernist philosophy is determined by cause
and effect
They believe in chance
Linear thinkers Haphazard or circular thinkers
Modernists learn Irom past experiences and trust
the text that narrates past
It deIies any truth in the text narrating past and
render it oI no use in present times
They believe in going deep into a subject to
fully analyze it
They plat on surfaces and show no concern
towards subject depth
Modernists have a relatively slow paced liIe that
was driven by grounded principals
They have Iast paced liIe that has lost its depth
They consider original work as authentic. Art and
literary works were considered a unique creation
oI artist. They mean to bear deep meanings.
ooks and novels predominated society
They base their views on hyper reality and get
highly inIluenced by things propagated through
media i.e., they believe 'presentation presupposes
representation computers, media and
advancement in technology made televisions and
computers dominant in society and literary work
became to be copied and preserved by means oI
digital media. People derive their own meanings
Irom art and literature
Mozart and eethoven music were appreciated Dj`s and remixes characterize postmodernism
Architectural Iorms were popular A mix oI diIIerent architectural styles were
popular
Important poets T.S. liot and W.. Yeats Philip Larkin , R.S Thomas