Postmodernism: A Summary of Concepts

### Postmodernism - **Late Capitalism:** - After World War II, capitalism entered a new phase called \"late capitalism\" or \"postindustrial capitalism.\" - In this phase, capitalism expands its influence into every part of society, leading to the globalization of co...

### Postmodernism - **Late Capitalism:** - After World War II, capitalism entered a new phase called \"late capitalism\" or \"postindustrial capitalism.\" - In this phase, capitalism expands its influence into every part of society, leading to the globalization of consumerism. - **Cultural Eclecticism:** - In today's globalized world, people mix cultural elements effortlessly: - Listening to reggae, watching westerns, eating McDonald's for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wearing Parisian perfume in Tokyo, and retro clothes in Hong Kong (as described by philosopher Jean-François Lyotard). ### Role of Technology - **Technology as the Key Driver:** - Technology plays a huge role in late capitalism. - Multinational companies compete intensely, and their most valuable resource is **information** for marketing, research, and production. - **High-Tech Society:** - Advances in technology have created a society saturated with: - Medical supplies, weaponry, surveillance tools (for corporations), and consumer goods like phones, computers, and TVs. - **Reproductions and Simulations:** - The most significant products are mass-produced images, advertisements, and experiences. - These "virtual" products are cheaper to make and consume than physical ones and are distributed through technologies like computers, TVs, and digital music. ### Effects of Postmodern Society - **Alienation from Reality:** - In a media-saturated, information-driven world, we are disconnected from what feels "authentic" or "real." - Our jobs still feel real (we go to work and pay bills), but they are not as tangible as physical work like farming or shipbuilding. - Many of us spend most of our days at desks, working on computers, dealing with information rather than physical objects. - **Virtual Living:** - Much of our leisure time involves consuming media, engaging in simulations, or experiencing virtual worlds. - As a result, life feels more virtual and symbolic than real ### Postcolonialism - Reality - **Virtual Reality in Everyday Life:** - We usually think of virtual reality as putting on special gear (like gloves or helmets) to interact with a fictional world. - Jean Baudrillard argues that virtual reality is already part of our daily lives. - **How We Experience the World:** - Through TV news, reality shows, or internet chatrooms. - By communicating with others via email or obsessing over celebrities we've never met. - **A New Era:** - Baudrillard believes that we've moved into a phase of history where the symbolic structures of the past are disappearing. - What remains is a constant exchange of signs (images or words) that lack true meaning. Everything can be exchanged or reversed, making them even less "real" than commodities or money. - **Simulation:** - Baudrillard calls this process "simulation." - In today's world, we often experience something virtually before we experience it in reality. ### Jean Baudrillard - Simulation - **What is Simulation?** - It's when we interact with representations instead of the actual thing. - For example, drinking synthetic Irish beer in a themed pub feels like engaging with a "hyperreal" version of Irish culture, not the real thing. - **Creating Reality:** - Simulation doesn't just erase reality---it creates it. - Ideas like "authentic" or "real" become products that can be marketed and sold. ### Examples of Simulation 1. **Maps:** - Maps are meant to mirror reality, but detailed and accessible tools like Google Maps now shape how we see the world. - Before visiting a place, we might "explore" it virtually on Google Maps. This pre-viewing shapes our expectations and understanding of the place. When we arrive, we see it through those preconceived ideas. 2. **Reality TV:** - Shows like *Big Brother* aim to present real, unscripted life. However, constant observation creates an artificial environment. - Baudrillard calls this "excessive transparency"---true reality cannot survive under constant exposure. 3. **Other Examples:** - **Canned Laughter:** Fake audience reactions simulate real ones. - **Vintage Items:** Idealized objects that simulate an imagined past. - **Celebrity Culture:** Simulated relationships with public figures. - **Online Dating:** Interactions often begin with curated, virtual profiles. - **Pornography:** Simulated intimacy rather than real connection. 4. **War as Representation:** - Modern warfare is often experienced through media. Events like the Vietnam War or the Holocaust are consumed through films, photos, or news reports. - Baudrillard argues that war and its representation have become inseparable: "The war became film, and the film became war." ### What is Postmodernism? - **Origins of the Term:** - The word \"postmodernism\" comes from \"modernism,\" showing its connection and opposition to it. - First used in the late 1950s, the term began as a critique of modernism rather than a clear philosophy. - By the 1960s, it gained broader use and applied to literature, architecture, dance, theatre, painting, film, and music. - **Postmodernism's Main Idea:** - It critiques and rejects the goals of modernism. - Modernism believed in progress through knowledge, art, technology, and freedom, hoping to create a better, emancipated society. - Postmodernism is skeptical of these dreams, seeing them as unfulfilled. It uses irony to challenge the myths of progress in art, culture, and philosophy. ### Why Did Postmodernism Emerge? Four key reasons led to a growing cynicism about modernism: 1. **Imperialism and Modernity:** - Modernism was linked to imperialism, which became increasingly criticized politically, economically, and culturally. 2. **Feminism:** - Feminist ideas changed how we think about gender, sexual identity, and male-dominated art. - Feminism led to rediscovering forgotten artists and new ways of analyzing male modernists. 3. **Cultural Diversity:** - A greater respect for different cultures and perspectives emerged. - This challenged modernism's universalist approach, where a single dominant voice claimed to speak for everyone. 4. **Environmental Thinking:** - Campaigns for ecology and environmental awareness questioned the belief that industrial and technological progress is always good. - This view also influenced art and culture, moving away from modernist ideas. ### Characteristics of Postmodernism - **Blurring Boundaries:** - The distinction between art and everyday life disappears. - High art and popular/mass culture are no longer separate. - **Eclecticism:** - Postmodernism mixes styles, codes, and genres without privileging one over another. - **Playfulness and Irony:** - It often uses parody, pastiche, and irony, focusing on surface appearances rather than depth. - **Originality and Repetition:** - Postmodernism challenges the idea of originality and genius in art, suggesting that all art is repetitive. ### Postmodernism in Music - **4 Chords:** - A common example of postmodern playfulness in music is the widespread use of the same four chords in popular songs, emphasizing repetition and accessibility over originality. ### Artistic Genius - **The Idea of Genius in Art:** - Traditional views of art emphasize the **original creation** as the standard for all true art. - **Modernism** reinforced this idea with its focus on artistic progress and radical innovation, as reflected in Ezra Pound's phrase, *"Make It New."* - Modernism believed in the constant modernization of art. - **Postmodernism's View:** - Postmodernism challenges the idea that art must always be new or original. - Every "original" work of art is influenced by and borrows from earlier works. - A supposedly unique and novel piece is like a **palimpsest**---something reused or altered but still showing traces of its earlier form. - **The Shift Away from Genius:** - Postmodernism questions the "deification" of artists as geniuses. - Borrowing, even if unacknowledged, is still borrowing. While some artists may call it homage or tribute, they cannot deny they are taking from earlier texts. ### Postmodernism and Art - **Key Characteristics:** - **Recycling and Borrowing:** Art often reuses and remixes existing ideas. - **Mixing Styles:** Postmodernism embraces eclecticism, blending styles and genres. - **New Technology and Mass Culture:** It enthusiastically incorporates technology and popular culture. - **Challenging Modernist Purity:** Postmodernism rejects modernist ideas of art being pure or autonomous. - **Local and Temporary:** Focuses on specific contexts and moments rather than universal or eternal truths. ### Recycling and Eclecticism - **Memes as Modern Examples:** - The internet meme is a clear example of postmodern recycling. - Memes are texts or ideas that are copied, modified, and shared across social networks. - They include catchy phenomena like popular tunes, phrases, fashion, or jingles that spread quickly. - **Borrowed Words:** - In *Written on the Body* by Jeanette Winterson, the phrase *"I love you"* is used to illustrate this concept. - It's the most unoriginal thing we can say, yet it holds profound meaning because of its history and repetition. - We speak it as though discovering it for the first time, but it's always a quotation borrowed from the past. ### Postmodernism in Music - **Examples of Postmodern Music:** - **Max Martin:** A prolific songwriter who uses formulas and familiar patterns in pop music to create hits. - **Trailer Music:** Music designed to create emotional impact, often by reusing recognizable sounds and techniques. ### Artistic Genius and Eclecticism - **From Modernism to Postmodernism:** - Modernism viewed culture as a linear progression of phases. - Postmodernism replaces this with a **mix of styles existing simultaneously**, blurring the boundaries between serious/classical and popular/commercial art. - **Breaking Down Boundaries:** - Postmodernism often eliminates distinctions between different types of art and other forms of media. - **Rethinking the Artist:** - The modernist idea of the artist as a solitary genius creating from within is replaced by postmodern alternatives. ### Marina Abramovic's *Rhythm 0* - **The Performance:** - In 1974, Abramovic positioned herself passively in a gallery and allowed viewers to do anything they wanted to her for six hours. - She provided 72 objects, some associated with pleasure (like olive oil and cake) and others with pain (like knives, a saw, and a loaded gun). - **Audience Participation:** - Initially playful, the audience's actions grew increasingly aggressive and violent, pushing Abramovic to physical and emotional extremes. - This work relinquished control from the artist to the audience, challenging the modernist idea of the artist as an autonomous creator. ### Postmodernism Characteristics - **Key Features:** - **Irony, Parody, and Appropriation:** These tools are central to postmodern art and culture. - **Andy Warhol's Works:** Warhol's art embraced mass production, consumer culture, and popular imagery, blurring the line between high art and commercial culture. - **Examples in Music:** Songs like *All About That Bass* reflect postmodern mixing of styles and themes. ### Postmodernism in Literature - **New Sensibility in the 1960s:** - Critics like Susan Sontag and Leslie Fiedler described a new approach in literature that rejected or adapted modernist techniques. - **Broader Application:** - Over time, postmodernism influenced fields beyond literature, including social theory, media studies, visual arts, philosophy, and history. - **Defining Postmodernism:** - **Period:** Refers to a time in cultural history (1950s--1990s). - **Style:** Refers to aesthetic principles like irony, parody, and eclecticism that characterize art and literature during this time. - **Postmodernity:** Describes the changes in society during this period, shaped by shifts in politics, economics, and media. - **Postmodernism:** Refers to philosophical and theoretical ideas related to art and culture in this era. ### Postmodernism in Literature - **Active Readers:** - Postmodern writing requires readers to actively interpret and co-create meaning, rather than passively consume stories. - **Not a Genre or Historical Label:** - Postmodernism isn't a genre like "Victorian fiction" or a specific time period. - It's more of an **aesthetic**---a sensibility or set of principles that shapes the writing of the late 20th century. - **Key Features of Postmodern Texts:** - **Self-Reflexivity:** Texts acknowledge themselves as constructed, artistic works. - - - **Not Unique to Postmodernism:** - These traits exist in earlier literature, such as 18th-century novels and modernist fiction. - Postmodernism is different in **degree**---it places more emphasis on these ideas, particularly the concept of fictionality. ### Fictionality - **What is Fictionality?** - Fictionality means that stories are constructed, narrated, and mediated---always shaped by someone's perspective. - Fiction presents a framed, fictional world that contrasts with the real world outside. - **Postmodern Interest in Fictionality:** - Postmodern writers focus on the relationship between fiction's world and the real world. - They challenge realism, which assumes fiction mirrors reality. Instead, postmodernism highlights the **constructed nature** of texts and the impossibility of perfectly depicting reality. ### Irony and Double Meaning - **Critical Awareness:** - Postmodernism is deeply aware that what we think of as "reality" is manufactured---an ideological construct shaped by capitalism and media culture. - **Irony:** - Postmodernism uses irony to express its critical awareness. - Irony occurs when what is said contradicts what is meant or is subverted by its context. - Language is flexible---words carry traces of past uses and can shift meaning based on tone or situation. - **Irony's Role:** - It's not just cynical; it's a way of showing how reality is constructed and manipulated. ### Metafiction - **What is Metafiction?** - Metafiction is a technique where a text highlights its own fictional nature by referring to itself. - **How It Works:** - It reminds readers that the story they're reading is **not real** but a crafted work of fiction. - Metafiction shows that meaning is created through connections to other texts, not a reflection of the external world. - **Purpose:** - Metafiction exposes both fiction and reality as constructed, mediated, and influenced by language and culture. ### Realism - **What is Realism?** - Realism in literature, art, and film creates a world that feels plausible, as though it reflects real life. - It presents a "slice of life," replicating how the world looks, how people behave, and what happens to them. - **Mimesis:** - Realism is based on the idea that art can and should reproduce aspects of the real world. - It aims to represent life in precise detail so we can analyze and learn from it, rather than escape into idealistic fantasies. - **Famous Realists:** - 19th-century realist novels often included detailed descriptions of houses, clothing, and people. - Notable authors include Balzac and Flaubert (France), Tolstoy (Russia), and Dickens and George Eliot (England). ### Modernism - **Focus on Subjectivity:** - Modernist writers like James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Joseph Conrad aimed to depict how individuals experience reality personally, rather than objectively. - They moved beyond realism by emphasizing the **inner workings of the mind.** - **Stream of Consciousness:** - This technique directly presents a character's thoughts, bypassing the traditional narrator. - It immerses the reader in the character's perspective, limiting external guidance and framing. - **Destabilizing Realism:** - Modernist novels challenged the idea that fiction could present a clear, accurate relationship between individuals and society. - They introduced self-consciousness into writing, questioning the function and possibility of realism. ### Postmodernism - **Suspicion of Realism:** - Postmodern fiction is skeptical of realism's ability to represent the world unselfconsciously. - French writers like Nathalie Sarraute and Alain Robbe-Grillet (1950s) emphasized this shift. - **The Role of Fiction:** - Realists believed novels should reproduce reality. - Robbe-Grillet argued that novels should **create their own reality**, independent of the real world. - **The Example of Gulls:** - While writing *The Voyeur* (1955), Robbe-Grillet tried to describe seagulls accurately but realized the gulls in his imagination mattered more than the real ones. - Fiction transforms reality into something new, making it "more real" because it exists as an independent creation. ### Postmodernism's Ambivalence Toward Realism - **Neither Rejection nor Acceptance:** - Postmodernism doesn't entirely reject realism but approaches it with skepticism and irony. - It isn't the opposite of realism or just "experimental" fiction. - **Constructing Reality:** - Postmodernism assumes that all fiction is **constructed** rather than **transcribed** from real life. - Representing something external always creates a new, separate version of it within the text. - **Acknowledging Fiction's Nature:** - Postmodern writing recognizes that realism's attempt to "transcribe" life is a kind of pretense. - Stories like Robbe-Grillet's gulls show how representation becomes its own reality, distinct from the external world. ### Postmodernism vs. Realism - **How Realism Works:** - Realism relies on a "contract" between the reader and author: - The reader agrees to believe the story is "real" as long as the author makes it convincing. - **Postmodernism's Critique of Realism:** - Postmodernism disrupts this contract by challenging two key assumptions of realism: - - - **The Reality of Fiction:** - Postmodernism argues that fictional worlds are incomplete and different from the real world. - Some parts of a story are left unwritten, and readers fill in these gaps as they interpret the text. - This means realism's claim of creating a stable, fully believable world is flawed and unrealistic. ### How We Read Fiction - **Postmodern Fiction's Purpose:** - Postmodernism reminds us that fictional worlds are fictional. - It teaches readers to think about how stories are constructed, showing that fictional worlds are complex and can reveal truths about the real world. - **The Reader's Role:** - Postmodernism challenges readers to read differently, not just for entertainment but with a critical eye. - While modernism aimed to "make it new," postmodernism calls on readers to **read in a new way.** ### Postmodernism and History - **Linda Hutcheon on Postmodern Historical Fiction:** - Hutcheon describes postmodern historical fiction as "historiographic metafiction." - These novels bring back engaging plots and believable characters, much like 19th-century realism, while still being innovative and thought-provoking. - **What is Historiographic Metafiction?** - It's fiction that is aware of itself as fiction and examines the way history is written. - Just as metafiction challenges realism, historiographic metafiction questions the way history is constructed, reminding us that: - **History is not the past itself.** - Instead, it is a narrative based on documents and materials from the past, shaped by interpretation. - **The Appeal of Historiographic Metafiction:** - These novels combine the depth of serious academic discussion with entertaining, story-driven plots. - This mix explains why historiographic metafiction has been both a literary and commercial success.